Continuing to list some of the occasions when he had refused a promotion, Eugene reflected on how he was offered the position of Bishop of the diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne:
I turned this burden away from myself in making it known to the one responsible that I was absolutely necessary to my uncle who had consented to being bishop only on condition that I would bear the burden of his office and it was then that he was told: “We’ll only loan him to you and take him back when the time comes,” to which I replied: “Yes, but it will be given and taken.”
The authorities told him that his freedom would not last indefinitely. While being his uncle’s Vicar General in Marseilles he had crossed swords with the government.
I wasted no time in putting these arrangements in order, taking upon myself the responsibility for all the measures taken by my uncle and which have properly been attributed to me, and strongly asserting the rights of the Church and the independence of the episcopacy in an ongoing correspondence with the Minister, who from then on, as I had foreseen, feared me to the point of swearing that he would see to it that I would never be a bishop…
In the light of all his refusals to receive honors and ecclesiastical positions, he considers on how God did eventually lead him to accept being a bishop for the good of the Marseilles Church and of the Oblate Congregation in 1832.
It took circumstances truly brought about by Providence for me to become what I am against all odds and as if by miracle.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 August 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
“To be a leader means to have humility, to have respect and to serve the people that we are leading. And that type of character, that type of integrity not only brings real fulfillment to our own hearts, but also has a great effect on the lives of all the people around us.” (Radhanath Swami)
During his 1817 visit to Paris, Eugene himself was also offered the post of Vicar General of Chartres by Bishop Latil, which would certainly have led to the episcopacy.
I was well aware of this and this is what I did not want; and I didn’t think I was making a sacrifice by stubbornly refusing such flattering and obliging offers, on the argument that, having already formed a group of missionaries in Provence and gathered around me a large number of young people whom I was leading to God, all this would vanish if I left the position.
He continues describing his relationship with this bishop who had authority in the French government over ecclesiastical matters and appointments, none of which interested Eugene:
This excellent friend later proved what he was to me, when so many years later, he came to die as I held him. The beautiful portrait of Pius VII that he bequeathed me in his will, executed when he was in the best of health and far from foreseeing his imminent end, and the ring that I wear on my finger, which he wanted to give me when he called me to him, bear witness to the feelings that he had retained for me and prove what he would have done for me if I had so wished.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 August 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
“Sometimes it may seem to us that there is no purpose in our lives, that going day after day for years to this office or that school or factory is nothing else but waste and weariness. But it may be that God has sent us there because but for us Christ would not be there. If our being there means that Christ is there, that alone makes it worthwhile.” (Caryll Houselander)
Continuing to vent his annoyance at being accused of seeking personal honors and dignities, Eugene expressed his reactions in his personal journal. Referring to his visit to Paris in 1817 he wrote about the possibility of restarting his friendship with the Duke de Berry, son of the future King Charles X of France. They had been in Palermo together when Eugene was 18 and the Duke was 22. It was a friendship that could have led to Eugene’s asking for favors if they met again.
Did I not prove this, when after the Restoration, having gone to Paris to represent the rights of my venerable uncle who had been completely forgotten, I did not want to just present myself before the Duke de Berry by whom I was particularly well known, with whom I had, for several months, constantly spent every evening in Palermo in a small committee of several other persons in the residence of the Princess de Vintimille where we took supper together and where he treated me with a sort of intimacy even to the point of concerning himself with my appearance, while wishing that I have my hair cut like his and while permitting me to join myself to his chevalier d’honneur and other great officers of his house, the Count de Sourdes, the Chevalier de Lajand, and to accompany him on the walks which he took in the environs of Palermo, finally giving me as a souvenir, when he departed, a fine-looking, small hunting dog.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 August 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
“People who use other people as stepping stones will one day lose their balance.”
A couple of days before his priestly ordination in 1811, Eugene had written:
You, you alone will be the sole object to which will tend all my affections and my every action. To please you, act for your glory, will be my daily task, the task of every moment of my life. I wish to live only for you, I wish to love you alone and all else in you and through you. I despise riches, I trample honours under foot; you are my all, replacing all else. My God, my love and my all: Deus meus et omnia.
