Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

“Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat’?” (John 6: 5)

We are familiar with this narrative of today’s Gospel (John 6:1-15) where Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes and fed the crowd. As we see from the verses that follow, Jesus was referring to holistic nourishment: physical and spiritual food. Today, once again in isolation for many of us, let us focus on the nourishment of the Word of God.

Quoting the Prophet Amos 8:11: “Behold, there shall come days when I will send famine upon the land, not a hunger for bread which nourishes the body, nor a thirst which water satisfies, but the hunger and thirst to hear the Word of God,” St. Eugene wrote:

Often the action of grace precedes the preaching of the Gospel and when hearts are touched by the first words of this marvelous preaching, they feel the need to open themselves […] to receive the divine seed.

Bishop de Mazenod, Pastoral Letter 1844.

May this day be an opportunity for us to spend time open ourselves to receive the divine seed – and allow that seed to bear fruit in ourselves and others.

May it also be a day when we become aware of people in our neighborhood repeating the words of Jesus: “Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?” – and respond generously to the needs of a foodbank or feeding scheme in our area.

“The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him. Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life.” (John 3: 35-36)

“The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light” prophesied Isaiah (9:2) – a prophecy fulfilled with Jesus: “through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 4-5)

It is dark in our world, and the television and mass-media constantly highlight the darkness. In today’s Gospel (John 3:13-36), we are invited to see that there is an eternal Light always burning in us.

Whatever happens today, let us be strengthened by God’s promise that we have eternal life in us today because we believe and love the One who has been sent to be our Light.

Eugene de Mazenod learnt to experience this relationship and prayed to be faithful. He refers to it during a time of silent retreat in preparation for his ordination to the priesthood. Let us pray with him:

that the Holy Spirit… may come to rest on me in all its fullness, filling everything within me with the love of Jesus Christ my Saviour, in such a way that I live and breathe no longer but in him, consume myself in his love, serving him and spreading the news of how loveable he is and how foolish people are to seek elsewhere their hearts’ resting place when they can never find it but in him alone.

Jesus, good master, turn a look of compassion on your poor servant. It seems to me that I love you but I am afraid of deceiving myself; it seems to me that if you were to question me as you once questioned the Prince of the Apostles … it seems to me I would answer as did he: yes, Lord, I love you.

But it would not need your putting the question for a third time to make me feel unsure of the sincerity of that love I had declared for you, for, I repeat, I am afraid of deceiving myself and while I believe I love you, you would see, you who are the uncreated Light, that illuminates the darkest corners of my heart, and reads in its most secret places, and plumbs the depths of hearts and loins, you would see that in fact I do not love you at all.

My Lord, my Father, my love, bring me to love you; this only do I ask, for I know full well that that is everything. Give me your love.

Prayer of Eugene at start of his priestly ordination retreat, December 1811 EO XIV n 95 

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.  For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.”   (John 3:16-17)

We are invited to spend some time in silence with this powerful text from today’s Gospel (John 3:16-21).

The deepest reflection we can have on this text today is an invitation to look at how our health care workers and essential service providers give their lives every day so that others may have life.

Let us “count our blessings” as St Eugene did in 1809:

Beginning with the happy moment when, regenerated in the saving waters of baptism, I was raised to the awesome dignity of child of God, loaded with my Saviour’s gifts, I could more easily count the successive and rapid movements of my breathing than the number of the incalculable benefits that this adorable Master has poured out on me in generous measure.

1809 EO XIV, n 48

With gratitude and prayers for the amazing “living blessings” of those who risk their lives for the good of all throughout the world. Thank you for being mirrors of God for us!

“The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (John 3: 14-15)

Today’s Gospel (John 3:7-15) refers to the incident in the Book of Numbers 21: 8-9 where Moses had made a bronze serpent which became a symbol of salvation as the antidote to the poison of the serpent. Jesus uses that image to lift up the Cross, symbol of death, as the antidote for the poison of death’s sting. The Cross is the highest revelation of God’s love and makes it possible that everyone who believes has eternal life.

On October 1818, the day before he made his perpetual oblation as a Missionary, Eugene spent the day in retreat. He wrote in his journal about his very human fear of death. It is a long passage, but well worth reading in these days where death is so present:

I cannot explain why I am afraid of death, whether it is simply the natural horror that the thought of our destruction inspires, or rather whether it is fear that God’s judgment will not be favourable to me. How often I have left the bedside of the sick whom I have visited amazed. That perfect resignation, peaceful assurance with which they saw their end approaching, those holy desires which make them impatient even of the few moments that remain to them to live, all that both astonishes and humiliates me at the same time.

