When Eugene contemplated his religious family, he recalled his own vocation. He had experienced the Crucified Christ as his Savior and understood that he was being called to be His co-worker: to journey with others in their search for meaning and happiness.
In the first Rule of his Missionary Family, he defined us in this way:
They are called to be the Savior’s co-workers, the co-redeemers of mankind.
(1818 Rule)
That is quite a “job description!” On the day of our baptism each of us was “claimed by Christ the Savior.” As Christians it is part of our DNA to be the co-workers of the One we belong to. In our everyday lives we are invited to see in every person and event, the invitation to be the co-workers of the Savior. We are not called to heroics, but to realize that in a simple smile, a helping hand, a word of encouragement or apology we are co-workers.
St Teresa of Avila understood this when she wrote:
I have struggled this morning: with acceptance, with undeserved grace and with the idea that perhaps I am called more and more to being than the doing. There is a new sense, or a deeper sense of how we, how I am being called to something deeper than my actions… A sense of being.
In the past couple of days I have realised that although I pray to God to help my sister Mary who has dementia only because I love her so; in truth I think that I also wanted God to make it possible for me to go out west and to somehow love her back into being. God heard my prayers and I saw how in pictures sent to me – I saw my beloved sister smiling and holding on to the doll my extended family members had given to her. She was with those who loved her as she was/is and her whole being seems to have transformed. It was then and again this morning that God heard my prayers and ensured that other family members were able to touch her in such a deep way.
God heard my prayers and my heart has been consoled. In a way it feels like I am free again to love those to whom I have been sent. There are many and I love each of them – not perfectly, but I do strive for that.
In response I opened my small copy of the OMI Constitutions & Rules page 57, to be reminded of the 2nd half of the Rule 37a: “in order to live more intensely the mission of evangelization according to the Oblate charism, some lay people gather in associations”.
My returning to the job description along with a manual – you know “how if everything else fails – returning to the instruction manual so as to find the right way to put it all together and live it.