Notes made during the retreat in preparation for priestly ordination, December 1-21, E.O. XIV n.95
Now 35 years later, within the context of refuting the accusation of seeking personal honors, he recalls how he lived this resolution after his ordination in 1811:
I then returned to the diocese of Aix, where I begged to be given no assignment, wanting to devote myself to the service of the poor, prisoners and young children. The path of wealth or of glory still did not lie there. In regard to wealth, I did not have any need of it, in regard to glory, I did not want it.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 August 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
The return of the talented son of a wealthy prominent family would have opened many doors for advancement in Aix en Provence. He could have asked for one of the best city parishes or a lucrative position in the diocesan administration, yet he opted for going against all these expectations and dedicated himself to the poor and most abandoned. I imagine that Madame la President de Mazenod may have experienced some discomfort when in the company of her noble friends and their social standards.
“Being humble means recognizing that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others” (Gordon B. Hinckley)
As Bishop of Marseilles, Eugene became aware of some criticism to the effect that he was ambitious and looking for honors. In his private journal, which he never intended others to see, he reflects on moments when he was offered positions of importance and never accepted.
The first was after his ordination to the priesthood. He recalls:
It was during this period that I refused the bishop who had ordained me, Bishop Demandolx, the honor which he had offered me of staying with him in the position of his vicar general; that’s the first response that I could make to those who accorded me the title of being ambitious because certain dignities fell upon me without my seeking them. I still see the window frame where the good bishop so greatly urged me to accept his compelling offer. He esteemed my title of friend of the family, we were compatriots, he would feel very happy to have me with him. I would be delivering him from a painful servitude…
I was hundreds of miles away from the thought of elevating myself. While expressing my thanks, I apologized and stressed my obligation to return to the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, where I was director. The saintly bishop had no idea what was going on in that house in Paris. We know that the Sulpicians, forced to withdraw, had entrusted the direction of the seminary to M. Teysseyrre, Tharin, Gosselin and myself….
When I told him that I needed to go to fulfill the role of director and, yielding to this consideration, he said to me, sighing: That’s different, I am insisting no further; I left him in this opinion and I returned to Paris, where I stayed for one year more as a priest.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 August 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
Being a nobleman, son of a judge, a graduate of St Sulpice and an accomplished speaker and organizer, it is easy to understand why many offers of ecclesiastical positions and honors came his way.
“When ambition ends, happiness begins.” (Thomas Merton)
Worried about the effects of typhus on his Oblate family in Canada, Eugene notes in his diary:
September 2: Letter from Fr. Guigues, from Fr. Telmon, from Fr. Aubert and from Fr. Bermond. Fr. Molloy is feeling better. Upon the arrival of the statue of Saint Joseph, which I had sent to Bytown, Fr. Telmon initiated a solemn novena. Not only the Fathers of the house, but the religious sisters and all the people of Bytown invoked the saint with trust and both Fr. Molloy and the five religious affected like him with this wretched typhus found themselves instantaneously better.
At Longueuil Fr. Brunet was slightly affected. It’s to be hoped that this will be nothing, but our Fathers will be called to render their service to Montreal. May God preserve them as I request him every day in offering the Holy Sacrifice for them.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 2 September 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
” Prayer is a person’s greatest power!” (W. Clement Stone)
Eugene was no stranger to epidemics of typhus and cholera. Knowing their destructive effects, he was concerned for the Oblates in Canada who were living through a typhus outbreak
I was waiting, my dear son, with an impatience stemming from anxiety for a letter which might reassure me about your health and that of our men. I knew through Brother Trudeau to whom his mother had written that the poor Irish had brought you an epidemic of a most dangerous sort and not receiving anything from you, my anxiety grew every day although I well understood that if the mail had been missed I would have to wait patiently for the arrival of that which could only leave fifteen days later. At last your letter of the 28th reached me…
In the meantime, since hearing the grim news, I have been saying Mass every day especially for you with the proper collect prayer which I have mandated and which I ask to be recited everywhere to obtain the Lord’s protection for you. I know what prayers are worth against this illness, as for everything, for I was stricken myself by it in a cruel manner in 1814 and it was prayer which snatched me from death. I contracted it from the poor Austrian prisoners who brought it to us in as malignant a form as that which the unfortunate Irish have possibly brought to Canada and which they are spreading everywhere. I count on you not to let a single mail leave without a letter from you for – any one of them missed would plunge me into unspeakable grief. I am already worried enough!
