Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

Yesterday, we read Eugene de Mazenod’s description of how edified he was being with the contemplative Sisters. The entry continues:

I returned home filled with these sweet thoughts.

On the way I met some poor unfortunates who were certainly not walking in the presence of God. This contrast produced in my soul a movement of indignation and disgust that I cannot express. 

Seeing these nocturnal persons, the most abandoned in his understanding because they were so far from Jesus Christ, he experienced his helplessness in being able to help them.

The inability to reach such a great number of souls like them, the pain of seeing them loosing themselves without being able to do anything to turn them away from vice and help them save themselves, causes me great pain and sorrow to be the pastor of a flock of which so many sheep are estranged from their bishop. One could say of them: “They do not belong to this fold.” (ed. Jn 10:16). It is because they no longer belong to Jesus Christ. I only have prayer; I have no other way to fulfill my duty towards them.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 22 April 1839, EO XX

As Vicar General of his uncle Bishop Fortuné, Eugene had had to be the hatchet man in the diocese to clean up many messy situations and to instill a measure of discipline among the clergy, who had not had a resident bishop for over 20 years, and many had become independent “bishops” in their parishes – this resenting any interference from the Vicar General in the name of Bishop Fortuné

I thank God for having enlightened me in this regard by some quite cruel experiences. In my vanity had I not told myself many times that although so many people suddenly rose up against me because of a clearly unjust and blameworthy prejudice, it was due perhaps more to the fact that I was misunderstood than to the jealousy and hatred which useful ideas and salutary reforms, even necessary ones provoke. But again, this also was vanity [Ecclesiastes 2;2].

Have I not been misunderstood, misjudged, mocked, calumniated, and hated by those who do not know me well, or who at least who could have known me – living with me, seeing me in action with their very eyes – and by those who had been not only the witnesses of my excessive kindness, but also its recipients and by those upon whom I had lavished many favors? Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. But again, this also was vanity [Ecclesiastes 1:2;2:1].

What possessed me to write all these things? My heart overflows…[Psalm 45:1]. Here I have opened my heart to express very poorly what I thought I would never be able to say. Let’s get back to my Diary.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

Eugene records in his journal a visit he made to a convent of contemplative sisters, whose lives are spent in silence and prayer. He experienced something of the presence of God in  these women who pray constantly for the world and its needs.

April 22: Annual visit to the first Visitation Monastery. I finished it that day. I cannot express how much I was edified by this visit. It is really wonderful to see the unity, the peace that reigns in this house of God…

How to explain the happiness that all these holy women enjoy, and which makes them prefer their status to anything more attractive that the world could offer? It is not possible to attribute this to anything other than the anointing of grace, the communication of the Spirit of God. This is something that strikes me more and more and that shows well the constant action of Providence on his creatures.

It is a supernatural state, miraculous; it is a light, a heavenly emanation, a taste of the bliss to which these chosen souls are called, these privileged souls who enjoy this happiness…

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 22 April 1839, EO XX

Oblate Virtual Pilgrimage Leaflet 19-23

Eugene concludes that loving people, despite rejection, is what is expected of God’s servants.

Each one according to the measure received must, after having exhausted his affections and efforts, say in all simplicity: We are useless servants; we did what we were supposed to do [Luke 17:10]. I had always thought this with regard to God and what one does in His service, but I needed further reflection to apply this feeling to people, or at least to include in it what one does for them beyond the strict duty of Christian charity.

He then thanks God for the gift he has been given of feeling compassion for people who are suffering, and of wanting to respond with generosity.

That is where I was mistaken. If I feel people’s pain more than others do, if my heart is touched at the sole thought of their misfortunes, when they come to mind, if I feel real distress, sometimes even deep pain upon simply hearing of a catastrophe that will bring desolation to a family unknown to me, as for example the death of a mother which leaves the children abandoned, or the death of a son, or a daughter whose early loss will break the heart of a mother, I could not deny that this is evidence of a rather rare kindheartedness. It is a pure gift from God.

Having vented, Eugene now calms down and recognizes that all that he does must be for love of God and people – not for rewards.

This exquisite feeling is a consequence of who I am, a condition of the existence that God gave me by making me what I am and the way I am. Why should I want anyone to take notice of them in me? That would be too natural a reward for a free gift of the Lord, because no matter how troublesome this uncommon ability, whenever I find another person who has it to this high degree, I congratulate myself on having it and I feel truly happy even during the painful moments it brings me. So, let me renounce any reward or any human recognition. To count on it would simply be preparing grief for myself. I will spare myself that sorrow by sacrificing it in advance.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

Continuing our reflection in the Diary entry of Easter Sunday 1839, we see Eugene meditating on the difficult lesson he had to learn when he naively believed that because he loved people and treated them in a loving way they would love him in return. Initially some in the city of Marseilles taught him this lesson.

There would be some interesting things to say on this topic! But I would deviate from the thought that led to this digression. I wanted to say that I went to extremes in the love I showed my fellow man from my earliest youth. I had especially been excessive in supposing that I deserved a similar attitude from those for whom I wanted to do so much good, and to whom my heart was ready to dispense still greater love in return for the love they were willing to give me. In spite of what my misguided reason might urge me to believe, this right to people’s love belongs only to God. Whatever my reason may allege for expecting men’s gratitude, it is mistaken.

People may do wrong by being ungrateful, unjust, and not responding to the good done them, or desired for them, but I should not complain about this. The same rule which applies to external actions and services must also apply to the feelings and dispositions of the heart.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

In 1820 Eugene and the Missionaries had participated in a city-wide mission in Marseilles. They were entrusted with the three poorest parishes of the city

Only Marseilles looked with indifference on the noteworthy service rendered to three of its poorest and most populous parishes by my Congregation during the great mission we gave together with some other missionaries from outside, who apparently produced more noise than fruit in the more fashionable quarters of the city. Our labors among the people of St. Lawrence, the Grand-Carmes and St. Victor went unnoticed. Yet I did not spare myself. Undoubtedly, the good people were not insensitive to our zealous efforts; no, they were not and they proved it to us in the course of our ministry.

