Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

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

Constitution 8

When Eugene became Bishop of Marseilles in 1837 he made a statement that was to sum up the next 24 years of his episcopacy. It was his commitment to live his ministry as bishop always close to the people of Marseille:

However, I must attach myself to this people as a father to his child ren. My existence, my life, all my being must be consecrated to it, I must have no thought but for its good, no fears other than I have not done enough for its welfare and sanctification, no other solicitude than that which must include all its spiritual interests and even in a certain way its temporal welfare.
I must in a word consume myself for it, be ready to sacrifice my leisure, my desire, rest, life itself for it.

Retreat preparatory to taking possession of the episcopal see of Marseilles, May 1837, EO XV, n. 185.

“I must attach myself to this people as a father to his children!” How much closer to his people was it possible to come? Following the example of the closeness of Jesus, his Savior, Bishop Eugene was prepared to give everything for his people, to consume himself, to be ready to sacrifice even life itself. Here the diocesan bishop’s Oblate heart shines through: being close to the people meant living a life of oblation for them. “I must in a word consume myself for it, be ready to sacrifice my leisure, my desire, rest, life itself for it.”

We must always be sensitive to the mentality of the people, drawing on the riches of their culture and religious traditions

Rule 8a

Eugene, as Oblate and bishop, was aware of and appreciated the importance of the local customs (even though he did not always agree with some of them). He allowed the people to mix popular customs and folklore with their expression of faith as long as it brought them closer to God. Recounting a procession through the streets of the city with a statue of Mary he described the atmosphere of a joyous celebration with military music, fireworks, the houses adorned with festive decorations, and crowds in festive dresses lined the streets. He concluded:

That is how things are done in Marseilles. Not everything is devotion, but a religious ceremony is always an interesting spectacle for this people.

Diary, 26 March 1838, EO XIX

The Corpus Christi procession included an ox, ridden by a boy representing John the Baptist. The day before the ox was brought to him for a blessing. In his diary he wrote,

Visit of the ox for the Corpus Christi procession. It was intended to bring the animal up to the great hall. The people had invaded the bishop’s residence. I was obliged to do the honors for such a beautiful visit. Everybody showed great interest.

Diary, 11 June 1838, EO XIX

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

Constitution 8

We will let our lives be enriched by the poor and the marginalized as we work with them, for they can make us hear in new ways the Gospel we proclaim.

Rule 8a

In 1850 Eugene visited the Oblates in England. He was proud of their closeness to the poor and wrote:

I went to Liverpool where another kind of marvel was waiting for me. Our Fathers, as you know, are in charge of the district of Holy Cross inhabited by a great number of poor Irish to whom they provide the aid of religion. It would be too long to describe to you all that is done in this miserable shed which serves as a chapel and which fills up six times on Sundays.

Letter to Fr Henri Tempier, 10 July 1850, EO III n 42

Some background to this situation:

This part of the city was a vast dockland slum, housing many thousands of Irish immigrants who had fled Ireland after the devastating potato famines of 1845 and 1847. Many had used Liverpool as a staging area to go to other lands, but thousands stayed in the area in the most squalid conditions. It was made up of dingy tenements, joined together in airless courts and polluted by open sewers and piles of rubbish. By the end of 1847 over 300,000 impoverished and fever-ridden immigrants from the Irish famine had settled in the Liverpool area. These immigrants formed the vast majority of the parishioners of the parish. It was estimated that the parish contained about 11,000 Catholics, though this number kept increasing with the arrival of every ship from Ireland. (https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/liverpool-holy-cross-parish-1850-2001/)

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

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

Constitution 8

The closeness of the Missionaries to the people made them favour the lowly at all times, but not to the exclusion of anyone else’s right to the benefits of salvation.

For many of the early Oblates, this was not an issue since they were incapable of preaching competently in French, not having had the broad education which Eugene himself had had or the intellectual capabilities of someone like Guibert. But in no way was this seen as being a negative quality.

The Jesuits preached a mission in Gap in 1823 with some of the Oblates, and Eugene referred to a letter he received from the Jesuit superior:

…he only says that having been forewarned that Father Mie and Father Touche would not be popular, being accustomed only to preach in Provençal, he had not made them preach; that they had the goodness to give catechetical instructions, which are much more useful to the ignorant than beautiful discourses.

Letter to Marius Suzanne, 29 November 1823, EO VI n. 121

That which some considered weakness was in fact their strength by being close to and in instructing the poor as to who God the Saviour was for them.

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

Constitution 8

The Missionaries preached in Provençal, and their use of this language brought them closer to the humble and lesser-educated people. Eugene had founded his missionary family precisely to reach out to the most abandoned people by preaching in their language. The use of the Provencal language was a principle to which he insistently clung.