So what is my attachment to life? I simply do not know. It is true I am too fond of people, too sensitive to their love for me, that I love them over-much in return for their feelings towards me; even so I recognize that it is not in that lies my fear of death to the point of avoiding thinking deeply about it.

So what is it? I simply do not know, I say again. It is always true that I do not love God enough, for if I loved him more, I would suffer from not being able to possess him. It is true also that I do not often enough raise my thoughts to heaven. I usually stop at, and try to show love for, Jesus Christ dwelling among us in his Sacrament, and I do not leave this place, I do not raise myself up higher; he is there, that is enough for my weakness, – I do not say for my love because, although I would really like to love him, I do not love him much, I love him little. So coarse am I that I do not form for myself any idea of heaven, nor of God. I stop always at Jesus Christ who is there and I make no effort at all to seek him out elsewhere, were it even in his Father’s bosom. That’s where I am at. My God, give me more light. But I do not want to stop loving, blessing, thanking, conversing with Jesus Christ in his Sacrament dwelling in our midst. The rest will be extra, if God wills it, but that I must have, I know my needs, at least that one.

Retreat Notes, 30 October 1818, EO XV n 148

That was in 1818. Thereafter he never feared death because his eyes were focused on the Cross and Resurrection because death no longer had any sting for him. (I Corinthians 15:55: ““Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”)

“I tell you most solemnly, unless someone is born through water and the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5

Today’s Gospel reading is John 3:1-8.  The Kingdom of God is not a place but a state of relationship, with God and with the community of believers, that is entered into through baptism. It is our stepping into eternal life already here and it will be fulfilled in eternity.

However isolated we may be, we are never alone: we are in relationship with God and with one another despite geographical distancing.

For St Eugene, the most important day of his life was his baptism. He gratefully and solemnly recalled its anniversary every year.

The anniversary of my baptism. Before leaving St-Martin to go to Marseilles, I said, at the Mass, with a profound sense of gratitude, repentance and confidence, joined to what I dare to believe, sincere good will, these beautiful prayers from the Vienna missal:

Blessed may you be Lord, you who in your great mercy have given us new birth to a living hope of an incorruptible inheritance, grant us always to desire, as new-born infants, pure rational milk so that through it we may advance to salvation. (Cf. IP 1,34 and 2,2), God, thanks to your inestimable love, we are called to be your children and such we are (Cf.: 1 In. 3, 1), grant that, through the power of this sacrifice, we, who have received the Spirit of adoption as children in baptism, may obtain the promised blessing as our inheritance.

Lord, this faith, that you have given us at our baptism, we now renew at your altar, renouncing Satan and choosing to fulfill the law of Christ; grant that we, who have received a pledge of the eternal life promised to us, may gain continual growth in the sinless life to which we have dedicated ourselves.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 2 August 1837, EO XVIII

Let us make this prayer our own today, remembering how at baptism, the Sign of the Cross was traced on our foreheads and we were claimed for Christ our Savior

“In the prolonged silent prayer we make each day, we let ourselves be molded by the Lord, and find in him the inspiration of our conduct” (OMI Rule of Life, 33).

The practice of Oraison was an important part of St. Eugene’s daily prayer during which he entered into communion with the members of his missionary family. While they were all in France it was easy for them to gather in prayer at approximately the same time. When Oblate missionaries started to be sent to different  continents it was no longer possible to pray at the same time, yet each day there was a time when they stopped and prayed in union with one another – even though not at the same time.

This is a practice that Eugene wanted the members of his religious family to maintain. This is why you are invited to take part in this practice of Oraison on Sunday, April 19, 2020, as we remember the hope of Easter Resurrection.

http://fabiociardi.blogspot.com/

From a letter of St Eugene to his mother:

After journeying with him through the sad event of his Passion, after weeping over the torments that our sins made him endure, how consoling it is to see him rise triumphant over death and hell, and what gratitude must fill our hearts at the thought that this good Master has really willed to make us sharers in his resurrection, destroying the sin that is in us and giving us a new life. (April 4, 1809)

1 Peter 1:3-9:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

The disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words ‘It is the Lord’, Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish. (John 21: 7-8)

In John 21:1-14, the disciples had returned to their normal occupation of fishing and the Risen Jesus appeared to them in the midst their everyday activity. They did not recognize him at first, but it was love that opened their eyes.

St Eugene had always loved the Risen Jesus present in his Word. In 1837, before becoming Bishop of Marseilles, he looked back on 55 years of lovingly listening to the Word of God:

I give you thanks, O Lord, for having made shine forth this light from the sacred deposit of your Holy Scriptures. As you show me the way I should follow, and give me the desire to follow it, you will also give me the powerful help of your grace.

