ONE HAS TO BE GENEROUS TO HELP THOSE WHO SUFFER PERSECUTION FOR THE SAKE OF JUSTICE
In earlier entries we reflected on the effects of the 1848 Revolution in France and in Marseilles in particular. It was a revolution that had far-reaching consequences throughout Europe and especially for the Church, as Eugene noted in his diary:
Confirmation and ordination in my chapel. Again it is some Jesuits whom I have ordained. It’s indeed necessary to take them away from the atrocious persecution which is being brought to bear on them in Piedmont, in Genoa and in Sardinia.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary 20 October 1848, EO XX1
The biographer, Rey, explains:
“Since Holy Saturday, he had had a daily reminder of the trials endured by the Sovereign Pontiff and the Church. Jesuits driven out of Rome, hunted down in Upper Italy by military laws which subjected seminarians and religious not yet in Holy Orders to military service, flocked to Marseille where their Superiors presented them for Ordination. Almost every day, Mgr de Mazenod had to exercise his lofty ministry as Bishop: “It is a just kindness to have for persecuted religious”. And he added with a smile: “Now the ordination prayers are part of my morning prayer”. (Rey II p.274)
Later we read in Eugene’s diary:
Ordination in my chapel; it’s another young Jesuit who has to be made sub-deacon, deacon and priest within the week. It’s a bit awkward, but one has to be generous to help those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary 22 May 1848
Among the fugitives welcomed by the Bishop of Marseilles was the Superior General of the Jesuits and his collaborators. It was a mark of the gratitude Eugene had for the contribution in his life of the heritage of St Ignatius and the Jesuits.
REFLECTION
“Christians have always dissented through history… and inevitably, when persecution of free speech comes it always comes against the people who have the religious absolutes, because that’s what threatens people’s freedom to sin. So we’re always going to be the culprits.” (John MacArthur)
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I write this in the midst of my 8-day retreat at the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Your reflection makes me happy!
“It’s a bit awkward, but one has to be generous to help those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice.”
and
“…when persecution of free speech comes it always comes against the people who have religious absolutes because that’s what threatens people’s freedom to sin.”
I think of Jesus and his followers, his disciples and the Mary Magdalenes, those like St. Paul and down through the ages so many who dared to have the courage to continue to speak out with their words and their actions, “who with generosity [strive] to help those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice.” Again this morning Eugene himself speaks to us, through his writings and especially through his Constitutions and Rules.
I find myself thinking about “Fahrenheit 451” and the movie ending with those who escaped the city and became the living books which they loved so as to keep the stories alive…
I look down at my bible and the Oblate Rule of Life, which many of us try to become because Eugene’s Charism has also been shared with us and it has become incarnated within us as the living expression of our shared charism.
So many of us – religious and lay, refuse to stop living. loving and giving of ourselves over to the will of God… We courageously try to continue walking together, members of communities and families as we have been called. We have prayed and discerned, alone and together how we are called to love, to enlarge the space of our tents and our hearts.
The Spirit continues to guide us, if we can only turn ourselves over to her, just as St. Eugene and our beloved Oblates (as well as other religious families have done through history.
We must remember that yes we are human, but at the same time there is within each of us that small seed of divinity…