Our mission is to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to seek it before all else (cf. Mt 6: 33). Constitution 11
Very often Eugene’s letters to his missionaries express this sentiment:
your wonderful mission of making Jesus Christ known and extending his kingdom as you walk in the footsteps of the Apostles.
Letter to Fr. Semeria in Ceylon, 25 January 1848, EO IV, n. 2.
He encourages his Oblate family in this mission:
One of my greatest joys is to receive your letters; the tiniest detail of what concerns you interests and touches me. How could I be insensitive to the sufferings that you are enduring to extend the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to respond to your beautiful vocation, which has called you to the most meritorious mission that I know.
There is no doubt that you are buying souls at the price of your own blood, you, the first apostles of those souls whom God wishes to save by means of your ministry. If there had not been you to seek them as far as the ends of the earth, what would have become of them?
I can understand that the consolation of seeing so many creatures made in the image of God enter into the sheepfold of Jesus Christ as a result of your care for them is a great recompense for all your efforts, an unutterable consolation; it is this that sustains your courage, and, I can say to you, softens the pain that I feel in being separated from you.
Letter to Fr. Maisonneuve in Red River, 13 March 1857, EO II n. 230
Oh how I wish I had within myself a nice acceptable (by my standards) response to God on this one.
My life is not so dramatic as paying with the price of my blood but there are definite struggles and challenges. Even a response to this Constitution is a challenge as I now live in a Residence for seniors. I continue to wear my Oblate Cross and there is a very elderly gentleman who lives here who sees my cross and then starts to show me his small cross that looks vaguely like mine. He’s originally from North Bay (where there were Oblates at one time) and so we sit in the lounge and chat. It seems to bring him some enjoyment. So whenever I see him I make a point of speaking with him which he will later seems to forget has happened and so I start again. I remember how my dad who experienced dementia would tell the (Oblate) priest who visited him every week how lonely he was. Perhaps with grace I can become like that Oblate to some that surround me here. Small things that seem to make a difference…
It is this that seems to sustain me as I walk with others. Eugene who loved with a heart as big as the world has shared this charism with all of us. It is this which sheds a light on my feet, as I hopefully walk in his footsteps.