While everyone had assured Eugene that there was no chance of getting more than a recognition of praise for the Oblates from the Pope, the unbelievable had happened! In his Diary he recorded:
I went to see the archpriest, Monsignor Adinolfi, very early this morning. His account of what took place during his audience with the Pope last night redoubled my gratitude and love for this holy Pontiff who, in giving me new signs of his protection for a work that eminently interests religion, proves how dear it is to him and how worthy he is to be its head.
Roman Diary, 24 December 1825, EO XVII
To Henri Tempier and the Oblates, he showed his emotion:
Have you understood, dear friend, and may all of our dear Brothers grasp, the worth of this word uttered by the mouth of the Head of the Church of Jesus Christ!
After I had submitted to his judgment the fundamental points of our Rules, after he had reflected two days on all my words, contrary to the recommendations of the one who made the report on this affair, it is then that he said: “No, I like this Institute, I wish to approve its Rules.” Favorable as teacher and judge, he wishes also to be a father: “Choose the mildest of the Cardinals of the Congregation … !”
I could not hold back my tears, so touched was my heart by this goodness.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 22 December 1825, EO VI n 213
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie
I have sat here this morning with a mixture of responses, none of them being particularly “holy” or “inspired” or even all that ‘good’. I found myself readily understanding Eugene’s ‘insistence’ that Henri and the other Oblates recognize what God is doing in all of this, how God is working through the Pope. Eugene who is himself a father to the Oblates is experiencing the pope as his Holy Father in a very real way. He wants to share that and make sure that everyone understands this. I think this is for Eugene a particular time of grace and he can only give thanks to God for that. I think of Nelson Mandela this morning and what a great man he was. I never met him and know only that which I read in the newspapers and see on TV, have heard about from other people. But in all of that there is an experience inside me, in my heart of him being a very good and great man, a man of great courage, great strength and an very great heart. I don’t know that I am able to make any sense of it, but I do give thanks to God for Mandela, for he helped change the world, just as did others (look at Eugene). To give thanks is about all that I can do.
This morning I have found it difficult to stay focused and I realise I am a little tired. I know and admit that I have found myself wanting for Frank to move on, get to the ‘good stuff’. I am not bored but in a way I am not “feeling” anything. I am also aware that God continues to move in me but in a way that is deep and hidden – at least from my eyes. As I have been thinking these very thoughts it has come to me that I am wanting ‘to be stroked’, that I want to ‘feel’ God in all of this somehow. I realise that I am experiencing Advent somehow, waiting, hoping. It’s more than just words being said to me, or even by me. And as I write this I look and find some measure of meaning in Eugene and what he was experiencing – also in the time of Advent. I can think only how real this is in my everyday life and not just some words to think of on Sunday at church. The thought comes that we are not just an Easter people, we are also an Advent people. Not what I expected this morning but I shall thank God.