These words "sum up his life" and "are a synopsis of our Holy Rules"
No one was better equipped than Father Tempier, the intimate friend and faithful co-worker of Bishop de Mazenod from 1816 to 1861, to weigh judiciously the words the Founder spoke on January 29 and above all those of May 20, 1861, words which summed up his life and were "a synopsis of our Holy Rule" and, we can add, are a synthesis of all the exhortations he addressed to his Oblates throughout his whole life.
In Bishop de Mazenod's writings, the texts are few where the two terms charity and zeal are used in the same sentence.
The first, however, is worth its weight in gold since it deals with the matter of the first article of the 1825-1826 Rule: the end or object of this humble Congregation is that "diocesan priests, united and living together as brothers (Psalm 132) may devote themselves, above all things, to the preaching of the Gospel to the poor". [8] In an August 12, 1817 letter to Father Tempier, Father de Mazenod wrote in the same vein: "For the love of God never cease to inculcate and preach humility, abnegation, forgetfulness of self, disdain for worldly esteem. May these be ever the foundations of our little Society which, combined with a truly disinterested zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and the most tender, affectionate and sincere charity amongst ourselves, will make of our house an earthly paradise and will establish it in more solid a manner than all possible orders and laws". [9]
Another most important text, was written in a moment of sadness after learning that the members of the community of Notre-Dame du Laus were living a lifestyle far removed from the ideal dreamed of by their Founder and set forth in the Rules. In a July 29, 1830 letter to Father Guibert, he wrote: "Charity is the pivot on which our whole existence turns. That which we ought to have for God makes us renounce the world and has vowed us to his glory by all manner of sacrifice, were it even to be our lives. It is in order to be worthy of this God to whom we are consecrated that we have vowed to renounce ourselves by obedience, riches by poverty, pleasures by chastity. [...] Charity for our neighbour is again an essential part of our spirit. We practice it first amongst us by loving each other as brothers, by considering our Society only as the most united family which exists on the earth, by rejoicing over the virtues, the talents and other qualities that our brothers possess just as much as if we possessed them ourselves, in bearing with mildness the little faults that some have not yet overcome, covering them over with the mantle of the most sincere charity, etc.; and as for the rest of mankind, in considering ourselves only as the servants of the Father of the family commanded to succour, to aid, to bring back his children by working to the utmost, in the midst of tribulations, of persecutions of every kind, without claiming any reward other than that which the Lord has promised to faithful servants who have worthily fulfilled their mission". [10]
Even if it is true that in the Founder's writings we find few texts where he mentions both together, the fact remains that he spoke about zeal often and of fraternal charity even more frequently. Above all, he lived these two realities in an intense fashion.
1. "AMONG YOURSELVES PRACTICE CHARITY, CHARITY, CHARITY"
It has often been said that Father de Mazenod did not give charity a high profile in the first edition of the Rule. Nonetheless, we still find in the Rule some fifteen references to charity with an additional fourteen allusions to it. [11] The strongest text reads as follows: "They will all be united by the closest bonds of charity and in perfect submission to superiors". [12]
During the course of his life, it was especially through his exhortations that Bishop de Mazenod stressed the importance of fraternal charity among his Oblates. Hundreds of times in his letters he spoke of charity, either to declare how necessary it was or to point out failings in this area or to rejoice in the way it was being faithfully lived. [13]
