Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

“He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.”  (John 6: 56)

What a beautiful image of communion today’s Gospel (John 6:52-59) gives us! What we eat becomes totally a part of our being. Jesus is the Bread of Life who nourishes his people through a communion of becoming one physically and in every other sense. Communion of living in each other.

Saint Eugene reflects on communion in a reflection on the Feast of All Saints:

One of the thoughts that strikes me most about our holy religion is the thought of its catholicity; in my mind’s eye I scan the whole wide world and everywhere it numbers people as brothers [and sisters], it would not be easy to find any part of the inhabited globe where the fact of being a child of Jesus Christ and his Church would not assure the Christian of a welcome as an envoy of the Lord and not meet with an abundance of tender care flowing from the most ardent charity and poured forth in the name of him in whom all hearts who have seen the light are joined together….

How wonderful this communion in which turns the whole universe into one single, large family whose interests are common, needs are similar, helps are mutual

The Bread of Life is broken for others, so we remember that our communion with Jesus contains the element of being broken for others – something that the pandemic makes us urgently aware of.

“I tell you most solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.”   (John 6:47-48)

Today’s Gospel (John 6:44-51) brings together all the themes we have been presented with during these days. The people started with a misunderstanding about bread and Jesus led them step-by-step to the full revelation: they must believe that he is the Bread of Life who gave his life for the life of the world on the Cross.

The Bread that is broken on the Cross for our salvation and the Bread that saves us through eating and becoming fully a part of our lives.

In 1807, Eugene portrayed this conviction to his friend, Emmanuel Gaultier de Claubry, who was being mistreated because he was a Christian:

So do not be at all shaken by the persecutions that come your way, for you know that that is our destiny, the Master having told us that “we will be hated universally on account of his name.(Luke 21:17)” That is why we must look for our joy solely in the various afflictions that befall us and the persecutions to which we are exposed, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience.(James 1:23) Let us turn to God with fervour and we shall not be deceived, for the Lord’s eyes are on the just and his ears listen to their prayers. 

Pope Francis has invited us to a new focus while enduring difficulties:

Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day. Yes, it is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life (John 6:39-40)

In these days in which we have been following the teaching of Jesus on the Bread of life, let us remember that Jesus was talking to the Jewish people, who belonged to God through the Covenant. In today’s Gospel (John 6:35-40) he leads them one step further: He is the revelation of God – and he leads them to a greater understanding of their covenant relationship to know God as God really is, and to enter more fully into that relationship of life and love that they already have and which will not be taken away from the.

It was this conviction of St. Eugene which reassured him and made him a comforter of others, as we see in this letter to Fr Casimr Aubert in 1850.

The fifteen days, my dear son, which have elapsed between your last letter and that which I have just received today have been days of bitterness for me. The sole thought of the grief you were enduring and all your worries…

One would be unworthy to belong to God and the Church if one let oneself be laid low by tribulations.

The Coronavirus is making us realistically aware of how fragile our existence can be, and invites us to the reassuring realization that, through our baptism, we belong to God and are in relationship with God – and there is nothing fragile about this covenant!

‘Sir,’ they said ‘give us that bread always.’ Jesus answered: ‘I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never thirst.’  (John 6: 34-35)

The people in today’s Gospel (John :30-35) are looking for free bread, and ask for a sign like Moses had given centuries earlier to their ancestors: manna in the desert. Jesus takes it from there and invites them to recognize in him the sign by going beyond focus on physical existence to the gift of God that gives life.

If they come to him they will have their hunger satisfied. If they believe in him they will never thirst for anything less.

A theologian (Bultmann) described God’s revelation as destroying every picture that the desires of a person  invents, so that the real test of a person’s desire for salvation is to believe even when God acts in a way that is totally different from what the person expected.

St Eugene’s life was guided by his hunger and thirst to live as God wanted, as he noted in his journal in 1833:

There is no need of regrets when one has done one’s best. God makes use even of human mistakes to achieve his purpose. I do not know what he expects of me; all I know is that he governs with his wisdom those whose sole purpose is to work for his glory… If God has decided differently, he will direct events and bend the will of his creatures in such a way as to achieve his ends.

Today we desperately search for signs, yet there is only one lasting focus: “The one who comes to me will never hunger or thirst”

Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’ (John 6: 28- 29)

In today’s Gospel (John 6:22-29) the people had been given free bread, so the next day they went out of their way to look for Jesus so as to receive more. Understanding their motivation, Jesus tells them not to look for bread that will eventually go stale and have no value, but for the “food that endures to eternal life.” They then ask what they must do to receive this. It is here that Jesus tells them to believe in the one God has sent.

“The ‘work of God’ is singular in nature, namely to believe the one sent by God. Belief in the one sent by God is not mere intellectual assent bur a complete reorientation of one’s life and personal relationship with him” (S.M. Lewis SJ)

Eugene, who had spent so many years “looking for happiness outside of God” knew this well and expresses this in a letter to one of his Oblate missionaries in Canada in 1857.

Then, in spirit, I pressed you to my heart, touched to the point of tears by all that you have had to suffer to conquer those souls for Jesus Christ, who has clothed you with his power and sustained you by his grace among so many difficulties. But also, what a reward you will have beyond this world, when one thinks of the wonders that have been brought about by the power of your ministry. One has to go back to the first preaching of Saint Peter to find anything similar. An apostle like him, sent to proclaim the Good News to those savage nations, the first man to speak to them of God, to bring them to knowledge of Jesus the Savior, to show them the way that leads to salvation, to give them rebirth in the holy waters of baptism – one can only prostrate oneself before you, so privileged are you among your brothers in the Church of God by reason of the choice that he has made of you to work these miracles. 

Letter to Fr. Faraud 28 May 1857

How is the pandemic leading me to re-orientation of my life and relationships? Where am I looking for the food that leads to eternal life?

The fifth presentation of our online video course, “Eugene de Mazenod 101” is available as from today: A Vocation to be a Cooperator of Christ the Savior as a Priest

Last time, we left Eugene at the foot of the Cross one Good Friday. In this presentation we follow him as he discerns what God invites him to do with his life and how he prepares himself to respond.  God laid the foundations stones on which the rest of his life was to be built.

As we accompany St Eugene, God invites each of us to reflect on our own discernment and the foundation stones on which our lives are built.

You can join Eugene’s journey at any time. Each presentation is published every two weeks and remains available until the end of this year. It is a non-academic course, with material available for further reading and for personal reflection – which can be used for meetings of the various component groups of the Mazenodian Family.

It is being offered by Oblate School of Theology in English and Spanish. We aim to offer this in French in June and in Italian in the near future. For further details: https://moodle.ost.edu/course/index.php?categoryid=28

“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?”)