I am sorry, without doubt, my dear brother, that you have so little consolation at Rognac but as I am certain that your merit in the eyes of God is only the greater for that, I cannot feel too bad about it.
It is not we who chose the place and the time. It was the business of the good God. He views things better than we. So do not be disquieted any more and, when you come back, do not yield too much to your displeasure. Be very prudent in your descriptions.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 27 November 1819, O.W. VI n.49
Henri Tempier’s evaluation:
I want you to know that we have not been entirely deprived of consolation. There are a good number of people who will profit from the mission, some even as old as forty or fifty years whom nothing has been able to budge until now. The other day two “young people” like this came to Father Mye and told him quite definitely that between the two of them it had been eighty years since they had seen a priest.
Letter from Henri Tempier to Eugene de Mazenod, 2 December 1819,
Oblate Writings II.2, n. 21
It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them. Dalai Lama
Sometimes it is hard to see what is staring you in the face! Or more accurately, what is staring me in the face. At first in reading this all I could see was Henri Tempier talking about some people ‘even as old as forty or fifty years’! And laughing because he would think me ancient at being over 60. And remembering that this was written not quite 200 years ago. But the rest of it – how could/would this look in my lived experience today?
I keep rereading the 2nd paragraph from Eugene’s letter to Henri: “It is not we who chose the place and the time. It was the business of the good God. He views things better than we.” Sometimes I want to give in to the temptation to dwell on questions such as “why did it take me so long to learn this” or “why did God wait so long before showing me such-and-such” or “why did God put me here doing this that I do now?” which really is such a waste of time. I can remember when I sobered up in AA (33 years ago last Sunday) a doctor asked me if I would like to know why I had become an Alcoholic. My response to him was no – what difference would my knowing make – I would still be an alcoholic. “Who can know the mind of God?” Instead a little attitude adjustment might help how I view something or go about doing or being. I amy never know who I will touch, or how I might touch them. I can so very much relate to Henri Tempier’s being where he was and how he was affected. And to his giving himself a shake and moving on with his evaluation, well it sounds like someone I know really well.
What we waters grows.
That is what Eugene I think was telling the brothers.
If you complain and find fault in place/people/time that is what you will see.
So if you water, water beauty, love, friendship, gratitude and appreciation, if we do, our lives will overflow with JOY.