Our mission requires that, in a radical way, we follow Jesus who was chaste and poor and who redeemed mankind by his obedience. That is why, through a gift of the Father, we choose the way of the evangelical counsels.
Constitution 12
Father Jetté commented:
Our mission is to be co-workers with Christ in the work of evangelizing the poor. Now, to accomplish this work, Jesus Christ chose to live chaste, poor and obedient and he invited his disciples to follow him in this same way, provided God calls them and gives them the grace thereto. “No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws him” (John 6:44).
“If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). We go on mission by passing through Jesus, through the mystery of his renunciation, and our missionary activity will be the more effective in the measure that our life itself is a stronger witness of the life of Jesus.
Jesus it is who saves the world, not the Oblate, unless the latter truly becomes “another Jesus Christ”. The way of the evangelical counsels, oriented as it is towards the perfection of love, is the road par excellence for becoming other Jesus Christs.”
Our missionary vocation is indeed a gift! How blessed we are.
Missio Dei, the Church’s mission, our mission is to stand where we have been sent in the present moment.
Where I stand is not the mission of grandiosity but in the everyday life of a Retirement Home. This is the mission of seniors who are poor (living in the poverty of loneliness; where many suffer from dementia where fear can play a large part of their lives. It is often uncomfortable on the inside and the outside, in the silence within and the shouts on the outside.
I must admit that this does not always feel like a gift. It is a little scary for me because I do not always recognize what is happening with some of them. I think of Mother Theresa for a moment and how she was called to love, it is not always easy to love.
Yet I would not have it any other way. Our God loves us enough that he asks for everything. “The way of the evangelical counsels, oriented as it is towards the perfection of love, is the road par excellence for becoming other Jesus Christs.”