The official attitude of the Government after the Revolution was that French was the only language to be used so as to unify the country. The result was that the inhabitants of the remote villages who only knew Provençal were made to be even more abandoned. The Missionaries defied this in order more effectively to lead them to God.

An example took place in 1833 when the Mayor of La Ciotat had posted strongly-worded notices in the town condemning the Missionaries and their use of Provencal. Eugene responded:

We read there that the subject of the Mayor’s inconceivable diatribe is the language which I use in my instructions. I had thought until now that it was necessary to speak to the good farmers and fishermen in the language they understand best. The Mayor’s anger does not make me change my opinion.

BOUDENS, R., “Mgr. de Mazenod et le provençal” in Études Oblates 15 (1956), p. 6-7

In 1838, Eugene wrote in his diary about a pastoral visit he had made to a parish in his diocese:

All who accompanied me and attended me were struck, as I always am, by the sustained attention of those present, including the children, in fact by noting especially the children’s attentiveness.
This is a sure sign that I follow the only good method by speaking to them in their own language.

It also shows that we must put ourselves within the reach of people, not by narrating some idle stories, nor by translating some French speeches word for word, but by explaining one’s thought well. In this way we can give good instructions on the most sublime truths and do it with great benefit to the people. Do trust my experience.

Diary, September 4, 1838, EO XIX

We will always be close to the people with whom we work, taking into account their values and aspirations…
Awareness of our own shortcomings humbles us, yet God’s power makes us confident

Constitution 8

After visiting all the people in the village, the Missionaries spent the following weeks in the church being close to the people through their availability

 They will spend the whole morning in the church, and – except in case of necessity – no one will leave without permission of the one presiding
1818 Rule Part 1, Chapter 2, §2

Each morning the Missionaries were to be present in the church where the people knew that they were available for them. Once the confessions began in earnest then the Missionaries were available there in every possible moment. Their desire give themselves totally to the people was shown in that once the people began to come to confession, the Missionaries dedicated all the time necessary to helping each one.

Just as the Saviour patiently spent time with sinners to lead them to conversion, so too must His co-operator have the same patience and availability. Practically every account of the missions speaks about the endless hours the missionaries spent being available to people to listen to them in the confessional and in personal dialogue.

We will always be close to the people with whom we work, taking into account their values and aspirations…
Awareness of our own shortcomings humbles us, yet God’s power makes us confident as we strive to bring all people – especially the poor – to full consciousness of their dignity as human beings and as sons and daughters of God.

Constitution 8

 Through personal contact the people were invited to an encounter with the Savior, but the missionaries had to make sure that they themselves had prayed to be His cooperators and instruments to the people.
In that spirit of evangelical closeness, they visited the people of the smaller villages in their homes on the first days of the missions to establish contact with them and to ascertain whether there were any pastoral problems that needed to be dealt with.
Eugene established this principle in the first Rule of the Missionaries:

They will visit without distinction all the town’s inhabitants. The missionaries will do this with great modesty, much gentleness, affability, and consideration.
Before beginning the visit, the missionaries will go before the Blessed Sacrament to commend to our Lord Jesus Christ this important action that can greatly influence the mission’s success.

1818 Rule Part 1, Chapter 2, §2

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

Constitution 8

Eugene transmitted his methodology of being close to the people to his newly-founded group of Missionaries who were founded to preach prolonged parish missions in the small villages. In the diary of one of their earliest missions in 1816, Eugene wrote:

After breakfast, the missionaries resumed their visits until midday.
These visits are not very entertaining but they are very important, for they bring the missionaries close to the people they have come to evangelize.
They let themselves be seen in all the warmth of a charity which makes itself all things to all men, in this way they win over the most distant among them; they are able to give encouragement, to spur people on, to meet head-on some resistance, and, as they make progress, they end up discovering and to begin the process of remedying disorders that have often escaped the watchful care even of a zealous pastor.

Diary of the Marignane Mission, 18 November 1816, EO XVI

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

Constitution 8

One of Eugene’s major ministries after his ordination was to the youth of Aix. Looking back on this ministry, Eugene described how his closeness to them was the rationale of his pastoral success with them as they reacted positively to his initiatives:

… among these youth who looked on me as their father, I only came across souls full of recognition, hearts full of affection that responded perfectly to the tender charity that I felt for them. They loved me to the point that some mothers declared that they would have been jealous had not this sentiment shown the goodness of their children, but that in truth they loved me more than they loved them, their own mothers.

Eugene’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX.

He dedicated every Thursday and Sunday to being with the youth, as well as being available to them when they wanted to speak with him at other times.

If I do not watch out these young people will take all my time. It seems they cannot live without me, and I can really perceive the good that the Lord does them through my ministry.

Letter to Charles Forbin-Janson, June 1814, EO XV, n 125.