Two expressions reappear with great frequency in his writings: Among ourselves we should have "but one heart and soul" [14] or again: Fraternal charity constitutes the "distinguishing characteristic" of the Congregation. [15] We limit ourselves to quoting the most important of these texts, a letter written from the Quirinal in Rome, on December 2, 1854: "I would want all the scholastic brothers to be imbued with the family spirit which ought to exist among us. I have seen many religious orders, I am in very intimate relations with those that are most regular. Well, apart from their virtues I also give them credit for a great esprit de corps;however, this more than paternal love that the head has for the members of the family, this cordial affinity of the members for their head which establishes between them a relationship springing from the heart and which forms true family ties between us - father to son, son to father - this, I have not come across anywhere else. I have always thanked God for it as a particular gift which he has deigned to grant me; for it is the temper of heart that he has given me, this expansive love which is my own gift and which pours itself out on each one of them without taking anything from the others, just like, I make bold to say, God's love for men. I am saying that it is this sentiment, which I know comes from Him who is the source of all charity, which has evoked in the hearts of my children this reciprocity of love which forms the distinctive character of our beloved family. May this help us mutually to appreciate the beauty of our vocation and may it all be attributed to God for his greater glory. This is the most ardent wish of my heart". [16]
But, as Father Tempier told us, first and foremost, Bishop de Mazenod lived what he preached. One day he wrote: "My life is to follow my heart". [17] It was his will that his sons should live and work in community, but in a fraternal community united by the bonds of charity. [18] He himself could feel fully alive only where there reigned affection and mutual understanding. J. Paguelle de Follenay compared the Bishop of Marseilles to Saint Francis of Sales and wrote: "The symphony of their moral qualities shared the same dominant theme: They were men of the heart. That is, they possessed goodness, compassion and an effusive tenderness. Nothing was more contrary to their spiritual temperament than a cold rigidity and a legalistic regularity. For them, everything sprang from love and flowed back to love". [19]
The Founder had a deep love for his Oblate sons and often gave his love verbal expression. [20] The expressions he used, so strong and varied in the forms they adopted, certainly contained nothing of false posturing or domination, but sprang from a sincere heart and a genuinely deep friendship. He truly rejoiced with those who rejoiced and shared the pain of those who suffered. Once again, let a couple of quotes suffice. Before leaving for Rome on January 17, 1851, he wrote to Father Charles Baret: "You are aware, my very dear son, that my big failing is to love with a real passion the children God in his goodness has given me. No mother's love comes close to it. Perfection would lie in being indifferent to the greater or lesser extent that this maternal affection were reciprocated. That is where I fall down. I make an effort, without success, and even while I do love those who set no value on my love, which is an effect of the grace of state of my position, I humbly confess that I do experience an inexpressible consolation and a kind of heightened tenderness towards those who understand my heart's feelings and give me something in return for what I am for them". [21]
In a similar vein, he wrote to Father Toussaint Dassy on January 10, 1852: "I do not know how my heart is equal to the affection which it nourishes for you all. [...] No, there is not on this earth a creature to whom God has accorded the favour of loving so tenderly, so strongly, so constantly so great a number of persons. Here it is not simply a question of charity; no, it is a maternal sentiment which refers to each of you, without prejudice for the others. No one among you could be loved more than I love him. I love each one fully as if he were the only beloved and I experience this really exquisite feeling for each one. It is wonderful!" [22]
In his spiritual testament, the Founder repeated the word charity three times and mentions zeal only once. This would seem to be an accurate reflection of the relative percentage of these exhortations. He spoke more often of charity than of zeal because in regard to the latter, more often than not, the Oblates needed to be told to exercise restraint.
