A Mother's Heart...
Eugene de Mazenod's Gift to the Oblate Congragation
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A Mother's Heart... Eugene de Mazenod's Gift to the Oblate Congragation
Henriette Kelker
1 March, 1999
Page 3
The city of Rome, with its impressive architecture, its monumental churches, and spacious squares imparts on anyone a sense of having entered a place of beauty as well as power and de Mazenod cannot have been an exception. Its Baroque accents bridge heaven and earth. This is the See of Peter, vicar of Christ, the authority of the Church. At the same time, sensing a safety in this bulwark of sanctity, who can escape the notion that this is not only the See of Peter, but the city of the Blessed Virgin, who offers wisdom and protection and who - and this is important in a time of political sparring - was free of blemish, conceived without sin, an expression of the beauty and perfection of creation? Suddenly these two images connected and all was clear to De Mazenod: if his congregation was to spread the work and influence of the Church in France against opposition and the ravages of the Revolution, it could do so best under the protection of Mary Immaculate, image of the Church, Bride of Christ, Mother of Gods people.
The development of De Mazenod's interest during subsequent years leading up to the definition of the Immaculate Conception and beyond are consistent with this thesis.16 Robrecht Boudens points out that the Ultramontane movement17 which had been active for some time and which marked especially the reign of Pius IX, prepared the way not only for the definition of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, but for the definition during the Vatican Council in 1869-70 of the dogma of pontifical infallibility.18 The infallibility of the pope had always been a strong conviction of de Mazenod. This, together with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was to him part of the grand picture, an economy of the Holy Church in which the Vicar of Christ is not "merely an hierarchical superior, but the contemporary Christ among His brethren."19
Throughout the nineteenth century and during the first six decades of the twentieth Marian devotion remained strong throughout the Catholic world. It is as if the romantic language of the previous century - increasingly renounced by secular society - lingered and found a haven in certain niches of the church. In words not always understood today, or with which some people have become uncomfortable, Marian images of virginity and purity continue to express an experience of ultimate beauty. In 1950 Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven. Some considered this definition unnecessarily provocative in a time when ecumenical relations were gaining strength.20 Marian devotion peaked during 1954, declared the Marian year, marking the centenary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Second Vatican Council, from 1962-65, affirms the unique place of Mary as: "Blessed God-bearing Virgin Mary in the mystery of Christ and the church"21, but at the same time professes her subordinate role. She "belongs to the offspring of Adam [and] is one with all human beings in their need for salvation (n.53).22
With St. Ambrose the council affirms that Mary is a model of the church "in the matter of faith, charity, and perfect union with Christ" (n.63). The Church, too, acts as a mother by accepting God's word in faith and by bringing forth children by Baptism to a new and everlasting life. The Church is also a virgin "who keeps whole and pure the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse" (n.64).
This is the image of Mary as Mother which Eugene de Mazenod lived out, incarnated, in his own life. He loved his people, the poor and abandoned, but especially his own missionaries. Hubenig quotes de Mazenod: "Often I have told the Lord that, since he gave me a mother's heart and sons who merit my love in so many ways, he must allow me to love them immeasurably."23 The Founder expressed this love towards his missionaries in writing and in action. In a letter to Fr. Henri Faraud in Canada he urged the latter to respond to his letters and keep him informed:
There is a father beyond the great lake whom you must not forget. Rest assured you are always present to me, whatever the distance separating you from him, not only at the holy altar where each day he offers the Holy Sacrifice for the family and all its members, but during the day's routine ...24
De Mazenod asked from his missionaries to be "ready to leave everything to be disciples of Jesus", "to strive to reproduce in [them]selves the pattern of his life."25 The Constitution and Rules ask the missionaries to see the world through Christ's eyes.26 At the same time the men recognize in Mary Immaculate the model of the Church's faith and of their own.27
The image of Mary at the foot of the cross had a profound impact on Eugene de Mazenod. This is the moment in which the church was offered to the world, the marriage of bride and groom. Recognizing the dual models in the missionary life of Christ and the Virgin, one can discern two attitudes to be assumed in the midst of a broken world: the position of the crucified Christ and the position of Mary who, after 33 years, sees the fruit of her womb hanging on the cross. Today perhaps still more than in the 1800s the Missionary Oblate stands in both places. Fr. Leo Deschateles expressed the commitment of the Oblates as follows:
... our commitment to the service of God and souls is unconditional, it is absolute. It is a kind of 'reckless' giving of ourselves to the glory and service of God, to the ministry and his infinite love and mercy. It is a holy and impulsive giving, without restraint, a unique intensity of priestly charity, of zeal for the most difficult undertakings. It is ... such an unreserved oblation of ourselves that it can truly be said of us, 'these are the Oblates.28
This, I believe, expresses what the Immaculate Conception meant for Eugene de Mazenod: the perfection of the unreserved "Yes" in answer to the love of God.
Acknowledgement: I wish to thank Patricia Simpson, c.n.d., Alfred Hubenig, O.M.I., and David Goa, Curator of Folklife at the Provincial Museum of Alberta for helpful discussions leading to new insights.
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