Turning our attention to Ceylon (Sri Lanka today), we recall how the first four Oblates had arrived there in 1847, with the charge of reviving the faith of the Catholics who had abandoned it and converting over a million people who did not know Jesus Christ.
Father Semeria always cooperated with Bishop Bettachini who made him his secretary. He accepted that Bishop Bettachini placed the three priests in three missions distant from one another: Father Semeria in Jaffna to the north, Father Ciamin in Mantotte to the west and Father Keating in Batticaloa to the East, and we do not know where Brother de Steffanis was doing his ministry. Later, Father Semeria would see to it that the missionaries were allocated two by two in the missions. When the second group arrived in 1849, Fathers Semeria and Le Bescou were in Jaffna, Fathers Ciamin and Leydier in Point Pedro and Fathers Keating and Mouchel in Batticaloa. Two more were to arrive in 1850.
Your Eminence, to conclude the picture I wish to place before you, I would recall that 10 Oblate missionaries are working in the Vicariate of Jaffna in Ceylon and others will follow when it may please the Holy See to entrust that Vicariate to the Congregation, not only to facilitate the expansion of missionary activities for the conversion of non-Christians but also to found schools and a seminary.
Letter to Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the S. Cong. of Propaganda Fide, 25 July 1850, EO V n 16
REFLECTION
We will spare no effort to awaken or to reawaken the faith in the people to whom we are “sent, and we will help them to discover “who Christ is”. Our mission puts us on constant call to respond to the most urgent needs of the Church through various forms of witness and ministry, but especially through proclaiming the Word of God which finds its fulfilment in the celebration of the sacraments and in service to others.
OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 7
So much is packed into this morning’s reflection and yet in the center of it all I manage to see Jesus, even in today’s world. I think of the thousands of people that Jesus himself preached to and invited to follow him. Always with us, even in the darkest of times.
In today’s time of immense wealth and education for a few I see the rising of those who would equate themselves as being Gods. The darkness of chaos once again raising it’s false self throughout the world. How is it that so many have yet to realize that false power and control empties us of life? How is it that we have not yet learned that we lose are very humanness in false bids to become like Gods?
Still – in the midst of it all of we find small pockets of courageous love that will not be silenced or overcome.
Constitution 7 from the OMI Rule of Life is part of a larger prescription for life and it is shared with all of us who stand in the light of St. Eugene de Mazenod, as his sons and daughters. It is a living Credo that we carry with us as we are sent out as missionaries of this time and place…
Our Mission…
Our call
to live Christ Jesus in apostolic community…
To live Christ Jesus crucified
among the most abandoned
in the Church:
Proclaiming the Word
with daring, humility and trust
as prophets of the new world
with Mary Immaculate.