During Eugene’s absence from Aix, community and apostolic life continued as normal in the house of the Missionaries. There were the everyday preaching and sacramental activities of the Church of the Mission, the Youth Congregation met two days of the week, the novices continued their formation activities and studies, and preparations for the next parish mission were under way. In this letter there is a reference to the mission in Arles, preached in cooperation with the Missionaries of France from 2 November until mid-December.
Writing to the young Hippolyte Courtès, he refers to the persecution that they are undergoing and recommends Paul’s advice in Romans 12:21, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”.
The missionaries who are going to Arles will bring you, my dear friend, this tardy response to the letter which you had the goodness to write to me on August 29th…
Continue, my dear child, to give the good example of regularity, of modesty, of obedience and of all the religious virtues. It is only by such means that we will be able to overcome the efforts of the enemy of all good; we will be invincible as long as we are virtuous. So be it ever increasingly, that is the best reply that we can make to those who do us evil; also pray for them; give them in all circumstances good for evil.
Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 22 October 1817, O.W. VI n.27
Eugene is referring to the words of Jesus, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28). I find the light shed on these words by Dostoevsky in keeping with the spirit of what Eugene writes to the young novice:
Brothers, love is a teacher, but one must know how to acquire it, for it is hard to acquire; it is dearly bought; it is won by slow, long labour…
“The Brothers Karamazov”