In preparation for next year’s two hundredth anniversary of the pontifical approbation of our Rule and official recognition of our charism, join St Eugene (and me) in spending some time exploring he Rule and its contents.
“St Eugene speaks” to us through the Rule of Life, and so we invite him to join our pilgrimage in communion, as instruments of hope.
Our current Constitutions and Rules begin with a Foreword. Today, with our awareness that the Oblate charism is lived by many different vocations, we can adapt the vocabulary of its message (but not the underlying charism) to our own way of life.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, when the appointed time came, was sent by the Father and filled with the Spirit “to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour” (Lk 4: 18.19). He called men to become disciples and share in his mission; in the Church, he continues to call others to follow him.
Saint Eugene de Mazenod heard that call. Burning with love for Jesus and his Church, he suffered deeply on seeing how God’s people were abandoned. He chose to become “the servant and priest of the poor” and to give his life wholly to them.
Faced with an overwhelming task, he gathered a few priests around him, men who shared his impassioned zeal for the most abandoned… “Live together as brothers,” he urged them; “Strive to imitate the virtues and example of our Saviour Jesus Christ principally through preaching the Word of God to the poor.”
At his persuading, they committed themselves permanently to the preaching of missions, binding themselves by religious vows. Soon afterwards, he decided to receive Brothers as true sons of the family. Thus began the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary. (CCRR Foreword)
Each of us is a true son or daughter of Eugene’s family. Let’s take some time to reflect on these words and let them make a difference to our daily life…
“…we can adapt the vocabulary of its message (but not the underlying charism) to our own way of life.” I had to reread this phrase a couple of times – before it sank into my heart – the Charism that the Spirit gave to Eugene is of God and so it does not change, the wording does not change but how we live it out can be another matter. Oh! Another small light is turned on as it spreads through my heart.
There is no doubt in me this morning that the Oblate Rule of Life is one of our most treasured items. Like our small Oblate cross, it tends to become foundational within us. To be honest, I am not sure that I have paid that much attention to the first beginning part of our shared Rule of Life. It begins with Luke’s Gospel 4: 18-19. It’s birth, it’s beginning finds life in the Scriptures. The Spirit of God, the Word living within us.
These words speak directly to me, to us when we see what is happening around the world and most particularly here in North America where so many are losing their dignity and person-hoods; the deepest of poverties that we carry. I am reminded of St. Eugene’s 1st Lenten Homily in the Church of the Madeleine in Aix…