René Motte OMI, who made a study of the role of Scripture in the life of St Eugene gives us some practical advice on how we can develop the same attitude as the disciples at the time of Jesus and disciple Eugene. Circumstances today make it more possible for all of us to spend time with the Word of God in this loving attitude:

Silence is necessary, silence to listen to Jesus Christ who speaks in the Bible. Silent listening is generous, since it flows from a deep love. That is what the Oblates [ed. and all members of the Mazenodian family] are called upon to experience “in joy”, says the Founder. They are happy to be in intimate union with Christ, enjoying his word. Thus the mouth will speak from the abundance of the heart (see Matthew 12:34). Consequently, the reading of Scripture is not limited to study; it must be seen in the context of an encounter with Christ. It is thus a listening to his word received as a personal message.

“Sacred Scripture” in Dictionary of Oblate Values: https://www.omiworld.org/lemma/sacred-scripture/

They were still talking about all this when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’   … He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.’ (Luke 24:35-48)

Handed on to his Apostles by Jesus, this word has lost none of its power in the course of the ages. We have experienced the fact that because it issued from the mouth of him who is himself eternal life, it is always spirit and life.”

Eugene de Mazenod, Pastoral Letter 1844

Today we can understand in a deeper way the experience of the disciples locked in the upper room because they were afraid. The risen Jesus appeared to them and opened their minds to his presence in the Scriptures. Let us invite the Risen Jesus to penetrate the walls of our “upper room” today and give him time to open our minds to understand how present he is whenever we read the Word of God.

Our OMI Rule of Life, totally impregnated by the spirit of St Eugene can be applied to every disciple today:

The Word of God nourishes our spiritual life and apostolate. We will not only study it diligently but also develop a listening heart, so that we may come to a deeper knowledge of the Saviour whom we love and wish to reveal to the world. This immersion in God’s Word will enable us to understand better the events of history in the light of faith. (OMI Constitutions and Rules, C.33)

Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us? (Luke 24,32)

The downcast disciples returning to Emmaus had lost all sense of purpose. The one they had pinned their hopes on had been put to death, and all that he stood for had disappeared. No more dreams or inspiring ideals… it was time to return home and shut themselves in.

Luke 24:13-35 narrates how they became aware that a “stranger” was walking with them and entered into their experience and opened their eyes.

Here we understand the meaning of Easter: the realization that Jesus Christ is alive and enters into the reality of our lives. Easter is the opening of our eyes and hearts and lives to his presence.

Unable to attend services in church, we are invited to spend time at home with Scripture. Like the disciples let us let him explain his Word to us and set our hearts on fire in our everyday existence.

Saint Eugene’s life was dedicated to explaining the Good News of salvation to those who were most in need. He and his missionaries wanted the hearts of all those who listened to burn within them. The invitation he wrote in the Rule of 1818 continues today:

Our one and only aim should be to instruct people…

not only to break the bread of the Word for them but to chew it for them as well;

in a word, to ensure that when our discourses are over,

they are not tempted to heap foolish praise on what they have not understood,

but, instead, that they go back home edified, touched, instructed, able to repeat in their own family circle what they have learned from our mouth.

At times we feel like those disciples who wanted to shut themselves into their own isolation in Emmaus. Let’s open our eyes to recognize the presence of the Risen Jesus alongside us.  Let us spend some time with his Gospel. As we break the bread of the Word, he helps us to chew it – and our hearts will burn within us.

“Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ And she told them that he had said these things to her.” John 20,18

Mary Magdalene was the first to recognize that Jesus was risen and she rushed to tell the disciples who were fearfully isolated in the upper room. “I have seen the Lord!” she proclaimed. Initially incredulous, they too began to experience that Jesus was alive.

As a result of the French Revolution the people of the countryside of France were locked in their ignorance of their faith. Eugene de Mazenod had recognized the presence of the Risen Jesus in his life, and he dedicated his life to proclaiming “I have seen the Lord!” to those who were the most needy of coming to know the Risen Lord.

Inviting others to enter into his life of proclamation, he founded the Missionary Oblates, and insisted that their time be divided between “seeing the Lord” in prayer, reading and reflection and the proclamation, “I have seen the Lord!” whom they had encountered in this way:

The Missionaries will divide their group in such a way that while some strive in community to acquire the virtues and knowledge proper to a good missionary, others are travelling in the rural areas proclaiming the Word of God.

 When their apostolic journeys are over, they will return to the community to rest from their labours by exercising a ministry that is less demanding, and to prepare themselves through meditation and study for a more fruitful ministry when next called upon to undertake new work.

Request to the Capitular Vicars of Aix, 25 January 1816, EO XIII n.2

In these days when so many of us are in isolation, let us use this time in a similar way so that each day we too can proclaim “I have seen the Lord! He is risen and alive for me!”