Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.
John 20:18
As a result of the French Revolution the people of the countryside of France were locked in their ignorance of their faith. Eugene de Mazenod had recognized the presence of the Risen Jesus in his life, and he dedicated his life to proclaiming “I have seen the Lord!” to those who were the most needy of coming to know the Risen Lord.
Inviting others to enter into his life of proclamation, he founded the Missionary Oblates, and insisted that their time be divided between “seeing the Lord” in prayer, reading and reflection and the proclamation, “I have seen the Lord!” whom they had encountered in this way:
The Missionaries will divide their group in such a way that while some strive in community to acquire the virtues and knowledge proper to a good missionary, others are travelling in the rural areas proclaiming the Word of God.
When their apostolic journeys are over, they will return to the community to rest from their labours by exercising a ministry that is less demanding
Request to the Capitular Vicars of Aix, 25 January 1816, EO XIII n.2
In these days, let us use this time in a similar way so that each day we too can proclaim “I have seen the Lord! He is risen and alive for me!”
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Matthew 28: 10
The Risen Jesus tells the disciples to go back to Galilee: “They will see me there.” Galilee is where it all began for the disciples, it was the place where they met Jesus, and he entered into their lives.
Today, the Risen Lord tells each of us: “Go back to Galilee – go back to that time when you realized that I was present in your life.”
The Risen Jesus is inviting us to enter into the Galilee of our hearts and lives.
Saint Eugene frequently did this, and he called it recollection. He wanted all those who followed his way of discipleship to do the same, as he wrote in his Rule of 1818:
The whole life of the members of our Society ought to be a life of continual recollection (Art. 1).
To attain this, they will first of all make every effort to walk always in the presence of God, and frequently try to utter short but fervent spontaneous prayers. (Art.2,)
Eugene and Jesus shared a deep bond of friendship – and a friend always wants to be in the presence of a loved one. His days are filled with moments of recollection – of short bursts of prayer and expressions of love.
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
In her, we recognize the model of the Church’s faith and of our own.
We shall always look on her as our mother.
In the joys and sorrows of our missionary life, we feel close to her who is the Mother of Mercy.
OMI Rule of Life, CC&RR Constitution 10
In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Hebrews 5:7-9
In particular today I recall St. Eugene’s words to Father Jacques Jourdan, aged 25, and the first Oblate to die. He was suffering from deep depression and darkness:
Courage, my dear friend. Very great saints have been tried like you, but they became saints in spite of these circumstances because they did not cease to obey; courage, once more, my dear friend, we are all down on the floor praying for you so that you will bear this hard trial like a valiant soldier of Jesus Christ. This so amiable Master, our model, did not yield to despair in the garden of Olives; into what an agony he was plunged nevertheless! Hold on to him and fear nothing, drink the cup of his bitterness since he allows to let you share in his passion, but do not doubt that he will soon fill you with his sweetest joys. Until then you must keep your peace and obey…
At the moment of communion, tell him lovingly about all your sorrows: “O Lord I am oppressed be my security!” [Is. 38, 14].Embrace his feet in spirit, protest that you will never separate yourself from him, that you wish to love him for ever, then take him into your heart and be not troubled about anything.
Letter to Jacques Antoine Jourdan, 30 March 1823
“I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
John 13:15
For Saint Eugene, Holy Thursday marked two important events: his first communion and his private vow of saying “yes” to God on this night when Christians keep watch with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus said “yes”.
This is how Eugene and his closest Oblate companion, Henri Tempier, spent that night in 1816:
Briefly put. Father Tempier and I felt that we should not delay any longer, and on Holy Thursday (April 11, 1816), when both of us had taken our place under the structure of the beautiful repository we had erected over the main altar of the Mission church, in the night of that holy day, we pronounced our vows with an indescribable joy. We enjoyed our happiness throughout this beautiful night, in the presence of Our Lord.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Memoires, Rambert I, p. 187
“My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered, and prepared the Passover.
Mt 26: 18-19
As I read St. Eugene’s writings, I constantly hear echoes of his Good Friday experience of his fragility and his awareness of God’s healing love. It was a conviction that never left him and that was at the basis of all his ministry: to lead others to his same experience.
St Eugene knew darkness and seeming-hopelessness many times in his life. Yet he recognized that in these dark moments, his Savior was present, and he attests to this in constantly in his writings. Just one example:
In the end, though with sadness, I go my way, placing my trust in God alone. Let us love him always more.
Letter to Father Forbin Janson, 12 September 1814
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.”
Jn 13:36
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; but for me it would have been a greater value to have died of the blessed typhus which I had contracted while serving prisoners.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 12 September 1849, E.O. X n.1018
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Jn 12:3
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
The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
Matthew 21:9
Every day is good for sharing in the humiliation of the Cross we must carry daily as we follow in the Savior’s footsteps.
Diary 31 March 1839, EO XX
REFLECTION
Enlighten our hearts, Lord, that we may follow you along the way of the cross. Put to death in us the “old man” bound by selfishness, evil and sin. Make us “new men”, men and women of holiness, transformed and enlivened by your love.
(Pope Benedict XVI)
