FIVE MINUTES OF PRAYER AT THE FOOT OF MY CRUCIFIX
Eugene was informed that he had been unjustly criticized by the Bishop of Algiers and this is how he responded:
As for the personal offences which you told me of, five minutes of prayer at the foot of my crucifix are enough to make me forget them and I do not even need that much time to forgive them.
Letter to Fr Jean Viala in Algeria, 5 March 1849, EO IV (Africa) n 6
REFLECTION
When we have been hurt or offended, and are tempted to allow the wound to fester constantly in our memory, what would five minutes at the foot of the crucifix do for us?
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I think of the many struggles that Eugene and his founding community had to experience as each of them stood at the foot of their crucifix. And yet Eugene always remained respectful of the position of all others. He would listen and speak the truth but always with love. His diary notes were full of moments that he would give over to God and allowed himself to be held as he conversed with God, with Jesus the crucified Savior and the responses to the whispers of the Spirit.
How easy it is to allow ourselves to harbour our pain and woundedness until they seep to the surface to contaminate not only our lives, but the lives of those we want to love.
It is true, that when we stand at the foot of our crucifix and look up we see through the open eyes of the Beloved: it then that we allow ourselves to experience the love of God which fills ever atom of our beings.
“…until his eyes met mine.” That changes everything!