I have not the heart to speak of other things but as I am pressed for time and the mail is due to leave today – that is I am obliged to post my letter today if I do not want to miss the departure on the first ship from Liverpool
Letter to Father Bruno Guigues in Canada, 26 August 1847, EO I n 87
REFLECTION
“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
I must not keep to myself my intention that our missionaries be not reduced to the status of parish clergy. I would wish to found in England a real community of our Oblates, living according to their Rule within their house and thence going forth as ordered by the Bishops to bring aid where it is deemed useful.
Letter to Bishop Wiseman of Liverpool, 17 August 1847, EO III n 17
Bishop Wiseman had obtained a large house (Grace Dieu) for the Oblates in England so that they could live in community. Eugene was grateful and took the opportunity to remind the bishop that the vocation of the Oblates was primarily to be missionaries and not parish clergy.
REFLECTION
Eugene founded the Missionaries in 1816 to bring the Gospel to the most abandoned – to those who were the furthest away from Jesus Christ. Over the years that mission has continued to expand and involve every member of the Mazenodian Family. The demands of the mission led us to become very involved in parish ministry but always needing to avoid the danger of becoming predominantly “parish clergy” to the detriment of reaching out to the most abandoned in whatever ministry we do.
The Mazenodian Family is charism-centered and not parish-centered; it is important to remember this particularly in the case of those groups which exist in parishes which are no longer staffed by the Oblates.
In 1822, Eugene had written to Fr. Henri Tempier: “First companion of mine, you have from the first day we came together grasped the spirit which must animate us and which we must communicate to others… everyone knows this in the Society and they count on you as they count on myself.” (Letter to Henri Tempier, 15 August 1822, EO VI n 86)
Twenty five years later this was still true, and was the reason why Eugene sent him to represent him in the various communities and to make necessary decisions.
On your return, you would do well to visit all our houses without exception, and to inform yourself precisely about everything that is going on. Almost everywhere people have begun to make remarks on the placement of our men; I pray you to repeat everywhere that this practice is becoming abusive and untimely.
As the missionary demands increased, Eugene was not always able to place the missionaries in situations that they would have preferred. Responding as best as possible to the needs of the people they were ministering to was a paramount consideration.
I know as well as anybody the worth of each member and the needs of each house; so it is useless to pester me in my dealings. I have pointed out rather sharply that no one should repeat such complaints. I am decided not to listen to them. There is trouble enough in organizing the difficult placement of our men with the rather small number of good men we have available, without someone coming along to increase my difficulties.
The tone of impatience in these words is perhaps explained by the following words of an exhausted bishop:
I am answering your letter at the end of a four-hour ceremony.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 17 August 1847, EO X n 939
REFLECTION
In the individualistic self-satisfaction society in which we live, it is good to be reminded of the words of Jesus: “Love one another as I have loved you” and to renew our resolve to put the needs of others in the first place.
“This is the paradox of the Gospel: we are free when we serve, out of love. That’s where freedom comes from. We fulfill ourselves to the extent we have the courage to give of ourselves. We possess life if we lose it (cf. Mk 8:35). This is pure Gospel.” (Pope Francis)
You tell me good things about Father Rey. I am glad to hear that, but do not lose sight of the fact that he must be helped through particular care and supervision. Insist that he devote himself to the composition of his sermons. Require that each day he consecrate at least a few hours to his work. He would readily be content with that unprepared speech which so compromises the Lord’s work…
The Missionaries were founded to be preachers of the Gospel, and for this reason Eugene insisted on adequate sermon preparation and was intolerant of anything below standard. Writing to Father Dassy, who was the superior of a group of young Oblates, he stresses this point.
Do not allow them to entertain the destructive principle that we must preach spontaneously; that is allowable to a man of talent and experience like our good Father Hermitte, but the exception must not be the rule. Have Father Pulicani also work in the same. The juniors must not take up all his time, he should reserve part of it to write out his instructions. What I have said against the abundance system also applies to Father Chauliac; be merciless on this point. Let them be alerted in time, and let them prepare.
Letter to Father Louis Dassy, in France, 14 August 1847, EO X n 937
REFLECTION
How important our ministry of preaching is, and what a responsibility we have to our people to give them of our best! As important as the preparation of a text is, Eugene always stressed that what is paramount is our preaching through the witness of the quality of our lives. Through our baptism, all of us members of the Mazenodian Family (and not just the priests and brothers) are evangelizers in action and example.
“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” (Francis of Assisi)
