We are a missionary Congregation. Our principal service in the Church is to proclaim Christ and his Kingdom to the most abandoned. (Constitution 5)
This says it all: it is the desired goal of every Oblate ministry. The test of authenticity and fidelity to our God-given charism is this question: does the witness of my lifestyle and does my activity proclaim Christ and his Kingdom to the most abandoned? Do people see that my life would make no sense if Jesus Christ and his Kingdom were not a part of it?
Constitution 5 reflects Eugene’s conviction about our vocation:
Will we ever have an adequate understanding of this sublime vocation! For that one would have to understand the excellence of our Institute’s end, beyond argument the most perfect one could propose to oneself in this world, since the end of our Institute is the self-same end that the Son of God had in mind when he came down to earth. The glory of his heavenly Father and the salvation of souls. […] He was especially sent to evangelize the poor: Evangelizare pauperibus misit me. And we have been founded precisely to work for the conversion of souls and especially to evangelize the poor
Retreat of October 1831, EO XV n 163
Pope Francis reminds us that it is through an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see the face of Jesus. Consequently, it is our witness and our words that enable the most abandoned to see the face of Jesus.
“…an unbroken chain of witnesses that we come to see the face of Jesus.” Might I be a part of that unbroken chain in the lives of others? I allow myself to recognize how I am in the life of other, to recognise God within me and the grace of love that God has lavished upon me. Tears of gratitude and joy well up in the same moment. For I see not only all those who love me, but those that I love. There is something very profound about being a witness to God! I could never have recognized this on my own…
Last Easter I had the joy of becoming a God Mother and Sponsor all in the same breath and this Easter it will happen again and will receive a God Daughter, a young woman in whom I have seen the face of Jesus on the cross and who has seen in me what it is to be a witness to Jesus, to love… What a joy and a privilege it is to be a part of the life of those who turn to God, who meet the eyes of Jesus in me and in others within my parish community and the community of the Oblate Charismatic Family.
I look at the image for the 37th General Chapter of Pilgrims of Hope in Communion: of finding myself in the midst of others with whom I walk, and how I see in each of them the face of Jesus, the Beloved, our Beloved.
This is to catch a glimpse of heaven, which I am unable to imagine let alone see. All of because I join with you as we journey together…