The New Virtue
We have just finished an Oblate Assembly here in our district community as well as celebrated the Feast Day [May 21] of Eugene de Mazenod. After coming together as Oblates and Associates for four days, I feel a renewed sense of gratitude for the emphasis de Mazenod’s placed on the importance of community.
Following the model of Jesus gathering the twelve about him, Eugene called like-minded men and formed them into a community for the sake of service and sanctification. In his view, the confreres were responsible to and for one another.
Actions and decisions by individuals were always considered and seen in the context of the greater good of the mission and the community. Oblate community life continues to hold this vision.
It is a vision offers a powerful antidote to one of today’s pervasive problems. Writer Monica Furlong notes that in the 21st century, we are in the process of charting a new sin: the inability to look at the implications of everything we do in a very much wider context than in the past. As individuals, companies and nations, we fail to acknowledge that what we do on a personal level impacts others at a societal and even global level. In an obsession with autonomy, we continue to make decisions without considering their effects.
The new virtue, Furlong asserts, will be grounded in the awareness that are indeed interdependent and therefore obliged to consider others as we make our decisions. It will involve the determination to connect by listening and growing in our sense of connectedness. It will be, in Oblate language, to live more deeply in community.
Sandy Prather
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