marie eugenie: joyful detachment

I thought I will be forgotten now that I have transferred assignment and had my cellphone numbers changed twice and had the new one put to good use by some needy pedestrian in Manila, the latter being the more Christian way of saying “ay yatis kinawatan ako.” Most often the worst of circumstances can be transformed into good when the mind changes the way it looks at things and events. Twenty minutes after I was pick pocketed my anger dissipated, something that seldom happens. And it happened when I got myself to look the other way around and say that that cellphone, which I seldom used anyway, could be finally put to good use. I think that is what Mother Marie Eugenie meant when she said that “the spirit of Assumption tends towards joyful detachment and going beyond trials and difficulties without complaining and wasting time over them.” Indeed these are not just words for Marie Eugenie. The pains of her growing up years never became a reason to get stuck to whine and sulk about the past. Indeed her childhood experience became an even greater power to do something for the education and the formation of the young.


And as for me, after having overcome my anger at such a short time and feeling good at myself for doing so afterwards, I decided to give myself a treat. So, an hour later I bought myself another cellphone, 6 months to pay, at zero interest.
Following this line of thinking I would like us to focus our attention on our second reading which says, we are fellow workers or partners with God, some of us plant, some of us water the plants but it is God who makes things grow. St. Paul who wrote this was not really a fun person to be with much more a partner in any endeavour. Even now his portrait is too stern, too grim, too severe one could even conclude he is perpetually angry. Added to this already forbidding picture is a sword on one hand, and another hand raised as if to make a strong point. No wonder he has few devotees. But Paul was a passionate man and an intellectual who defined the church and made it what it is right now. In fact some authors would say that he is the second founder of Christianity.
In another letter, the letter to Timothy he would outline the qualities of a bishop who would lead the different churches he founded. But even just a cursory glance at the qualities he outlined would disqualify no less than Paul himself. His personality disqualifies him to become bishop by the very criteria he made.
But this is precisely the point why he would say we are partners, we are fellow workers. He was in effect saying, I admit I am forbidding, I admit I am unsmiling and unyielding to the point of being hard-hearted at times, that is why I lay the foundations but someone else has to do the building. Paul would call this realization a partnership, and this would lead him to call each one a fellow worker with God.
Now, where does Marie Eugenie enter into the picture? Marie Eugenie to my mind would articulate that one quality which would make this partnership work as envisioned by St. Paul. And what is that: joyful detachment. There can be no partnership without joyful detachment. We cannot look at ourselves as fellow workers with God when we do not have that which Marie Eugenie calls fondly “the spirit of Assumption that tends towards joyful detachment.”
Joyful detachment means having that happy disposition of letting others finish the task. Joyful detachment means building on the good that others have started. It means accepting the realities of the past and the present without complaint, without wasting time whining on the ills and idiocies of the past and intent in doing what needs to be done in spite of and despite of. It means having that happy outlook of having done what you can. Joyful detachment means to realize that though I may not have much, still I can do what I can to help and be useful to others. Joyful detachment means admitting that I can only do as much. Joyful detachment means that I realize that I am doing God’s work not mine, not ours but God’s and though I serve an important role in it, still it is God who makes things grow.
Our gathering today is a recognition of the importance of this quality which Mother Marie Eugenie is teaching us – joyful detachment.
PS – I was going through the things I left at home because the room they assigned to me in the cathedral is quite small, and lo and behold, I found out that I still have more than a dozen medals of Marie Eugenie in store. What am I going to do with these? Detachment means I have to give these away but joyful detachment requires that you have to accept this with joy and without complaint even if you have dozens of these already in your bags. But more importantly, I can only give you a medal – I can afford only that much. If you wish to put it around your neck, then you have to ask Sr. Claire for a chain. Now, that too is joyful detachment.