JOIN TOGETHER ALL OF YOU TO ERADICATE THIS DETESTABLE VICE WHICH HAS CAUSED SO MUCH TROUBLE AMONGST YOU

Posted on February 7, 2022 by franksantucci

The group of Missionaries in Canada had become victims of criticism and negative judgement within the community and gossip outside. Eugene denounces how this bad example had affected vocations to join the community.

Join together all of you to eradicate this detestable vice which has caused so much trouble amongst you and of which the newcomers have felt the deadly effects by the influence of bad example.

If vocations have not increased, attribute it solely to that. I am surprised that a single one of those who first presented themselves has persevered. I regard that as miraculous, but they will be affected for a long time by the bad air which they have breathed.

It is not only the superior they must respect; they must also have mutual respect for each other and never permit the least unfavourable remark about anyone. Otherwise they come to look down on one another. He who wants to give proof of shrewdness and make himself judge and severely censure his brother is judged in turn with little consideration and so it is by lack of charity that they become despicable one after the other to the great scandal of everyone, both inside and outside.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat, 18 July 1844, EO I n 43

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1 Response to JOIN TOGETHER ALL OF YOU TO ERADICATE THIS DETESTABLE VICE WHICH HAS CAUSED SO MUCH TROUBLE AMONGST YOU

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:
    February 7, 2022 at 11:59

    One of the things that I have noticed about members of some communities is that there is a sense of joy about them; joy that is almost palpable. And when I am a witness to that joy I tell God “this is what I am looking for, this is what I want to be a part of.”

    We don’t always realise how our behaviour affects others, how our words and actions can actually push others away, rather than drawing them in. Do I exude joy or disdain towards my brothers and sisters?

    I keep thinking of what is happening here in Canada, in the city that I live in and where a part of our city has become “occupied.” “…they must also have mutual respect for each other […] and so it is by lack of charity that they become despicable one after the other to the great scandal of everyone…” I am sure that the protestors, did not start out to hurt people in this city, did not start out to take away their rights and erode their freedom. And yet that is what has happened.

    Eugene’s words remind me of the truth of how I am called to live and be. I think of how many of us are fearfully thinking of it in terms of insurrection, rioting, and tumult because there is a violence at the heart of the movement. I find myself longing for order and rule.

    Order and rule, and I think of Eugene’s request for ‘regularity’ among his family. And just as this letter is a call for his sons to return to a particular regularity amongst themselves, his words also speak to me about how I might also return to regularity in my life and become a model and a light to others which invites and draws them in to a particular way of living.

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