THE GOOD LORD DID NOT GIVE YOU YOUR TALENTS FOR YOUR OWN USE ONLY
Father Hippolyte Courtès was one of the first Oblates and Eugene had much confidence in him and in his preaching abilities. For this reason, he sent some of the young Oblates to live in his community in Aix en Provence so as to benefit from his talents and experience.
Father Rey is part of your community. I recommend that you hold him to working at his desk; demand absolutely that he compose, that he write out his instructions, and that you be the one responsible for examining and correcting what he writes.
The Good Lord did not give you your talents for your own use only; but in calling you to the Congregation, he wished you to use these talents for the good of the whole family, and especially for those whom I place, while they are young, close to you so that they may be formed in your school…
I do not claim that you will finally make a great orator of Father Rey; others may have been more gifted and might have profited more from your help, but it is always important to have him produce all he can.
Letter to Fr Hippolyte Courtès, 5 November 1844, EO X n 861
We are reminded of the Gospel parable of the talents and of Paul’s image of the body with its many parts in I Corinthians 12: God gives us talents to be used for the benefit of others. In the case of each member of the Mazenodian Family, it is an invitation to a greater generosity in sharing our knowledge and love of the Savior in our daily lives.
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I think for a moment of the various people I have met in my lifetime, the many who God has introduced me to throughout my life. And while there were some who treated me with disdain as if I was below them, there were others who “shared” themselves with me, who shared their experience of God with me. Some of them went further in that they searched for ways to help me learn and discover the gifts that God had bestowed upon me so that I might turn around and share them with others.
I recognize how I myself have been formed in their schools… I am reminded of the Japanese art of Kintsugi – the art of repairing something broken with gold or silver so that it is seen as beautiful when it is used again. I am like a broken piece of pottery that has been mended with the most precious gift of all – love. Not so I could sit and adorn a shelf but to be of use to others, to be able to share myself.
Eugene shared the most beautiful and precious gift that he was, that he received from God, his charism. He shared it in service to God, to the Church, to his congregation, to the poor and abandoned.
“…others may have been more gifted and might have profited more from your help, but it is always important to have him produce all he can.” This is why I come here every morning – because Eugene and his sons and daughters are helping me to produce all that I can. And in turn I share it with all who I meet, especially those in most need of it.