Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

Another example of Eugene’s predicament in the personnel crisis. Father Guigues, at Osier, was desperately needing more Oblates. Eugene’s response:

I’m only too aware of the picture you paint for me of your situation but I can only repeat that God knows it better than we do and we must abide by his will.

Make your plans in function of the means available, don’t extend yourself beyond your capacity and don’t lose your peace of mind; that’s where wisdom lies.

Letter to Bruno Guigues, 2 October 1836, EO VIII n 592

Eugene’s advice continues to apply today in every situation that we face as a Mazenodian Family – that is where wisdom lies.

In the crisis of personnel, Eugene was forced to make changes and assign Oblates to different places. Father Casimir Aubert, the novice master, had had to leave Laus to go to Aix. Now he was being asked to change yet again, and he was not happy.

The sudden death of Father Pons, whose absence will always be felt, and the blameworthy departure of Father Pachiaudi, place me in the necessity of calling you to the major seminary at Marseilles. In consequence the novitiate will follow you to Marseilles. It is not through mere flightiness that I am changing the project in this way; but who can cope with completely unforeseeable events? Who can offer resistance to the very power of God?

Eugene as the pilot of the ship had to make decisions in the face of the storm, and he asks Father Aubert, as a crew member, to fit in with the plans of divine providence.

The ways of Providence are a deep mystery to me. Our part is to submit ourselves to whatever they bring that is hard or painful, without ever being disconcerted, even when they pitch us into situations of great difficulty. When we cannot proceed under full sail, then we must resort to tacking and make progress with sails trimmed, even down to the smallest sail that is raised on the mast-head and called the topgallant sail. All I ask in these painful and perplexing circumstances is that the pilot be in charge during the storm, that the crew obey in silence and that I be spared complaints that are out of place in a crisis when each one must carry out his task as best as he may in the post assigned to him.

Letter to Casimir Aubert, 26 September 1836, EO VIII n 590

The small Oblate congregation had been hit by the loss of two men. The existing missionary commitments had thus to be re-evaluated and decisions made to maintain only those works more in keeping with our charism and vocation.

As for myself, I humbly confess I am helpless in the face of the decrees of Providence. I had everything arranged, counting on the two men who have been snatched away from me; I must perforce fall back on our remaining resources to meet various sacred commitments, conformable moreover as they are to our vocation. I don’t conceal from myself the fact that many things are suffering in consequence; but I repeat, I’m not the master of events.

All the Oblates are urged not to lose hope and courage, but to rely in God’s providence and time.

Our duty to all is to do our best, each in his own sphere, with the means that remain to us. These trials should not be beyond our courage. Small wonder when a boat moves along with the wind behind it! The sailors can relax. But when the wind is contrary and the seas are rough, that is the moment for them to jump to work so as to reach land safely. So let’s show patience and be of good courage; don’t let’s allow ourselves to be beaten. How many times have we had the calm after the storm! So let there be no weakness but put a good face on things; men may pass, let us wait on God’s good time.

Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 25 September 1836, EO VIII n 589

 Advice still very pertinent today!

Father Courtès, had been confessor to a convent of religious sisters and the pupils of a school. At Eugene’s request, he had stopped this ministry which Eugene did not see as being part of our charism.

Now that you have freed yourself from your convent. I want to use you for works more in keeping with our vocation. I know you are tireless when it is a question of preaching God’s Word and that you acquit yourself worthily in that great ministry.

Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 22 September 1836, EO VIII n 588

We had been founded to be missionaries and preachers to those most in need of hearing the Word of God. Today as we evaluate our ministries, we need to ask the same questions.

Eugene, as the father-figure of his Oblate family, suffered with his family in their suffering. Humanly he needed support – especially at the moment of the death of Father Pons. Here he responds to a letter of support from one of his Oblates

My dear Son, I was telling Father Courtès that your letter and his did me a lot of good, because in times of deep grief one needs the heart of someone one loves to lean on. God’s decrees are inscrutable. They bring to nought each and every scheme that a most pure zeal for the glory of his holy name could devise. God opens up a vast field before us, he summons us to harvest it because it is ripe, we hasten to obey his voice. He proceeds to take the scythe from our hands, blessed be his holy name.

Letter to Casimir Aubert, 20 September 1836, EO VIII n 587

Eugene advises the community of the edifying manner of the death of Father Pons.

