TRULY, IT’S ENOUGH TO WEEP WITH JOY TO HAVE MEN OF THIS CALIBRE IN OUR CONGREGATION
Eugene had always regarded himself as the father of his missionary family. He was the Founder, and Superior General whose role was more than administrative. It was to maintain the family bonds and spirit. Eugene was the father who loved every one of his missionary sons and who rejoiced in their mutual relationship. This evident in his diary entry:
September 24: Ordination of our three deacons: Bernard, Gaudet, Keating . I ordained them deacons on Saturday 18th, and made them priests today. Oh, how worthy of this privilege these three religious have shown themselves, one ready to leave for the island of Ceylon, the other two for Canada, with sentiments truly worthy of their vocation. I don’t know which of the three to admire most.
Father Keating is colder and more timid, but Fathers Bernard and Gaudet expressed to me the deepest feelings of their hearts with a truly filial affection and commitment, and I certainly did not remain insensitive to these touching testimonies of their affection. Never has a son, parting from his father, shown him more love. Father Gaudet is leaving tomorrow. He wanted to leave me a written record of his feelings… He had already written me a perfect letter to express his desire not to be forgotten in the choice I was to make of subjects for Canada, for this country infested by typhus which, with everyone’s knowledge, has already taken more than twelve priests and affected four of our own. Today it’s to thank me for answering his prayer.
Truly, it’s enough to weep with joy to have men of this calibre in our congregation.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 24 September 1847, EO XXI
REFLECTION
“God’s love for all. I am saying that it is this sentiment, which I know comes from Him who is the source of all charity, which has evoked in the hearts of my children this reciprocity of love which forms the distinctive character of our beloved family.” (Eugene de Mazenod to Fr. Mouchette, 2 December 1854, EO XI n 1256)
This entry was posted in
WRITINGS. Bookmark the
permalink.
Talk about being a witness to love! I find myself sitting here with tears running down my face as I keep returning to Eugene’s sharing about the words Father Gaudet wrote to him not once but twice to express his love for Eugene in his life: “Today it’s to thank me for answering his prayer.”
In a world where we have learned to guard our hearts and choose carefully the words describing the love we are hesitant to reveal for others lest we be judged or misunderstood… We are being invited to look deeply and honestly at this love kissed into us by God before we were conceived. It is about a love that never stops flowing through us. This is not bounded only to our blood families but to all whom God has created.
We cannot ignore the love that Eugene speaks of in his letter to Fr. Mouchette: it is a love that is reciprocal which we take in and then share with all who we meet and then share with all others no matter our cultures, faiths known and unkown. and lived out in a spirit of reciprocity with the rest of the world.
It is about more than just loving those who think and look like us, but about all who have been and will be created. It becomes too easy just to pray for those we know well and like and so we are asked to die to ourselves in order to love all others.
This is an invitation to all members of this Mazenodian/Oblate family to love, in the manner that we are loved.