In four moments, Fr. Emmanuel Hirschauer proposes a discovery of Fr. Marie-Eugene’s teaching about the human person in its corporeality by commenting on the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of Jesus’ life.
The Luminous Mysteries
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Co 3,16).
A conviction inspired Fr. Marie-Eugene : God dwells in us ! Following saint Teresa of Avila, he lived from this truth : the Lord dwells in our hearts, his « Paradise ». Not only in our heart or in our soul does God dwell but in our whole body, in our muscles and in our cells :
Our body is full of God : the Holy Spirit’s presence of immensity
Our soul, our body are full of God until the end of our fingers. The Holy Spirit is present there. (Fr. Marie-Eugene, Preparation to Pentecost, 2nd lecture, 14 May 1959).
We are identified with Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit present in all the pores of our soul.
We are identified with Christ, that’s true, but it happens through the action of the Holy Spirit present in all the pores of our soul, in all the molecules of our body, in all earthly and heavenly realities. He penetrates everything with His light and His love, because He is the architect of the Church, the architect of our holyness, of our surnatural beauty and of our eternal happiness. (Fr. Marie-Eugene, Pentecost, 29 May 1966)
Which being is the most intimate for us ? It is the Holy Spirit. Why ? Because the Holy Spirit is in us… until the end of our fingers, … until the end of our toes !…
in the depths of our soul. Since He is a spirit, the Holy Spirit can penetrate everywhere. He is not a thing, He is a living Person. The first thing we have to do is to believe in the Holy Spirit, to become aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence, to develop our faith in the Holy Spirit. When you read The interior Castle of saint Teresa of Avila you notice that she says : « Become aware of God’s presence in you. Who is it ? The Holy Spirit. Intimacy with the Holy Spirit is the first act, the fundamental act of spiritual life.(Fr. Marie-Eugene, Preparation to Pentecost, 1st lecture, 13 May 1959).
God is then present substantially in the soul of the just, to whom He gives both natural being and the supernatural life of grace.
There is not a molecule of our being where God is not.
God is then present substantially in the soul of the just, to whom He gives both natural being and the supernatural life of grace. He sustains us, but not as a mother sustains and carries her child in her arms; He penetrates us and envelops us. There is not a molecule of our being where He is not; there is no movement of our members nor of our faculties that He has not animated. He is around us and even in those regions more intimate and more profound than our soul itself. God is the soul of our soul, the life of our life, the great reality in which we are, as it were, immersed; He penetrates all that we have and all that we are by His active presence and His vivifying power: “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Ac 17:28) (Fr. Marie-Eugene, I want to see God, p. 20)
Look and smile
God lives in our body, but with great discretion – fortunately ! Sometimes He lets the others see a reflection of His presence. Fr. Marie-Eugene had offered himself so oft to the Holy Spirit that you could see the goodness of God on his fully mature face, marked by time and a lot of suffering. Especially on a person’s face, in his/her look and smile, you can guess which light and joy animate him/her. God is living ; this is how He sometimes let you perceive a ray of His presence. Fr. Marie-Eugene liked to contemplate the smile on people’s faces, « fruit of charity ». » (cf. Retreat 1950, 3rd lecture, p. 20) Our eyes are somehow the door to our soul where God is dwelling :
The eyes show if the Holy Spirit is satisfied or not
When I say : “Open your eyes !”, it is in order to find in them the Holy Spirit. It is said that the eyes are the windows to the soul ; I don’t need to go through the door. When the Holy Spirit is satisfied, you can see it ! The sparkling of the Holy Spirit in the soul ! (Fr. Marie-Eugene, Preparation to Pentecost, 1st lecture, 13 May 1959).
Love goes through the eyes
You must be able to love, to embrace, not in order to find your own pleasure, but to express your surnatural love. (…) Love should go through your eyes, your face. The radiance of surnatural love expresses the radiance of natural love. (…) It is not an advertizing smile.(Fr. Marie-Eugene, lecture, 8 October 1961 ; GG, p. 304)
Love is something subtle, something interior, something which is the depths of our being and which comes from the depths of our being to exercise its influence on our whole activity, in all our operatioal facuties, and should somehow gush, spurt out from our fingertips – not forgetting that it comes significantly trough our eyes ! (Fr. Marie-Eugene, Retreat 1965, 7th lecture, p. 78).
Among our prayer intentions we must ask for love, to make this loving intimacy in our acts as conscious and detailed as possible, to fill our eyes with love to look at the souls. (Fr. Marie-Eugene, Retreat 1951, 7th lecture, p. 45)
Apostolate through smile
A beautiful smile reveals the life you find in silent prayer. (Fr. Marie-Eugene, lecture, 8 October 1961, GG p. 304)
You have to carry out a normal apostolate through smile and honesty. You plough a furrow and people are transformed, an environment gets better. (Fr. Marie-Eugene, Conversation, Advice for Lent, 28 February 1951, p. 2)
The Blessed Virgin is all Mother, not only through her prayer, but through all her person, because she is the most beautiful creature, the most attractive, the one who had the most winning smile. Be like her. (P. Marie-Eugène, lecture, 8 October 1961, GG p. 305)
