Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

“To live Christ Jesus crucified” is the title given to Constitution 4 in the English version of the Constitutions and Rules.

It portrays clearly what it means to put into practice the statement that “the cross of Jesus Christ is central to our mission.” Eugene gives us a glimpse of how to do this using the image of a painter. When he was a seminarian he wrote:

To make myself like Jesus Crucified
It is like the painter who copies a model.
studies him carefully,
concentrates on him,
tries to engrave his image in his spirit,
then he traces some lines on the paper, which he compares with the original ,
then he makes corrections until he is satisfied that it conforms with the original, then he continues…

Unpublished exercise book in the OMI General Archives

Eugene was not aiming at transforming himself into an exact photographic reproduction of Jesus the Savior. That is unrealistic and impossible. Like an artist, Eugene’s spirituality consists in focusing intensely on the model, and then allowing that model to express himself through the vision of the artist’s experience and understanding of the human person and of the world in which he lives.

Eugene invites each of us, members of his charism family, to follow his example and become artists!

The cross of Jesus Christ is central to our mission (Constitution 4)

Having looked at our call and response in Constitutions 1 and 2, we now move onto Constitution 4 which is the pivotal point of our vocation as Christians in the Oblate Family.

Eugene’s conversion journey is well known to us, and so it comes as no surprise to understand that the cross was central to his life and mission – and to ours.

Eugene’s spiritual journey is summed up in our Constitution 59, referring to our novices, but applicable to each of us, today:

Novitiate formation ends with a free and faith-filled commitment in the Oblate Congregation. 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.

Then, Constitution 63, picks up on the same idea:

The Oblate cross which is received at perpetual profession is a constant reminder of the love of the Saviour who wishes to draw all hearts to himself and sends us out as his co-workers.

What is said about the cross in the first vows of the novices and the lifetime oblation of the post-novices, applies to the vocation of each member of the Oblate Charismatic Family: Indeed the cross of Jesus Christ is central to our life, spirituality and mission!

We strive to reproduce in ourselves the pattern of his life. Thus, we give ourselves to the Father in obedience even unto death and dedicate ourselves to God’s people in unselfish love. Our apostolic zeal is sustained by the unreserved gift we make of ourselves in our oblation, an offering constantly renewed by the challenges of our mission. (Constitution 2)

This is the Mazenodian ideal that impels Oblates, in unselfish love, to give everything to the people as co-operators of the Savior – even unto death. Blessed Joseph Cebula, the Oblate Martyrs of Spain and of Laos have been recognized by the Church as martyrs. They are not the only Oblate martyrs – there are some 200 who have died as a result of their ministry. In Spain we have a layman, Blessed Cándido Castán who was put to death in the group Oblate martyrs.

Today, however, I would like to highlight a lay person, in danger of being forgotten, whom I consider as one of the “patron saints” of our lay Charismatic Family members.
Paul Thoj Xyooj, was enthralled by the vision of the Oblate mission and became associated with the Oblates, sharing their supreme oblation of martyrdom. Born in 1941, son of a local chief in the Province of Louang Prabang, he was in the first group of catechumens of the newly-arrived Oblate missionaries. At age 16 he expressed the desire to be a priest and went to the minor seminary. Realizing that his call was to marriage and not to priesthood, he left the seminary and became a catechist and worked with the Oblates among the Hmong people – being invaluable as he knew the language which the missionaries were struggling to learn. His simple faith was contagious (and brings a smile) as one of the eyewitnesses testified in reporting his teaching:

“You are people who have original sin, thus you are sinners, and we only live one time on this earth because we will die and become earth again. However, God loves us very much, he has not abandoned us; that is why he sent his only Son Jesus, who was crucified to bear all our sins. He was buried three days, and rose again. He is with his Father in heaven. Jesus will return for believers to resurrect them as he was resurrected. So all the men will be handsome and the women will be beautiful, everybody will be healthy, and they will have eternal life. They will live with God in Heaven, with love, like the birds flying in the sky without having to work but having food to eat and clothes to wear for eternity.”

At age 19, Xyooj accompanied Fr Mario Borzaga on his missionary journeys among the poor in the villages and was captured by rebels. Refusing to abandon the Oblate, he too received a martyr’s death. A member of the Mazenodian Family in life, he was beatified, together with 6 Oblates, and will continue to be an example of heroically living our founding vision and an intercessor for all members of Eugene’s universal family in our striving to live oblation.

Eyewitness have recounted his last moments as he pleaded with the rebels not to kill Fr. Borzaga:

The young Lao said, “Do not kill him, because  he is a very good priest, very kind to everyone; he only does good things! “But they did not want to believe him. He then said: “I’m not leaving, I’m staying with him; If you kill him, kill me too. There where he will be dead, I will be dead, and where he will live, I will live. “The rebels replied:” You’re really stubborn, so you want to die too? “He replied,” Yes! “And so they killed them both.

