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”
CC&RR, Constitution 7
Before his conversion journey, Eugene intellectually knew “who Christ is” – after 25 years of religious observance he knew his catechism. What happened at his conversion was that this knowledge became experiential. He entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ that would be the characteristic quality of the rest of his life.
Conversion did not mean getting to know about Jesus but getting to know Jesus in a relationship that he became passionate about. From now on he would “act in everything and for everything” only for him and he would love him “above all else.”
What he received was so powerful that he was impelled to share it with others – particularly those whose situation made it difficult to come to the same knowledge. These were the poor for Eugene, as he described in this letter to his mother:
As the Lord is my witness, what he wants of me is that I renounce a world where it is almost impossible to find salvation, such is the power of apostasy there; that I devote myself especially to his service and try to reawaken the faith that is becoming extinct among the poor; in a word, that I make myself available to carry out any orders he may wish to give me for his glory and the salvation of souls he has redeemed by his precious blood.
Eugene’s letter to his mother, 29 June 1808, EO XV n. 27.
All who share in Eugene’s charism participate in the same dynamic of working to lead others to the same experiential knowledge of the Savior. Each in our own way, and in our particular circumstances, has this mission of helping others in this process.
It is noteworthy that the text says “we will help them to discover ‘who Christ is’.” Mission does not mean going to people to fill them with knowledge – it means journeying with them as they discover and deepen their understanding of the meaning of a relationship with Jesus. Eugene’s use of this phrase in the Preface speaks of helping people to understand that which Jesus Christ is for them (“ce que c’est que Jésus Christ”) – who he is in their lives and the meaning he gives.
This morning is another “awakening”, another experience that wants to take my breath away. I feel as if I am going to explode, my heart is full and I seem capable only in letting the tears flow. My gratitude is in how God has touched every part of me. Julian of Norwich wrote of how God “showed” her… and her experience of God in everything.
“Come and learn [experience] who you are in the eyes of God”. Is it a problem that I learn by experiencing something rather than to simply be able to repeat what is memorized? I think of the Word of God that is so alive within me. Using Google I look up so many words to see where they came from, and I give thanks to God for the gift of technology. Through all of my years of school I was not able to “learn” the way that the other kids learned.
Fr. Chicho speaks about being “missionary mystics” and emphasis in my experiences is on the term “missionary” – one who is sent and then shares. He speaks of the missionary mystic Oblates who are capable “of seeing God in everything and allows himself to be transformed by his [God’s] presence. Thus he becomes his sacrament collaborating with his oblation in the same Mission of Christ: that “God be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28)”
I am grateful (in my mind I am shouting that with joy and gratefulness). “All who share in Eugene’s charism participate in the same dynamic of working to lead others to the same experiential knowledge of the Saviour.”