Father Mille and a team of Oblates were preaching a parish mission in the village of Malijai. Few people attended their ceremonies, and they were deeply discouraged.
My dear friends, I share the pain brought to you by the indifference of the people whom you are evangelising. I do not, however, approve the discouragement into which I understand you have fallen, you who are accustomed to be the instruments of God’s mercy.
They wanted to abort the mission and move on. Eugene gave them encouragement by reminding them that they were there as God’s instruments and not as independent workers.
You have lost sight of the fact that you can at times be like the Master who has sent you, witnesses to his justice. … Thus, far from dwelling on the thought of withdrawing as though you had been conquered, it is necessary that you stay there to accomplish your work. It is perhaps in this case a sentence of rejection which can be promulgated only after the normal course of your exercises; even in such a case you will have been God’s ambassadors who have fulfilled their mission faithfully.
Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 13 December 1840, EO IX n 720
Interesting how Eugene spoke to their seeming despair and wanting to leave that village; Eugene spoke not about a failure to connect with the people but rather reminded them how they were and should be accustomed to the ways of being “the instruments of God’s mercy”. They were a team, representing God and not as Frank mentions a group of “independent workers”.
I think for a moment of married couples who have been raising their children only to realise that one of the children in particular seems to be unable to follow in his or her sibling’s footsteps and who feels alienated and alone at times. “Hang in there” they are reminded: it may well be their own parents who encourage them by reminding them that they have done nothing wrong and that they can only give their best and leave the rest to God – instruments of God’s mercy.
Most if not all of us have experienced feelings of failure because we have been less than perfect and so unable to attain that which we were sent out to do and be. I think of Blessed Joseph Gerard and our own Fr. Albert Lacombe who felt as if they were failing at what they had been sent to do – at how they wanted to share their experiences of God for these were their most prized possessions that they had to give.
I am in a place of minor leadership and it never fails to bother me that I am unable to excite all, unable to attract all to the way of being that I am sharing with my Oblate Associate brothers and sisters. I know that I am touching and nourishing a few but not all. I am given the grace to persevere even as God sends others as his instruments of consolation and support as I try to give it my imperfect best.
Thank you Lord for sending me. St. Eugene pray for me – pray for us.