Three years later Eugene came to live in the city as Vicar General of his uncle, Bishop Fortuné.

But I must admit that the rest of the city failed to make that recognition unanimous, because less than three years later, all had been forgotten when I was welcomed like a foreign invader, although I came with my hands full of blessings, and my mind full of plans inspired by divine grace, all of them useful, most advantageous, and most necessary for the spiritual welfare and happiness of this city and of the whole diocese.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

Eugene continues to reflect in his diary on the enthusiastic reaction of the people of Aix to the blessings of his ministry.

Nevertheless, the time came when it was necessary for me to recognize that everyone is not like me. Initially I encountered only petty jealousies for which I was well compensated by the people’s enthusiastic attachment which was vigorously shown me on several occasions; among others during the illness that brought me a hair’s breadth away from death, and

This was in the context of the conflict with the Cathedral Chapter over the choir screens that Father de Mazenod had arranged to remove during the city mission of 1820. Cf. J. Leflon, Bishop de Mazenod, II, pp. 125-126.

when I was carried triumphantly from the cathedral to the Church of the Mission by a crowd that wanted to take revenge for the insult they believed I had received.[1] My voice alone was able to calm the crowd’s anger. Oh, good city of Aix, would to God that I had never left your walls. I would have spent my life sanctifying your children and all your people, and I would have reaped nothing but consolation in return for my devotion. But what then of that saying that no man is a prophet in his own land? It was necessary that this word be proven true, if not in my native city, then at least in the city I was forced to adopt.

This was not the case in Marseilles where he experienced much personal suffering and rejection by the people when he was Vicar General there from 1823 onwards.

It was in Marseilles that I was to encounter all the resentment which was the price I had to pay for the delights of my first years, spent so joyfully in the sweetness of a mutual love from all around me and in the realization that my heart held sway over a large, grateful, and devoted population. What can I say about a great people! And all those places that I had evangelized during the nine years I dedicated to the holy missions! Was there even one of them that did not show me proof of the most sincere gratitude for the blessings I obtained for them and for the devotion with which they saw me sacrifice my existence, and one could say my life, in order to bring them back to God?

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

Easter Sunday 1839 and we continue to reflect on Eugene’s reminiscences of that day on his vocation and the motivation behind his life as a missionary. He recalls his return to Aix as a 30 year-old priest:

I thus responded to the Bishop of Metz that my whole ambition was to consecrate myself to the service of the poor and the youth. I thus started out in the prisons, and my first apprenticeship consisted of gathering around me young boys whom I instructed. I formed a large number in virtue. I saw up to 280 grouped around me, and those who today still remain faithful to the principles that I had the happiness of instilling in their souls and who do honor to their faith in every rank of society or in the sanctuary, will uphold for a long time, either in Aix or in the other places where they are dispersed, the reputation that this association had rightly acquired for itself while I was able to care for it.

Well, this twofold ministry contributed to keeping me faithful to my ideals. Among these poor prisoners whom I helped spiritually and materially, and among the youth who looked up to me as their father, I met only souls full of recognition, hearts full of affection that responded perfectly to the tender charity that I felt for them. They loved me so much that several 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.

With the overwhelming response to his loving dedication:

Everything contributed to my conviction that it was impossible for me not to be loved. With my heart so disposed, that is to say, never wishing harm to anyone, desiring to do good to everyone, and always ready to show affection to everyone who could appreciate it, I could not understand that there could be even one person, who really knew me, who would wish to hurt me or even sadden me. Sweet but mistaken illusion of a heart that loves too much! I did not see the flaw in this all too natural feeling. I was so little aware of it that I would have boasted about it just as, in the secret of my soul, I rejoiced in possessing it.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

Easter Sunday 1839. Eugene was suffering as a result of serious opposition he was experiencing in the diocese. This leads him to reexamine the vocation that had led him here: ” to devote myself to the service and to the happiness of my neighbor whom I loved with the love of Jesus Christ for all people.” Once he was ordained a priest and finished his seminary commitments, he ha returned to Aix en Provence to begin his ministry.

It was this same sentiment that determined my choice when, on returning to Aix the Bishop of Metz, who was the administrator of the diocese at the time, asked me what I wanted to do. There was not a hair on my head that wished to take advantage of my social position to give in to the pretensions that everyone at the time would have found reasonable.

Eugene had been a member of the nobility before the French Revolution and was the son of the former President of the Court of Accounts. In the eyes of certain people of Aix he had a status and pedigree that would have entitled him to an eminent position in the Archdiocese of Aix. In his own heart Eugene had rejected all this, as was shown in a drawing he had made at the seminary and the motto he had chosen for himself.

 Elegi abjectus esse in domo Dei mei .

It is an extract of verse 10 of Psalm 84 (83): ” For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

It is written on a small drawing that I had made while I was at the seminary that perfectly expresses the secret of my heart. My coat of arms placed on my father’s president’s cloak detached and negligently thrown on a stone bench, with the cap and the crown reversed; a wooden cross and a crown of thorns are above this coat of arms in place of the ornaments which I was showing that I had renounced by throwing them in this way at the feet. There you have the true expression of the secret of my vocation.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX

“There you have the true expression of the secret of my vocation” – the Cross and the crown of thorns. The heart and life of Eugene had been transformed by the sight of the Cross one Good Friday thirty two years earlier – and the transformation continued!

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16