Homily at the end of the Chapter
Rome, September 27, 2004

1) Give witness to hope - a call, our mission, it is the theme of the General Chapter of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate that will come to an end in one more day. Give witness to hope - our hope is Christ. A call - we are first of all disciples of this Christ. Our mission - being disciples, we become missionaries.

2) Everything depends on our vital relationship with Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing. But how can we gain access to his person? How can we make of Christ the center of our personal lives, the soul of the renewal of the Congregation, the vital source of our missionary activity?

3) During the Chapter we have identified some of the obstacles that impede our access to Christ. They are obstacles that exist both in the world around us and within ourselves.

a) There are economic systems that insult the poor, the sacrament of Christ, and we as religious can also be part of this. There are instances of ethnic pride that separate us from persons we should consider brothers, and this can exist even in the Congregation. In a secularized world we can have the impression that, without reference to God, one can live very well, even in convents.

b) The prophet of Nazareth, in today’s Gospel, upon whom the Spirit of God descends, is greater than these obstacles. But how can our eyes be opened to see in this simple itinerant preacher from a distant time the Anointed One of God, the one and immense hope of all peoples? Who can make us feel all the depth of the Church, his Body, which continues his work, that continues to be realized today?

4) We need signs and persons who open the way for us. Let me mention some of the signs that speak to us as Oblates.

At the beginning of the Chapter, the participants made a pilgrimage to Santa María in Campitelli, a place which reminds us of the approval of our Rule of life. Almost at the end of our assembly, here we are in pilgrimage again, having walked to this chapel, a true sanctuary of the Oblates. There are a number of visible signs here that can open our eyes and our heart, that can bring us to see Christ, the Anointed by the Spirit, with the eyes of a disciple and bring us to proclaim Him with the ardor of the first witnesses of his resurrection.

a) First of all in this chapel we find the memory of the saints of our Congregation. In the chapel at the left of the entrance, the heart of Saint Eugene, our Founder, is preserved. Then we have in the rear nave on the right, a painted portrait of Blessed Joseph Gérard, apostle of the Basuto, and, on the opposite side another portrait of Blessed Joseph Cebula, martyr of the priesthood. There is also a stone from the concentration camp of Mauthausen where he died.

b) Then to the right of the entrance is conserved an old altar, brought from Aix-en Provence. We might say that it was at this altar that our name “Oblates” took its origin. At that very altar Saint Eugene de Mazenod and Fr. Francis de Paula Tempier made their first vows, in Aix, on Holy Thursday in the year 1816 at the beginning of the Easter celebrations.

What do these signs tell us? They tell us that we cannot gain access to Christ by means of a simple effort of the mind, a theoretical conviction. Something more is needed. What is needed is a totally new birth, the participation in his pascal sacrifice on the cross, in other words: the oblation, which is the total gift of my person even unto martyrdom. Our hope must pass through the crucible of death with Christ; only in this way can our hope become immense and have the power even to resurrect the dead.

c) The third and last sign in this chapel that I will mention is the statue that we have before us in a very prominent place, the woman with the crown of twelve stars over her head the moon below her feet. The statue was brought from Aix, as was the altar of the first oblation. According to an oral tradition, on the 15th of August of 1822, this statue gave a tangible sign to Saint Eugene that his small congregation was pleasing to the eyes of God.

Mary is the most direct path to gain access to Jesus. She is the perfect disciple, the Immaculate. We recall this in a special way this year because it was exactly a century and a half ago, the 8th of December, 1854, the Church recognized the privilege of her totally pure holiness. Saint Eugene, who was present in Rome, must have felt like a prophet; he was right when he changed the name of his congregation to Oblates of Mary Immaculate 28 years before the dogma.

5) Mary explains for us today, in her own way and in harmony with the other signs, the theme of our General Chapter. In order to be witnesses to that hope who is Christ, we must first of all be attentive to his call, just as she was. There is no apostolate without holiness. Only then will she send us to mission. Once again she will tilt her head as she did for Saint Eugene in 1822 as if to say to us: now, forward, my children, go and be in mission. Be witnesses to hope: it is a call, and it is our mission.

We will continue now the celebration of the Eucharist in this very special chapel where we have come in pilgrimage. The bread we will receive is for the voyage; it will give us the strength to carry out all the good resolutions of the Chapter. Even more: this bread will unite us into one apostolic corps, composed of people from more than 60 nations and cultures. The word internationality was used frequently during our assembly. There are no more international frontiers for witnessing to hope. In each Mass the Congregation becomes the Body of Christ, each evening, at the hour of oraison we are reminded of this anew. The mission of the anointed One of God has been passed on to this apostolic corps present in the whole world. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because he has anointed us. - This is the call! He has sent us to give the Good News to the poor. This is our mission! Amen.