CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE – THEY BECAME LIKE US (Constitution 8)

Posted on October 6, 2025 by franksantucci

We will always be close to the people with whom we work, taking into account their values and aspirations.

Constitution 8

Nearly 200 years after our foundation, an Oblate recounts his experience:

I remember very well how, when I was young, on the border with Mexico in Laredo, Texas, I admired these men who had come from far away. They were from Belgium, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, and even the missionaries from Chicago were seen as “foreigners” come from afar. They were ordinary men and they became ordinary like us.
And although at the time, there was no talk of “inculturation” as there is now, they adapted very well to the culture of a Mexican border town. They learned our language, ate our “spicy” Mexican food, participated in our public and family feasts, defended our human rights, concerned themselves with our education and social and economic development.
They became like us!

Gilberto Piñón Gaytán, omi
Oblatio 3 (2014) p.161
https://www.omiworld.org/wp-content/uploads/Oblatio-2-14-txt-stampa.pdf

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One Response to CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE – THEY BECAME LIKE US (Constitution 8)

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    October 6, 2025 at 14:48

    “Nothing is ever a “done deal”.” Dear Blessed Joseph Gerard, OMI and who was ordinary in the most wondrous of ways. He won over those he was sent to serve by becoming one of them, loving them, always loving them.

    I think of great runners who are running their marathons of life and how as they near the end they give all that they are just to cross over the line in order to become someone new in ways that may or may not be noticeable. I am reminded of Richard Rohr, OFM who speaks about “falling upward”. (ref. Richard Rohr, OFM).

    I think of the old and ancient churches around the world where the priests would climb up to be able to preach to those below him during a Mass which was more for him than for all of us. A different way of thinking and being and how that changed with Vatican II where the priest presides from a slightly raised Ambo and Altar so as to be seen by all and uses a microphone to carry his words.

    As I think of the Church my mind wanders towards the “comingling of the Body and Blood – the coming together as one and the ritual prayers of the Mass – a beautiful reflection best saved for another day.

    One of the many gifts we are given no matter our state of life or our role in the Church: that we become like each other and especially like those we are sent to serve.

    Reply

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