We will always be close to the people with whom we work, taking into account their values and aspirations.
Constitution 8
For the past 200 years, the expression usually associated with the Oblates is: “They are always close to the people!” It is something that we are proud of and a characteristic that was insisted on by St Eugene himself. We recognize it in his self-description at the age of 26:
A person’s rank in society does not enter as a factor at all into the feeling that brings me to love someone who of a truth loves me.
The way in which he elaborated on this is illuminating as he shows that anyone who was suffering or needed him could count on his closeness:
The proof of this is the unbelievable affection I have for the servants who are truly fond of me; I hate being separated from them, it is a wrench for me to leave them, I take an interest in their welfare, and will not overlook anything to secure it, and I do not do this out of magnanimity or greatness of soul, motivations of that kind influence me only when it is a question of people who are cold, but out of feeling, tenderness, really the only word for it is friendship. You must not think on that account that I do not feel called to do anything for anybody except those who love me. Quite the contrary, anyone who is suffering, or needs me, can count on my help.
Eugene’s self-portrait for his spiritual director, October 1808, EO XIV, n. 30
This was abundantly illustrated in all his later life choices. For example, as a seminarian he chose to teach catechism to “the poorest in the parish, children of tavern keepers, in a word, a vermin-ridden lot.”
As a newly-ordained priest he opted to ask to dedicate himself to the poor and the youth of Aix, thus setting the pattern for all his lifelong ministry of closeness to people who normally were on the fringes of society.
I think of how Eugene recognized the women who worked on the docks of Marseille and who he knew and loved well no matter their language or where they came from. On my pilgrimage I went to Aix and walked in the footsteps of Eugene as he accompanied condemned men and women to the guillotine where God would claim them as God’s own. In the seminary he chose to teach catechism to those he described as a “vermin-ridden lot”.
None of these ways of being were given life just so that he could get to heaven himself, but rather because he recognized himself in them. I think of him sitting on the steps in order to try and learn to speak Italian and how Don Bartolo found a way to pass some books from his home across to the young man who gazed out the window all day.
Eugene was close to the people he met and he loved all. A choice he made so as to share his experience of God in a particular and specific way. “You must not think on that account that I do not feel called to do anything for anybody except those who love me. Quite the contrary, anyone who is suffering, or needs me, can count on my help.” (Eugene’s self-portrait 1808)
It is up to each of us whether we be ordained or members of the laity to determine how will love all those we meet. If we do it only so that other recognize how great we are, well we might as well quit immediately. If we move out of the experience of being loved then we too are walking in the footsteps of St. Eugene de Mazenod and his many sons and daughters, and we too will become close to the people we meet.