The Oblate choice can be seen in an incident at the beginning of a mission in a village in the Diocese of Digne. On arriving at the rectory they were presented with their letter of faculties from the Bishop, in which they were specifically excluded from absolving “the drunkards, the dancers, the couples living in sin, those who lent money for interest, who are generally known as usurers.”
Father Guibert’s reaction to the parish priest is narrated thus:
“please have our horses saddled, M. Pastor as we are leaving; it is impossible for us to give a mission under these conditions; we have not come to your parish to listen to and absolve the devout; we are departing because they refuse us access to the sinners.”
J. PAGUELLE DE FOLLENAY, Vie du Cardinal Guibert Archevêque de Paris,
I, p. 226-227
It ended happily on this occasion where the parish priest rode through the night to the diocesan offices to have things changed, and they were able to receive the required permission from a Vicar General.
Here one can recognize echoes of the approach of the young Eugene to the most abandoned in his own ministry in Aix. This was the very class of people that Jesus himself was criticised for ministering to. Here was the concrete response of the Oblates to the most abandoned who were not being touched by the structures of the Church.
Thank you so very much Frank for bringing to light these letters.
This incident ought to remind us that we are religious, belonging the de Mazenod family and not to the diocesan structures.
As I ponder this, I think of the many Oblates through out the world who have openly confronted the local church so to live faithfully the Oblate Charism and the C&R. A call to welcome all around the table of presence and reconciliation, a call to speak out for peace often against the government and military, and a call to live consciously in the environment by a simple lifestyle and community action.
May the spirit of Fr. Gilbert inspire us today to be true to our call.
May
Frank: Thanks for another simple, clear reminder of the radicality of Eugene’s call to those left out by ordinary church ministry. As we live this time after the 35th General Chapter, and as we in the US discern new leadership, may we each open our hearts to hear this radical call once again, even in a new key! Thanks, Frank, for your ministry among us.
I think this reminds all of us to be true to God’s call to each of us and to not settle for anything less than where He would have us go. There may be many, even those in authority, who will try to tell us what God would have us do. I don’t think that Eugene ever took the “easy way out” – it was in fact, the “radical call” mentioned by Patrick that Eugene lived and passed on to us.
I thought the Nov 15th entry on packing the horses, because of restrictions on who the Missionaries could preach to, absolve, mission to was a 5 star quote. If this doesn’t give the Oblate community a sense of who we minister to, nothing does!
Precision on an earlier post…
I think in North America, and Western Europe where vocations are at a premium, the call to the poor in spirit is where the future will lie, viz., “the drunkards, the dancers, the couples living in sin, those who lent money for interest, who are generally known as usurers.” We could add many others!
Thanks Frank for mining these remarkable seminal instincts of our “early Oblate church”. Paul in Toronto