THE HABIT DOES NOT MAKE THE MISSIONARY

Posted on February 6, 2025 by franksantucci

After his arrival, D’Herbomez was amazed to see the “renowned missionaries of Oregon at his first encounter with them. Brother Verney was dressed in a French cap, goatskin leggings, and moccasins, covered by a green cloth under an old blue vest and a frock coat. Pandosy was dressed in a worn out cassock, an old straw hat, goatskin leggings and thick shoes. All this made D’herbomez exclaim, “The habit does not make a missionary’”(Young p. 102).

At first, Ricard considered sending D’Herbomez to the Swanomish tribe on Puget Sound. However, he later decided that D’Herbomez could better use his time learning English, Chinook and Walla Walla. Initially, they sent him to serve in the Yakama missions with Father Chirouse. In August 1851, Chirouse, D’Herbomez and Brother Verney traveled to Chirouse’s mission of Saint Joseph in the Yakama country. For D’Herbomez it was an arduous journey through dangerously steep mountain passes. However, they were relieved and happy to arrive at the wilderness mission they would call home. (Young 115 -116)

REFLECTION

Often we romanticize our ideas of the early Oblate missionaries beautifully dressed in their spotless cassocks and Crosses while preaching and converting. The narratives of their actual experiences shatter this romantic picture. What counts is the quality of their lives, their courageous and zealous preaching of the Gospel, and the witness of how they lived their message.

“Beware, so long as you live, of judging persons by their outward appearance.” Jean de La Fontaine

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2 Responses to THE HABIT DOES NOT MAKE THE MISSIONARY

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate Associate says:
    February 6, 2025 at 13:39

    One of the most beautiful women that I ever met was Kay Cronin, an Honorary Oblate who became a friend to me. Her language was real, she smoked cigarettes and she never pretended to be any better than me no matter how outlandish my clothing or some of the inappropriate habits I had. She has been long dead for many years and yet my heart can still feel her smile and hear her voice. Sometimes I stop in my tracks and ask her what she thinks of me now, an Oblate Associate and the Oblate Charismatic Family that I have become a part of. And we laugh together for a moment out of time.

    “We are men [and dare I add women] ‘set apart for the Gospel” (Rom 1:1)… ready to eave everything to be disciples of Jesus. The desire to co-operate with him draws us to know him more deeply, to identify with him, to let him live in us.” (C2)

    It is our hearts that set us apart, and not the clothing we wear. It is our heart-driven beating and being that set us apart, so that others might notice the wild and passionate beating of God within.

    I think of the Oblates and other priests who spent time in the death camps of World War II – they wore the same clothing as the other prisoners yet it was their example and ways of being that set them apart.

    Reply
  2. Jim Loiacono says:
    February 6, 2025 at 21:21

    ¡Anda, amén! ¡La pura verdad! As a novice, I learned that from Oblate missionary, Bill Atkinson, watching him reach out to the absolutely hidden, destitute people of Sumter, South Carolina. He was one of the most hard-working, humble of Oblates who was mindfully self-forgetful. Only the will of his loving God and God’s people were his single focus. He was never alternately yes and no, but always yes in following the example of Christ in doing the will of the Father to the end. It was never about him, his only focus being the mission. The bishop recognized this in Fr. Bill as did the novices and seminarians whom God gave the opportunity to know and work with. He was totally unpretentious, always simply dressed in clerical shirt with open collar and pants. His name has been raised for promoting for canonization.

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