This saintly
bishop of Marseilles, canonized in 1995, went through twelve difficult youthful
years as a result of his exile, which was provoked by the French Revolution. However,
at twenty-five, facing the crucifix on a certain Good Friday, he felt seized by
the Saving Christ, and from that moment on he remained “passionately for Jesus
Christ and unconditionally for the Church” according to the expression used by
Pope Paul VI.
We can ask ourselves what influence his family had on him. In spite of the disparity in ages between his father and mother, and in spite of the considerable differences in their education and culture, the Lord allowed their son Eugene to draw from each of them the special benefit of an appropriate personality suited for the future founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. This benefit included love of the poor, and an abundant charity. As the Fathers of Vatican II stated: “The germ of a priestly vocation is nourished by the prayer of the family, its example of Faith and support.”
“He
has sent to evangelize the poor”
This is the
motto that the Founder gave to his congregation, in 1816. From his tender
youth, little Eugene had been trained to a kind of poverty suited to his age,
and to the situation of a noble family of Provence. He was hardly six years old
when he was touched by the apparent distress of a neighboring family. He
hastened to bring them firewood in his small wheelbarrow! He didn’t allow his
money-box to become full. He often emptied it for the poor. He even went so far
as to change clothes with a small poor beggar, the son of a collier. When his
mother reprimanded him for such an action by saying: “Do not forget that you
are the son of the President of the Court of Accounts.” He immediately replied:
“Well then, I’ll be the president of the colliers.” These words and actions
demonstrated that even in a family that regularly employed twelve domestics,
education in poverty could find an attentive ear and a well-disposed heart.
“I
have a sensitive and excessive heart”
In the personal
view that he presented to his spiritual director, on entering the major
seminary in 1808, this characteristic was a very good reflection of his
personality. Eugene was a “man of heart”. He loved passionately, as he himself
admitted. He loved his family. “I am an idolater of my family… I would allow
myself to be beaten with an axe for certain of its individuals… I would give my
life for them without hesitation” he once wrote. This tendency of love for his
family was equally manifested in behalf of the children of his religious
family, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. His most ardent desire was to see them
love one another as brothers. This intent was so profound within him that he
inscribed it in his spiritual testament. On his deathbed, May 21, 1861, to a
few Oblates by his side awaiting a parting instruction from their venerated
father, Bishop de Mazenod repeated three times, as if to be well understood: “Charity,
charity, charity”.
As for him, every time one of his own passed away, he would experience a deep sorrow. Sixty-eight Oblates died during his forty-five years at the head of the Congregation (1816 to 1861). When speaking of Texas, where four Oblates died in a few months, he exclaimed: “Cruel Mission, what dreadful injuries you are inflicting upon my soul.”
Well before Vatican II, Bishop de Mazenod was convinced that his religious family constituted a Church of service, or a miniature Church, that it to say a living image of the very mystery of the Church, whose members are subject to death, but are also promised to the final resurrection.
André DORVAL, OMI
