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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In my study of the Oblate culture and charism, the manner in which these gifts have been bestowed has been most problematic for me. My experience of the Oblate priests and brothers is entirely dissimilar to the preconceptions with which I approached the project, many of them fed by the modern media. The history of Western Canada reveals the tragedy of many aspects of the encounter between European settlers and the Native population. The Roman Catholic missionaries occupied an intimate and involved position with both groups during this time. A number of thought provoking and competent studies have been done on the suffering of modern Native populations in the wake of European colonization and on the struggle of the Catholic Church in this enormous historical transition. The question that seems to have been forgotten in the evaluation of the Church's role has to do with the motivation that brought the Roman Catholic missionaries, in particular the Oblates, to Western Canada.
I raise this question of motivation here because I think that the answer is inextricably linked to an understanding of the Oblate charism. Although my Jewish background cultivated respect and tolerance for other religions, it provided little in the way of understanding or sympathy for the evangelical aspect of religions. As I worked with Father Ebner and the other Oblates, and as I saw their compassion and love for the people they worked with, as well as their intense belief in the gospels, a new question formed in my mind. When an individual is endowed with a religious belief that fervently, passionately asserts that it can provide eternal salvation to the souls of all humans, what is the responsibility of that individual? Does such an individual have a responsibility to share this understanding, its ideas, and devotions? Is there not a moral imperative to share the good news - to preach the gospel to the poor? I don't know that there is a simple answer to these questions. In fact, I am quite sure that there is not. The question involves a set of issues about the disposition of the missionaries.
During his final years in the North, Father Ebner and Brother Sarreault, his close friend and colleague, built and ran the Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith, N.W.T. During my discussions with Father Ebner about this museum, the intense meaning of this place for him became readily apparent. The museum was where Father Ebner and Brother Sarreault documented the lives of the people of the North - Oblate and lay, Native and White - in a way that illuminated the decades of history leading to the present. I think that the Oblate charism is reflected in the work done at the Northern Life Museum. Regard for life, community, and religion were brought together in a synthesis that was in no way synthetic. As described to me by Father Ebner, nature and community took central stage in his museum work with an undeniable stream of religious meaning infusing the whole. This cannot be a contrived or deliberate process of integration but, rather, an approach that stems from a positive perspective about the nature and significance of the world. This is the same perspective that, in Father Ebner, molded him in his early life and, in an unforeseeable fashion, for his life as an Oblate Missionary.
Any ministry of healing must deal with man as a whole, even though it may concentrate on one facet of his being. Man is not body and soul. Man is an incarnated spirit, an intelligently animated corporeal being; he is body spiritually and spirit bodily. Again, man's individual and social existence cannot be divorced; man must exist socially in order to develop his individuality, and his capacity to participate in society will rest upon his own integrated individuality. Thus, the various functions that we can point to as ministries of healing are interdependent and their effective service of mankind demands that they consciously relate to and interact with one another. (Cooke, 256)
Each Oblate missionary has a distinct set of talents and gifts that are brought forth in his ministry, yet the emphasis that Father Ebner has placed on the interdependence of these abilities has left me with a strong sense of the Oblate community. Father Ebner often speaks of the indispensable role of the Brothers and Sisters, each possessing a unique talent and participating in the community in a special way. I have heard stories about Father Leising, the priest who flew the North, and his central role in contributing to the Oblate economy. Brother Sarreault's fantastic memory and gift for dealing with people have become somewhat legendary through Father Ebner's accounts. The cases of Brother Anthony Kowalczyk and Bishop Vital Grandin are, truly, larger than life. Each Oblate or participant in the Oblate experience is undeniably unique and an individual; yet, I would like to return to the quotation above which speaks of an integrated individuality.
The Oblate charism forms the essence of what is necessary in an individual's character to carry out the arduous, uncertain, and thankless work of the missionary. As demonstrated in the life and work of Father Francis Ebner, the charism is the filter through which each missionary, regardless of his particular role in the community, views and makes sense of the world that surrounds him. This filter collects the varied and dispersed rays of personal experience and condenses them into a manageable unity. I suggest that this filter is composed of three constituent factors: a deep regard for life, a commitment to community, and a devotion to their faith. It is in this way that the Oblate charism reflects and, indeed, effects the integrated individuality of the Oblate missionary.
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