Blessed Paul Kyooj, pray for us.

We strive to reproduce in ourselves the pattern of his life. Thus, we give ourselves to the Father in obedience even unto death and dedicate ourselves to God’s people in unselfish love. Our apostolic zeal is sustained by the unreserved gift we make of ourselves in our oblation, an offering constantly renewed by the challenges of our mission. (Constitution 2)

Looking at the Cross on Good Friday, Eugene was overwhelmed the love of God who gave everything for him. The response of this young man was oblation: giving everything to God:

What more glorious occupation than to act in everything and for everything only for God, to love him above all else, to love him all the more as one who has loved him too late.

Eugene’s Retreat Journal, December 1814, EO XV n.130

Oblation became the central characteristic of his life as a person, as priest, as founder, as Superior General and as Bishop.

I have all my life desired to die a victim of charity. You know that this crown was withheld from me right from the first days of my ministry. The Lord had his designs since He wanted to trust me to give a new family to His Church…

Eugene’s letter to Henri Tempier, 12 September 1849, E.O. X n.1018

It is this spirit that all the members of the Oblate Family are called to absorb and assimilate:

Our Lord Jesus Christ has left to us the task of continuing the great work of the redemption of mankind.
It is towards this unique end that all our efforts must tend;
as long as we will not have spent our whole life and given all our blood to achieve this, we having nothing to say;
especially when as yet we have given only a few drops of sweat and a few spells of fatigue.

Eugene’s letter to Henri Tempier, 22 August 1817, O.W. VI n. 21

We strive to reproduce in ourselves the pattern of his life. Thus, we give ourselves to the Father in obedience even unto death and dedicate ourselves to God’s people in unselfish love. (Constitution 2)

Eugene’s words to young Brother Charles Baret, who had just professed his perpetual vows:

Accustom yourself, my dear son, to have confidence in the Lord, without reservation whatsoever. We must become entirely generous toward our Father who is so good and, at the same time, both so great and so powerful. There must be no reservations in the gift of ourselves to him. He knows your needs, he knows the lawful desires of your heart: that’s all that is needed.
Rightfully he wants us to consider ourselves so honored, so happy to be admitted into the intimacy of his privileged disciples, that in exchange and in gratitude we give ourselves to him without reserve and without conditions…

Eugene’s letter to Brother Charles Baret, at Notre Dame de L’Osier, 18 August 1843

Saint Eugene’s words continue to be relevant for all of us in whichever situation we respond to the Saviour’s love. In today’s Charismatic Family, constituted around Eugene’s charism, every act of dedication to God and service to neighbour is an act of oblation.

We are men “set apart for the Gospel” (Rom 1: 1), men ready to leave everything to be disciples of Jesus. The desire to co-operate with him draws us to know him more deeply, to identify with him, to let him live in us. We strive to reproduce in ourselves the pattern of his life. (Constitution 2)

Eugene defined us as “co-operators” of Jesus Christ and charged us:

Insist on making Jesus Christ known and loved. Speak often of this divine Saviour and of all he has done to save mankind. Make them resolve never to spend a day without praying”

Letter to Fr. Jean Viala, 17 January 1849, EO IV n. 4

The Catechism we grew up with contained the question, “Why did God make me?” The answer was: to know, to love, and to serve. Our Rule expresses the same sentiment in dynamic language:

– “to know him more deeply,” in the Biblical sense, means to have a relationship of communion with Jesus.
– “to identify with him,” means to be a part of his cause, to see ourselves as being linked with his mission of salvation. We want to reproduce the pattern of his life.
– “to let him live in us,” refers to Matthew 20,28: “ behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” – living in us, and making us his missionary instruments.

JESUS’ PRAYER FOR  US

“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” (John 17,20-23)

We are men “set apart for the Gospel” (Rom 1: 1), men ready to leave everything to be disciples of Jesus. (Constitution 2)

This is the Rule of life of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, so this statement refers to our vocation of following Jesus.

But does it only apply to the vowed Oblates? Definitely not, because at baptism each Christian was “claimed for Christ our Savior.” In other words, each of us has been “set apart for the Gospel” – every baptised man or woman is called to make the fundamental option of putting God in the first place. “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (John 6,68).” With the Gospel as our guide, we choose to leave everything that prevents us from communion with him and with one another.

Each member of the Oblate Charismatic Family is called upon to make the choice every day all those things that make of every day’s activity a step in following Jesus and making him known

A PRAYER

“The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life.

I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts

Words that are your words, and actions that are your actions.”