The Lord has just taken away our excellent Father Alexandre Marie Pons, at 28 years of age, in the 8th year since his call. He died as one predestined, yesterday at 8.00 p.m., assisted by all his brothers, who had nursed him with heroic charity throughout his illness, fearless of its malign and contagious nature. My presence and words were so much of a comfort to our poor sick confrere that I made it my personal duty to console him until the end came. Although for four hours he could no longer speak, he remained conscious and fervently followed every edifying suggestion made. Following our custom his confessor, Father Tempier, frequently repeated the act of absolution which he received with joy. I think he had received an interior light warning him that his end was near, for since the holidays he has devoted himself to every practice of perfection, living out such an exact regularity that the whole community was edified. His conversation was only of God, and he did all things for him.

It is thus that the Lord is pleased to form his elect in our midst, he shapes them, brings them to perfection and when they are ripe for heaven, he takes them from us although we are counting on them to help us in carrying the heavy load he has imposed on us. His will be done. I bless him for the good that he pledges to my children and I pray that he will hearken to the petitions they certainly make in heaven both for me and for us all and for the Congregation that has given birth to them, fed them and formed them for his glory.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 17 September 1836, EO VIII n 585

What will they say about us and our attitude to death as the door opening to our eternal life?

The “difficulties of my position and my soul’s bitter distress” was caused by the imminent death of a trusted Oblate at the age of 28, and of the departure of another. A double blow for the Oblates.

And now another blow, what can I do in the face of Providence’s severe decrees, what can I do even when faced with the cowardly folly and insensitivity of men? Let us speak no more of Pachiaudi who has so unworthily betrayed the Society and trodden underfoot so many duties. Even so his desertion does leave a gap that I cannot fill;

Eugene was understandably upset by the departure of Fr. Pachiaudi and expressed this harshly. In fact he later entered the monastery of La Grand Chartreuse where he held important positions as a monk.

but still more crushing, tearing at my soul and striking at my very existence, is the desperate condition in which our wonderful and irreplaceable Pons finds himself. For four days he has been betwixt life and death, and short of a miracle he cannot survive. The nature of his illness moreover keeps me in a state of continual anxiety for all these good young brothers who are nursing him with prodigal and heroic charity. He has no less than the most virulent form of typhus, and all those who are nursing him, which includes the whole community, feel in varying degrees the effects of the influence of this sickness that is carrying our dear and precious brother to the grave.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 15 September 1836, EO VIII n 583

Father Pons was only 28 years old and was a capable and respected professor at the Major Seminary in Marseilles.

So we have to resign ourselves to the loss of one of our best men and it will be a long time before we find a replacement. It is God’s will, that is everything; but it goes to the heart and the gap will make itself felt.

Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 16 September 1836, EO VIII n 584

We touch Eugene’s suffering and his anxiety for the health of the younger members of the community who were in danger of contracting the contagious disease as they ministered to their brother in the difficult medical circumstances of the 18th century.

We may fall into the danger of thinking that Eugene’s complaints in the preceding letters showed an Oblate congregation that was in a state of chaos. This was definitely not the case.

The demands of the people for the ministry of the Oblates were never-ending. The missionaries responded with zeal and begged Eugene to send more Oblates to their communities – and they complained when he did not comply. Eugene’s response:

Do not add, I beseech you all, to the difficulties of my position and my soul’s bitter distress, the painful experience of your complaints coming in all at the same time and from every direction. Is it my fault that there aren’t more of you and if amongst our small numbers there are so few men of ability? I would give my life to make your number grow, knowing the good works that you could achieve, that offer themselves in every quarter but which will remain undone for lack of workers.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 15 September 1836, EO VIII n 583

Today, with the blossoming of the charism families in the Church, the Mazenodian Family has come forward to be an integral part of the mission given to the Church by the charism of St Eugene.

“Be” in order to “Do” meant a life of equilibrium. Zeal for mission in defiance of the needs of the body produces few results. Writing to the superior of the Aix community, Eugene insists on equilibrium.

The obligation of seven hours of sleep is imposed to remedy. The extravagant piety of certain men who want to serve God as they see fit in defiance of all reason, common sense, justice and enlightened religion. What can a man do, there’s no cure for crackpots. I urge you to order Father Aubert on my behalf never to take less than seven hours sleep. This young priest needs a lot of sleep, he isn’t willing to admit it but it is obviously so. I noticed it a long time ago and others too have made the same observation. I don’t permit any excuses. I positively insist that he submit to this ruling.

Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 8 September 1836, EO VIII n 582

Good advice for all of us to prevent us becoming crackpots!