Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

“Our love for the Church inspires us…” (Constitution 6)

Eugene’s love for the suffering Church led him to become the founder of the Oblate Family.

The Church, that glorious inheritance purchased by the Saviour at the cost of all his blood has in our days been cruelly ravaged…
The sight of these evils has so touched the hearts of certain priests, zealous for the glory of God, men with an ardent love for the Church, that they are willing to give their lives, if need be, for the salvation of souls.

Eugene de Mazenod’s Preface

In 1816 it was the hearts of “certain priests” that were touched, today it is the hearts of all of us that have been touched and have led us to respond according to Eugene’s spirit:

The call of Jesus Christ, heard within the Church through people’s need for salvation, draws us together as Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. (Constitution 1)

And

Lay people recognize that they are called to share in the charism according to their state of life, and to live it in ways that vary according to milieu and cultures.(Rule 37a)

As we prayerfully reflect on these Constitutions, may we grow in love for the Church and in our efforts to love Jesus Christ as we love the Church and vice versa.

“Our love for the Church inspires us…” (Constitution 6)

As Eugene’s reflection on his experience of Jesus Christ as his Savior deepened, so did his awareness of the suffering of his Body, the Church, as a result of the aftermath of the French Revolution. He was impelled to respond:

During my seminary days, I had the thought of making myself as useful as possible to the Church, our Mother, for whom the Lord had given me the grace always to have a filial love. The destitution in which I saw her had been one of the deciding motives for my embracing the priestly state.

Eugene’s Mémoires, quoted in Rambert I p 47

Writing to his mother about the impossibility of ignoring the suffering of the Church:

Do you believe that a man who had a clear vision of the needs of the Church and who, despite the attraction God gives him to work at helping her, and other signs of His will, yet opted to sit back with arms folded, sighing softly to himself about all these evils, but not raising a finger to awaken even in the least degree men’s hardened hearts, would rest in all good conscience? What an illusion… it would be enough if in the course of one’s life one could help even a single soul to work out his salvation to make all one’s labors worthwhile.

Eugene’s letter to his mother, 4 April 1809, EO XIV n 50

I devoted myself to the Church because she was suffering persecution, was abandoned…

Eugene’s letter to his father, 7 December 1814, EO XV n. 129

Today as we are painfully aware that the Church continues to be persecuted, can we sit with arms folded sighing sadly?

“Our love for the Church inspires us…” (Constitution 6)

 Writing to his mother who was vehemently opposed to the idea of his becoming a priest, Eugene reminded her of what happens at Baptism:

So do not grudge, dear mama, do not grudge this poor Church, so terribly abandoned, scorned, trampled underfoot – but which even so was the one who gave birth to us all in Jesus Christ – the dedication that two or three individuals out of the whole of France (a small number I count myself happy to be one of) wish to pay her of their liberty and life. And what reason could you possibly have for wanting me to delay any longer from committing myself, and devoting myself to the Spouse of Jesus Christ?”

Letter to his mother, 11 October 1809, EO XIV n.61

At our baptism these words were addressed to each of us: “ N., the Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In its name I claim you for Christ our Savior by the sign of his cross. I now trace the cross on your forehead, and invite your parents and godparents to do the same.”

This is why we are called to love the Church.

“Our love for the Church inspires us…” (Constitution 6)

As part of his search for the meaning of his life, his gradual journey of conversion, the 22 year-old Eugene read and studied and made notes:

One of the things that strikes me most in religion is “catholicity”, that communion that exists among children of one same Father who receives on high the intentions they form at the same time in lands so distant and who truly wills to give them in return a merit shared in common.

The idea that I am a member of that great family of which God himself is Head… seems to instantly make my soul surge, with an intensity that is difficult to express.

Jottings in Eugene’s notebook, May 1804, EO XIV, n 7

Today, our Oblate Charismatic Family is present in over 60 countries. What an awe-inspiring thought that we are an expression of the communion that exists because we are all children if the same God as Church.

Constitution 6 begins with the words:

Our love for the Church inspires us…

The outstanding characteristic of the life of Eugene was his passionate love for Jesus Christ as his Savior, and as his Way and his Truth and his Life. We are thus not surprised to read in his last Pastoral Letter before his death:

How is it possible to separate our love for Jesus Christ from that which we owe to his Church?” These two kinds of love merge: to love the Church is to love Jesus Christ and vice versa. We love Jesus Christ in his Church because she is his immaculate spouse who came out of his opened side on the cross

Lenten Pastoral Letter, February 1860.

