THEY OFFERED THEIR MINISTRY TO THE WOUNDED OF WHOM MOST UNFORTUNATELY HAVE DIED
The good Lord has preserved us in the midst of a real danger, and many of our Fathers have nobly accomplished the duty of charity that circumstances imposed on them: they offered their ministry to the wounded of whom most unfortunately have died. Today we had a solemn service for all the National Guardsmen who were victims of this ambush.
Letter to Fr Vincens at l’Osier, 1 July 1848, EO X n 981
Bishop Eugene wrote in his diary:
The ceremony was very imposing.
He had been dissuaded from acting as mediator in the riots in Marseilles, but his friend Archbishop Denis Affre (nephew of one of Eugene’s former teachers at St Sulpice) had tried to mediate in Paris
Alas! my spirit was so very preoccupied. The death of the archbishop of Paris, concerning which we received the definite news this morning, filled my soul with grief at the same time that I was deploring the loss of these good people fallen under the blows of the rioters.
I consider the death of the archbishop of Paris as a great misfortune for the Church in the current situation.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 1 July 1848, EO XXI
Hubenig explains:
Cardinal Denis Auguste Affre, the Archbishop of Paris, tried to make peace between the army and the workers behind the barricades in the Faubourg St-Antoine and fell victim himself to the carnage. If anyone among the hierarchy of France understood the emerging social order, if anyone saw that the problem was unjustifiable destitution and not simply destitution, it was Affre. While still just a priest he had already written prophetic articles about justice that made clear distinctions about the root causes of poverty. As the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, he, more than any of his episcopal colleagues, could verify that his perspectives were true.
(Living in the Spirit’s Fire page 166).
REFLECTION
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:3)
An invitation to go out of our way to meet the needs of others – to give up something of ourselves, our resources and talents to respond to those in need.
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I think of the Oblates living in the Calvaire who also tended to those who had been injured and lay dying along with those already dead of this latest revolutionary violence. Archbishop Affre himself was among the dead in Paris.
Fast forward to the present day where entire peoples continue to be attacked and killed, where millions live in refugee camps and while millions are forced to beg, along side of those who are starving and without care. I live in a city where homelessness leads to small areas of tents, alongside of those who are left to sleep over train and subway vents. There is no safety there espeiclaly for those who suffer from mental and emotional illness. We see their anger and refuse to look at its cause. I do not know much about world economics, but it easy to see why they no longer feel
“human, Christian or holy”. So many only continue to suffer as they see others who look away from them, who cross the street so as to not have to see or recognize their pain.
We cannot change the world by looking the other way: we must let go of any lens’s that do allow our heart to see any others who might be different from us.
That is our vocation, which is my vocation: to step up to each person, one at a time or in groups. That is why we invite them to come and see who they are in the eyes of God. That is how we recognise our crucified Saviour in all who we meet, according to God’s call to each of us…
Our call, to live Christ Jesus, in apostolic community. To live Christ Jesus crucified, among the most abandoned…