Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

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!)

The call of Jesus Christ… (Constitution 1)

These opening words of the OMI Rule of Life evoke a smiling Jesus looking at people and inviting them to share in the source of his serenity and joy: to be pilgrims of joy in communion with him and with one another.

This is the Good News that Jesus came to proclaim to the poor – that which the angel had announced: “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). Jesus repeated this to those whom he had called: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11).

The night before his death he repeated to his disciples, “Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:22). Then, he included all of us whom he called: “I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely” (John 17:13).

The call of Jesus Christ to share in God’s joy was the happiness for which Eugene had been searching:

I looked for happiness outside of God and for too long with resulting unhappiness.

It all came together for him as he experienced God’s love for him on the Cross. He heard the call of Jesus Christ and responded:

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. (Retreat Journal, December 1814 EO XV n 130)

This awareness  is the first step of living the charism of the Oblate Charismatic Family. Let’s pause for a while to recall the many moments when we became aware that Jesus was smiling at us – and we responded to this “call of Jesus Christ” in our daily life.

“Come, let us sing to the Lord and shout with joy to the Rock who saves us” (Psalm 95:1)

In preparation for next year’s two hundredth anniversary of the pontifical approbation of our Rule and official recognition of our charism, join St Eugene (and me) in spending some time exploring he Rule and its contents.

“St Eugene speaks” to us through the Rule of Life, and so we invite him to join our pilgrimage in communion, as instruments of hope.

Our current Constitutions and Rules begin with a Foreword. Today, with our awareness that the Oblate charism is lived by many different vocations, we can adapt the vocabulary of its message (but not the underlying charism) to our own way of life.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, when the appointed time came, was sent by the Father and filled with the Spirit “to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour” (Lk 4: 18.19). He called men to become disciples and share in his mission; in the Church, he continues to call others to follow him.
 
Saint Eugene de Mazenod heard that call. Burning with love for Jesus and his Church, he suffered deeply on seeing how God’s people were abandoned. He chose to become “the servant and priest of the poor” and to give his life wholly to them.
 
Faced with an overwhelming task, he gathered a few priests around him, men who shared his impassioned zeal for the most abandoned… “Live together as brothers,” he urged them; “Strive to imitate the virtues and example of our Saviour Jesus Christ principally through preaching the Word of God to the poor.”

At his persuading, they committed themselves permanently to the preaching of missions, binding themselves by religious vows. Soon afterwards, he decided to receive Brothers as true sons of the family. Thus began the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary.  (CCRR Foreword)

Each of us is a true son or daughter of Eugene’s family. Let’s take some time to reflect on these words and let them make a difference to our daily life…

Eugene’s pilgrimage of relationship with Jesus is mirrored in our present Rule:

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. Constitution 59)

As members of the Oblate Charismatic Family, we can make these words our own: “having experienced the Father’s love in Jesus, each of us is impelled to making that love visible. We entrust our fidelity to the one whose cross we share, whose promises are our hope.”

Page-by-page the Oblate Rule guides us on our pilgrim way of love and hope.

When Eugene contemplated his religious family, he recalled his own vocation. He had experienced the Crucified Christ as his Savior and understood that he was being called to be His co-worker: to journey with others in their search for meaning and happiness.

In the first Rule of his Missionary Family, he defined us in this way:

They are called to be the Savior’s co-workers, the co-redeemers of mankind.

(1818 Rule)

That is quite a “job description!” On the day of our baptism each of us was “claimed by Christ the Savior.” As Christians it is part of our DNA to be the co-workers of the One we belong to. In our everyday lives we are invited to see in every person and event, the invitation to be the co-workers of the Savior. We are not called to heroics, but to realize that in a simple smile, a helping hand, a word of encouragement or apology we are co-workers.

St Teresa of Avila understood this when she wrote:

“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world…” 

As we will discover, while we explore the book of the Constitutions and Rules, that it is our manual of how to achieve this ideal.

Can I ever forget the sight of the Cross on that Good Friday?

St Eugene de Mazenod

At the sight of the Cross Eugene understood that he was poor and needed the Savior. His years of “searching for happiness” finally found their meaning and their goal. The rest of his long and eventful life hinged on the sight of the cross and on working to bring everyone to its same saving vision.

The Oblate Rule becomes a teacher that leads of every member of our Charismatic Family to embrace the Cross and the salvation it offers. Whoever embraces it, automatically embraces the Savior. We wear it proudly and it spurs us to be transformed into this sign and means of salvation for others.

Every time I look at my Oblate Cross I am reminded of the statue of Jesus, whose arms were blown off in war and never replaced, and that has a plaque with the message: “I have no arms but yours.”

Eugene’s life changed at the foot of the Cross when he realized that he was poor and needed the Savior. He then became aware of the poverty of people in France, and later throughout the world, because they did not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and companion on life’s journey. For this reason God called him to become a priest, and later to invite others to join him in what was to become his Oblate Family.

The very first article of his very first Rule (1818) reflects Eugene’s pilgrim journey:

The purpose of the Institute of the Missionaries of Provence

is first of all to form a group of priests who live together

and who 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

It is in imitating our Savior Jesus Christ in his preaching the Gospel to the poor that we find the reason for the existence of our Oblate Charismatic Family. Each of us, in his or her own specific way, is called to share our experience of the Savior’s presence in the poverty of our hearts.

Through the witness of our lives we are “preachers” of the good News to those who need Him.

In 1826 the Church officially recognized that in our Constitutions and Rules we find the means of doing this.

When Jesus began his public ministry, he announced: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring the Good News to the poor” (Luke 4, 18)

One Good Friday when the young and directionless Eugene looked at the Cross, he realized that he was poor, he was a sinner who had wandered away from God:

I looked for happiness outside of God and for too long with resulting unhappiness.
How often in my past life had my wounded, tormented heart taken wings for God from whom it had turned away!

…Can I forget the bitter tears that the sight of the cross brought streaming from my eyes one Good Friday? … they welled up from the heart, there was no checking them, they were too abundant I was in a state of mortal sin and it was precisely this that made me grieve.

He realized that he was poor and that Jesus had brought him the good news of salvation:

Blessed, a thousand times blessed, that he, this good Father, notwithstanding my unworthiness, lavished on me all the richness of his mercy.

Retreat Journal, December 1814, EO XV n.130

He founded the missionary Oblates in 1816 because he understood what it meant to be poor and in need of salvation, and wanted to bring the Good News to the poor who did not know God’s mercy and love.

We can thus say that our Oblate Rule is a shrine that preserves this ideal and helps us to live it as redeemed sinners: we recognize our poverty and allow ourselves to be transformed by God’s love and mercy.