The Church for Eugene was the Body of Christ, the great communion of all the baptized. As the members of his Charismatic Family, we too are urged to allow our love for Jesus Christ to lead us to recognize his living presence in the Church.

After many weeks of traveling for charism animation activities, and a trans-Atlantic move of from San Antonio to Rome (including the Kusenberger Chair of Oblate Studies), St Eugene is ready to speak to us again.

In the chapel of the General House in Rome we are privileged to have the Statue of the Immaculate Conception, lovingly referred to as the “Oblate Madonna.” It was while praying in front of this statue that Eugene experienced a mystical realization. He received the assurance that this tiny religious congregation was blessed by God and that, despite all the tribulations it was experiencing, it contained the seed of a great tree that would flourish.  Looking at the nascent Oblate Congregation he exclaimed:

I found it worthy,
everything pleased me about it,
I appreciated its rules, its statutes;
its ministry seemed awe-inspiring to me, as it is indeed.
As I looked at the Society I found in it a sure, even infallible, means of salvation.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 15 August 1822, EO VI n 86

In view of the 200th anniversary of our official recognition by the Church and the approval of our Oblate Rule, I have been reflecting on the articles of the Constitutions and Rules seen through the eyes of Saint Eugene. Starting at https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=5991, we have looked at the first five Constitutions already and, because of their importance in understanding our charism, I invite you to relook at them and, with Eugene, to find in them an awe-inspiring means of salvation.

I had hoped to resume the daily reflection today, but circumstances have forced me to postpone for some time longer. I have been involved in end-of-academic year activities at Oblate School of Theology, and travel for Oblate charism animation activities in several parts of the world. At the same time I am also preparing to assume a new ministry in Rome, while continuing with all the activities of the Kusenberger Chair of Oblate Studies.

On the website you can find 15 years’ worth of St Eugene reflections (3324 of them) where he continues to speak and inspire us: https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/

As I re-read some of these past entries I am always happy to see that they are still very relevant for today.

Looking forward to continuing our reflections in July from Rome.

A Happy Easter to you.

I have had some reactions to the reflections on the Oblate Constitutions and Rules that I have been doing for several weeks. Thank you for encouraging words.

These reflections will be paused for a month and will resume towards the end of May.

The reason is that these coming weeks are going to be busy with some retreat and teaching sessions and workshops which will involve extensive travel. I am also in the process of preparing to assume a new ministry while continuing to be responsible for and teaching in the Kusenberger Chair of Oblate Studies.

I look forward to resuming our exploration of the contents and meaning of our Rule of Life for all the members of our Oblate Charismatic Family.

In the meantime, I remind you that you can consult 15 years of reflections (over 3300 entries) on the website: https://www.eugenedemazenod.net. There is a search engine where you can enter a word or theme to consult the entries.

Be back soon!

Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ (Matthew 28: 7)

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.

Eugene de Mazenod  to his mother, 4 April 1809, EO XIV n 50

As members of his Oblate Family we find echoes of this sentiment on Constitution 9 of our Rule of Life:

We are members of the prophetic Church. While recognizing our own need for conversion, we bear witness to God’s holiness and justice. We announce the liberating presence of Jesus Christ and the new world born in his resurrection. 

The description of the response of a new Oblate applies not only to a novice, but to each of us today as we renew our experience of God’s love on the Cross:

The novice, having experienced the Father’s love in Jesus, dedicates his life to making that love visible. He entrusts his fidelity to the one whose cross he shares, whose promises are his hope. (Constitution 59).

On Good Friday Eugene had experienced “the Father’s love in Jesus” and he was impelled to spend the rest of his life “making that love visible.” He entrusted that mission to every member of the Oblate Family:

The cross of Jesus Christ is central to our mission. Like the apostle Paul, we “preach Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2: 2). If we bear in our body the death of Jesus, it is with the hope that the life of Jesus, too, may be seen in our body (cf. 2 Cor 4:10). (Constitution 4)

May this Good Friday be a day of renewed and grateful awareness of the Father’s love in the crucified Christ for each of us and for those entrusted to our care.