(Henri Nouwen – https://www.thespiritlife.net )

The whole of Constitution 1 enumerates the elements that constitute us:

The call of Jesus Christ, heard within the Church through people’s need for salvation, draws us together as Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Christ thus invites us to follow him and to share in his mission through word and work.
We are a clerical Congregation of pontifical right. We come together in apostolic communities of priests and Brothers, united to God by the vows of religion.
Cooperating with the Saviour and imitating his example, we commit ourselves principally to evangelizing the poor. (Constitution 1)

The highlighted section gives the legal description, according to the Church’s Canon Law, of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. From the beginning, Eugene started with a group of priests because all the ministries involved the priestly sacramental and preaching function – hence the “clerical Congregation.” A few years later, men responded to the call of Jesus Christ to participate in the religious missionary life but not as priests. Thus, the Oblate Brothers were born: participating fully in the Oblate mission but using their talents and gifts for evangelization rather than the sacramental priestly ministry.

Over a century later, lay men and women felt called to live the Mazenodian charism and began to do so, From 1982 onwards our Rule of Life acknowledged this in Rule 37a:

The charism of Saint Eugene de Mazenod is a gift of the Spirit to the Church, and it radiates throughout the world. 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. They share in the charism in a spirit of communion and reciprocity amongst themselves and with the Oblates.

In order to live more intensely the mission of evangelization according to the Oblate charism, some lay people gather in associations.

Thus, the response and origin of the Oblate Charismatic Family

Our Rule of Life begins by expressing HOW we are part of the Oblate charism:

The call of Jesus Christ, heard within the Church through people’s need for salvation, draws us together as Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Christ thus invites us to follow him and to share in his mission through word and work…
Cooperating with the Saviour and imitating his example, we commit ourselves principally to evangelizing the poor. (Constitution 1)

This is a rephrase of Eugene’s original mission vision of a group of disciples coming together in order to “strive to imitate the virtues and examples of our Savior Jesus Christ principally by dedicating themselves to preaching the Word of God to the poor” (1818 Rule). This group he defines as “coworkers of the Savior.”

As we explore the Constitutions and Rules, we will see the development of this HOW.

REFLECTION

Pope Francis spoke to the Oblate Charismatic Family in 2022:

“Pilgrims of Hope in Communion”. It is a theme that sums up your identity on the streets of the world, to which, as disciples of Jesus and followers of your founder Saint Eugène de Mazenod, you are called to bring the Gospel of hope, joy and peace. It is a world that, on the one hand seems to have reached seemingly unreachable goals, yet on the other is still enslaved by selfishness and full of contradictions and divisions. The cry of the earth and that of the poor, wars and conflicts that shed blood on human history, the distressing situation of millions of migrants and refugees, an economy that makes the rich ever richer and the poor ever poorer, are some aspects of a scenario where only the Gospel can keep the light of hope burning.

The first article of the constitution of any group of people is generally the one that defines the group and its purpose. This is what our Constitution 1 is for us. It begins by expressing WHY we are part of the Oblate charism:

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)

It is Jesus who takes the first step by calling each of us. He invites us to discover his call in his presence in many ways:

we seek his presence in the hearts of the people and in the events of daily life as well as in the Word of God, in the sacraments and in prayer (Constitution 31)

Linked with our personal experience of being called, is the call we hear through the members of the Body of Christ, the Church. We recall how Eugene became aware of his vocation when he saw the suffering of the Church after the French Revolution and how in need of salvation the people were. Recognizing Jesus calling him in this situation, he responded generously with his life.

Today we are invited to listen for his call in all that we do and experience, and particularly through our Church suffering with her children in so many tragic and horrific situations throughout the world

REFLECTION

Eleanor Rabnett, a Canadian Lay Oblate, captured this beautifully in her daily reflection on “St Eugene Speaks” :

“The call of Jesus Christ…” leads us to become a part of that which continues outward allowing the Beloved to show us the way through others, who are sons and daughters of Eugene. Like the Master Potter, we allow ourselves to be reshaped and formed, and instead of being sent to the kiln where we might dry out and become brittle, we find ourselves becoming a part of the clay of life, becoming one with others who like us have offered themselves to be shaped, reshaped and renewed. It is the Beloved, the Master Potter who is constantly shaping and reshaping us, and then picking up new clay and adding a little water to slake our thirst all in order to mold those we will accompany in the same manner that we ourselves receive(d) from other members of our Oblate Charismatic Family.
“The call of Jesus Christ…” How greatly we are loved and blessed…
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(Eleanor has been reflecting every day, since 2010, on the daily “St. Eugene Speaks.” These are all available on the website. I always smile when people tell me that they prefer her reflection to mine – most often I agree with them!)