Francis Ebner's Oblate Charism: Life, Community, and Faith
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Francis Ebner's Oblate Charism: Life, Community, and Faith
Benjamin Lyle Berger
Research Associate, Provincial Museum of Alberta
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Initially, I found the centrality of nature in Father Ebner's view of things somehow dissonant with my concept of the Catholic mentality: joy in the world to come, imperfection in the world today. When I asked Father Ebner about this, as I have on several occasions, he invariably responded with the simple equation that "the world was created by God, so it is holy. Jesus stepped foot on it so it is even holier."6 Father Ebner's view is that nature, animals, and humans are endowed with a similar holiness, imbued with splendor, and deserving of our awe and respect.7 This view binds religion to nature in an interdependent and inextricable fashion. It is a view that is deeply rooted in Father Ebner's childhood formation.
The question that I have pondered is how this rich formation manifested itself in Father Ebner's missionary work. Some of the effects may be apparent, but the fullest expression of this natural cultivation can, I think, only be examined in the context of his community and religious formation. The most poignant story I can recall Father Ebner telling me about the community of his childhood has to do with the construction of the local Protestant church.
Nickerson was a town of only six people, four of whom were members of Father Ebner's family. There were, however, a number of other small towns in the vicinity in which here was only a very small community of Catholics amid a large Protestant community. Father Ebner recalls local boys busy pulling out bent nails from the boards to help in the construction of the Protestant church. When young Francis Ebner arrived with his friend to help, the others huddled together. His friend told him that the boys were deciding whether, as a Catholic, he could assist. They decided that he could.
I believe that this experience is emblematic of Father Ebner's sense of community and religious formation. The small local population underscored the importance of interdependence and intimate relationships. The words which echo through his tales of his childhood relationships, impressions of the seminary, and missionary work in the North are that the essence of each of these experiences is "a group of guys working together to get something done." The community is a source of support; it must be a resource for its members. Reliance upon one another is not a weakness, it is a source of strength. It is a joy, not a hardship, to serve the common good and to give to the stranger. Service to the other is a strongly developed aspect of the Oblate charism. Each person within a community has intrinsic skills and sensibilities that he or she can contribute to the well being of the larger group. I am impressed by the degree to which this well articulated sense of community is itself a gift which Father Ebner, and every other Oblate I have known, bestows on those around him.
Yet, Father Ebner has a deep regard for the treasures of a smaller community. In a town that was, in essence, composed only of his family, Francis Ebner developed an appreciation for the importance of the gifts bestowed by the family. Father Ebner speaks with respect and great love for his family. His remembrances of his mother and father are striking. Indeed, the story of Father Ebner's life, and the life of many Oblates, is the story of the family. It is composed of a series of relationships that grow from infancy to maturity in an ever deepening and strengthening manner. The essence of the Oblate's work is the mending of relationships - relationships between people and God, and relationships among humans. Success in this endeavor has certainly been varied, but the intention, the motive, has been consistent. Thus, I do not think it trite or inaccurate to speak of the Oblate view of the "human family." We can find a clear articulation of this aspect of the Oblate charism in the Vatican II document Nostre Aetate:
All men form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth (cf. Acts 17:26), and also because all share a common destiny, namely God.
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