Our love for the Church inspires us … In our hope for the coming of God’s reign, we are united with all those who, without acknowledging Christ as Lord, nevertheless love what he loves.
(Constitution 6)
Initially the Oblates were founded to re-Christianize those whose faith had suffered as a result of the French Revolution. When France conquered Algeria in 1830, it was through this focus that Eugene saw immense missionary possibilities. Algeria had once been Catholic under figures like St Augustine of Hippo. He unsuccessfully tried to send Oblates to evangelize the Arabs between 1830-1832. When he did succeed in 1849-1850, he aborted the mission and removed the Oblates because they were not allowed to evangelize the Arabs.
In 1842 Eugene had journeyed to Algeria with a group of bishops to return the remains of St Augustine there. In his private journal he reflected on the prayerfulness of the Moslems. As we read this text need to bear in mind that Eugene’s outlook was that of the time that there was no salvation outside of the Catholic Church.
I praise them for the respect for their place of prayer; God would be pleased if Christians were to imitate them in this! My heart tightens when I think that these poor infidels do not know the God whom they honor by their outward homage. In response to these demonstrations, I believe there are profound religious sentiments. As well, I appreciate their silence, their prostrations and their supplicant invocations; but what is in their distorted hearts? And is a person able to please God when that person rejects his son Jesus Christ, our Savior? Poor people, who are to be pitied!
Eugene de Mazend’s Diary, November 1842.
The concept of inter-religious dialogue was foreign to the mentality in Eugene’s time. Today, however, we are guided by the words of Constitution 6: “in our hope for the coming of God’s reign, we are united with all those who, without acknowledging Christ as Lord, nevertheless love what he loves.”
We dialogue and respect our common values in our lived relationship with God, as our Oblate presence among Moslem communities in many parts of the world attests.
Eugene was a man of his time and yet he saw beyond the walls and boundaries of religion and their practices. This is one of the marks carried by those who are truly humble. Another mark may well be the choosing to search out our commonalities rather than seeing only the differences.
“Our efforts will be characterized by a genuine desire for unity with all… we are united with all those who, without acknowledging Christ as Lord, nevertheless love what he loves.”
Those words are more than just an empty invitation to share in the Charism of St. Eugene along with his many sons and daughters. It is the coming together with other like-minded persons in the Church.
Unity within and using the CC&RR to journey as a pilgrim in hope of communion…
“I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades
For ever and forever when I move…” (Ulysses by Tennyson)
Yesterday morning I wrote a short sentence about my mission and how I strive to live in a way that does not set me apart from all that I have met:
“We do not carry the cross for Jesus, but rather with Him”.