A BIG FAMILY’S DREAM
By Paolo Archiati, OMI, Vicar General
This May is certainly special for the
Oblates and for what we now call the “Mazenodian family.” On May 21, 150 years
ago, our “father” ended his pilgrimage on this earth and entered into eternity.
We owe him our existence as Oblates of Mary Immaculate, missionaries to the
poor.
How could we celebrate this anniversary
without calling to mind his final wish, a veritable spiritual testament which he
left the Oblates just before he died? We can never do enough to make it the
source of our inspiration and of our religious and missionary commitment.
Eugene de Mazenod was well aware that he was living his final moments on this
earth, and that adds even more importance to the occasion and to the spiritual
instruction that he left to his family, to his “children” whom he loved with a
father’s heart.
“Among
yourselves, charity, charity, charity.” He had
wanted his Oblates to consider Jesus himself as their founder and the apostles
as their first fathers. In these words with which the breath of life of this
apostle was stilled, don’t we find the very words of Christ? “I give you a new commandment: love one
another.” (John 13, 34a) Among yourselves, charity: there is our way of
life, revealed to us by our holy Founder at the most sacred moment of his life,
the moment when he was called to reveal to his sons the secret that will keep
them alive when he is no longer with them; there is the road to conversion to which
we are constantly called. It’s as simple as that, even though our actual and
ordinary daily life reveals to us each day the difficulties flowing from our
weakness, our fragility, and our personal problems. Among yourselves, charity:
that is the rock on which we are called to build our community life. Therein
lies the essence of our life, of our relationships, that which should help us
live as brothers. St. Eugene wanted his Oblates to be the most united family on
the face of the earth, and now the secret, the way to accomplish this, has been
revealed. He knew that the strength of his little family would be unity,
communion, and to that end, in his letters he never stopped reminding his
children. His invitation that they be of one heart and mind, which one finds
hundreds of times in his letters, addresses this need.
“And
on the outside, zeal for the salvation of souls.”
Once this unity is assured within our family, our communities, we must look
outwards, toward the world to which our mission sends us. We are not monks; our
community life is oriented to the mission. And our mission is this “zeal” for
the salvation of souls. “Zeal” is a word that has had its day, a word which
might make us smile a little, like another similar word in the dictionary, “fervor.”
They are two words that were very dear to our Founder.
Words might well have had their day, but the
reality is timelier than ever, especially in a world that shows how much it is
in need of salvation. This word energized our Founder; it was at the very
beginning of his conversion and inspiration to found a missionary society.
Having discovered that he has been “saved” by the mercy of God, he wanted to
bring together some companions in order to reveal to the world – and especially
to the poor – how much God loves them, so much so that He sent His own Son to
save them. Zeal: it’s a fire that should burn in the heart of each Oblate, of
each member of the family of St. Eugene, a fire that is meant to engulf the
whole world. That was the dream of the young Eugene at the moment he gave
origin to his little family; that was his dream at the moment of his death; may
that be the dream of his “big” family today, at the moment when we celebrate
his departure from here below.