2. "AND, OUTSIDE, ZEAL FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS"
The fact that the Congregation was founded to evangelize the poor because of love of one's neighbor, an ardent consuming love, makes itself obvious in all the pages of the Rules of 1818 and 1825-1826. It is enough to mention article one and the Nota bene of the first chapter of the 1818 Rule where we read: "They are called to be the Saviour's co-workers, the co-redeemers of mankind; and even though, because of their present small number and the more urgent needs of the people around them they have to limit the scope of their zeal, for the time being to the poor of our countryside and others, their ambition should, in its holy aspirations, embrace the vast expanse of the whole earth [...]" [23] "Consequently, it is urgent [that we do everything in our power] to bring back to the fold the sheep who have strayed, to teach these decadent Christians who Jesus Christ is and to snatch them from the bondage of the devil [...]" [24]
On October 8, 1831, commenting on the Rule, the Founder wrote: "Will we ever attain to an accurate appreciation of this exalted vocation? In order to achieve this, we would have to grasp the excellence of the end of our Institute, indisputably the most perfect that we could set for ourselves in this world since the end of our Institute is the same as the end the Son of God had in mind when he came to earth: the glory of his heavenly Father and the salvation of souls. [...] He was especially sent to evangelize the poor [...] and we were founded precisely to work for the conversion of souls and especially to evangelize the poor". [25]
These few reflections do not arise from a passing fit of fervor; they are an authentic expression of the Founder's thought and life. His thought is clearly expressed in many of the letters written during the period stretching from his seminary days to the day of his death. On June 29, 1808, he wrote his mother telling her about his plans to enter the seminary. At that time already he wrote: "As the Lord is my witness, what he wants of me is that I renounce a world where it is almost impossible to find salvation, such is the power of apostasy there; that I devote myself especially to his service and try to reawaken the faith that is becoming extinct amongst the poor; in a word, that I make myself available to carry out any orders he may wish to give me for his glory and the salvation of the souls he has redeemed by his precious blood. [...]." [26]
On October 11, 1809, he stated further: "Dear mother, if you really grasped a great truth, that souls ransomed by the Man-God's blood are so precious that, even if every human being, past, present, and to come, were to spend, to save just one single one, every thing they have by way of talents, wealth and life, it would still be time well, nay admirably well spent [...]" [27]
In his first letters to Father Tempier, the same consuming zeal shows itself. In an October 9, 1815 letter, he wrote: "Dwell deeply on the plight of our country people, their religious situation, the apostasy that daily spreads wider with dreadfully ravaging effects. Look at the feebleness of the means employed to date to oppose this flood of evil. [...] Full of confidence in the goodness of Providence, [we] have laid the foundations of an establishment which will steadily furnish our countryside with fervent missionaries. These will ceaselessly engage in destroying the empire of the demon, at the same time as providing the example of a life worthy of the Church in the community which they will form [...]" [28]
Then, on August 22, 1817, he added: "But who are we indeed that the good God should listen to our pleas? We are, or ought to be, holy priests who consider themselves happy and very happy to devote their fortune, their health, their life in the service and for the glory of our God. We are put on earth, particularly those of our house, to sanctify ourselves while helping each other by our example, our words and our prayers. Our Lord Jesus Christ has left to us the task of continuing the great work of the redemption of mankind. It is towards this unique end that all our efforts must tend; as long as we will not have spent our whole life and given all our blood to achieve this, we have nothing to say; especially when as yet we have given only a few drops of sweat and a few spells of fatigue. This spirit of being wholly devoted to the glory of God, the service of the Church and the salvation of souls, is the spirit that is proper to our Congregation, a small one, to be sure, but which will always be powerful as long as she is holy. Our novices must steep themselves in these thoughts, which must sink deep in them and be often meditated. Each Society in the Church has a spirit which is its own; which is inspired by God according to the circuмstances and needs of the times wherein it pleases God to raise these supporting bodies or rather it would be better to say these elite bodies which precede the main army on the march, which excel it in bravery and which thus obtains the more brilliant victories". [29]
Therefore, "being wholly devoted to the glory of God" is the spirit specific to our Congregation just like the family spirit and fraternal charity "constitute its distinctive character".
In letters to his Oblates, the Founder often spoke of zeal, sometimes to encourage those Oblates which were more timid or more concerned with living their religious life rather than for the salvation of souls, [30] but most often he did it to check excesses of zeal at the expense of the interior life. [31] No one needed to urge the Oblates to be zealous; it was enough for them to recognize the forceful language their Rule used in speaking of this topic, [32] to learn with what dedication their spiritual father had labored as a young priest ministering to prisoners, the youth and the abandoned souls of Aix, then of having seen him at work in Marseilles in the course of their years there in the novitiate or the scholasticate. [33] In 1864, Mr. Cailhol, Canon of Marseilles, said the Bishop of Marseilles had been "consumed with the zeal that filled the Apostles" [34] and Bishop Jeancard wrote: "Zeal for the salvation of souls was his most outstanding virtue [...]" [35]
This love of souls and this eagerness to see them achieve salvation possessed him to such a degree that several times in the course of his life he declared himself ready to die a martyr's death [36] and he offered [37] and risked [38] his life to save them.
http://www.omiworld.org/dictionary.asp?v=9&ID=1077&let=S&pag=2