The following is a transcript of a speech presented by the Reverend Fabian W. Bruskewitz, Bishop of Diocese of Lincoln at the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Meeting on June 12, 1999

Dear Friends:

    It is indeed a joy to be with you here this evening, and to participate in the Midwest Regional Meeting of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. My esteem and love for the Saint Vincent de Paul Society go back many decades. My own father was active in, and for many years, president of the Local Council of my native parish in Milwaukee, and I have many fond recollections of assisting him in distributing help to the poor in various declining neighborhoods and blighted regions of that city years ago. His devotion to the cause of charity and to the work of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, inspire me in my own priestly life, and with great joy, I took over and expanded the Conference of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in suburban Milwaukee parish where I had the privilege of being pastor for 12 years. As a practical and concrete illustration of all of the abstract theories and preaching about charity, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society is a prime manifestation.

    I see, from the recent Ozanam News that in the Unites States there are currently about 6,000 members of the Society of the Saint Vincent de Paul, and that more than 140 million dollars have been given to the poor, helping more than 5.5 million people. It is in our country, and perhaps in the world, the largest Catholic lay organization serving the poor. The National Episcopal Advisor, Bishop Terry Steib, the Bishop of Memphis, a good friend of mine, gives regularly in his work for the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, a more eloquent tribute to the work of the society, and a more profound inspiration for its continued activities than anything I could possibly say—any hope that my remarks may be a faint echo of this eloquence.

    The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul owes its origin, as you perhaps know, to one of the most remarkable and exceptional Catholic lay men of the last century. His name was Antoine Frederick Ozanam. He was born in Milan, Italy on April 23, 1813. His father was a French doctor who practiced medicine in Milan. The family itself were descendants of the seventh century Jewish man who was converted by Saint Didier, Following his father’s wishes to become a lawyer, Frederick Ozanam was sent to study in Lyons, in France. In the course of his studies in 1829, he had a great crisis of doubt and difficulty with the Catholic Faith. He went for spiritual direction to a wonderful priest named Father Noirot. Not only did Father assist him to overcome this adolescent crisis, but also enabled him to consolidate in the intellectual basis of faith and to imbue him with a strong sense of love and charity, even in disputes with non-believers.

    In 1813, he was sent to Paris to take up formal study of law at the Sorbonne, and there he became acquainted with many leaders of the Catholic revival, such as Lacordaire, Ballanche, Chateaubriand, Montalembart, and Ampere. Ozanam was shocked as the anti-Catholic atmosphere at the University of Paris, in the middle of the last century, and immediately undertook to refute some of the worst attacks upon the Catholic faith. He published his first work as a refutation of socialism, and indeed spent an enormous amount of his energy, time, and intellectual to the refutation of Marxism and every kind of socialism at the same time he equally opposed economic liberalism. Coming from a relatively well-to-do family, and studying law with the elite of France, he was challenged by those whom he constantly refuted in intellectual arguments to concretely show forth the basis of his Christian charity. This was the reason why, in 1833, he gathered around him a few of his fellow students and formed what he called "A Conference of Charity", and began to visit the poor of Paris, and to the extent of his ability to supply them with the basic needs for human existence, such as food, clothing, and shelter. This is obviously the embryonic form of the society of Saint Vincent de Paul. The Society itself, however, was formalized two years later in 1835.

    Among the famous sayings of Frederick Ozanam were: "God gave me the grace to be born in the Faith. Later, the confusion of an unbelieving world surrounded me. I knew all the honor of the doubts that torment soul. It was then that the instructions of priest and philosopher, Father Noirot, saved me. I believed thenceforth with an assured faith, and touched by so rare a goodness, I promised God to devote my life to the services of the truth which had given me peace."

    He also said that his work in founding and promoting the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul was to "insure my faith by works of charity."

    Frederick Ozanam was, of course, a scholar of great repute. Although a lawyer, and indeed a doctor of law who was a professor of commercial law at Lyons, nevertheless, was also extremely important and made a greater mark in literature and history. His works in the studies of Dante Alighieri are famous even in intellectual circles today. He did extraordinary work also in Christian Latin, in literature, and in art. As a layman, he was active in politics and was determined to be yeast and salt to the unbelieving world of his time. He was figured to be reckoned with in Catholic journalism, as well as in many other Catholic causes including the promotion of Catholic schools in Paris and the work of obtaining consecrated religious to teach in these schools. One of his biographers noted that he was untiring in energy, had a rare gift for precision and historical insight, and at the same time naturalness in his verses and spontaneous pleasing eloquence, all the more charming because of his frankness.

    He said, "Those who wish no religion introduced into a scientific work, accuse me of a lack of independence. But I pride myself on such an accusation. I do not aspire to an independence, the result of which is to love and to believe nothing."

    In addition to his founding and actively participating in his Saint Vincent de Paul Society, named after the great priest who was a genuine apostle of the poor and utterly devoted to the priesthood of the Catholic Church in the seventeenth century France, Frederick Ozanam also was active in the new Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which was started in France by Pauline Marie Jaricot. He was instrumental in publishing the famous sermons of Lacordaire throughout France and throughout the world. He also was, in many ways, the precursor of Catholic social doctrine. Many of the ideas of Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Rerum Novarum are found in incipient ways in the writings and activities of Frederick Ozanam. He was also one of the first Catholic intellectuals to see the inherent and intrinsic errors in all social theory. He often said that it was his desire that the benefits of the Catholics faith should be made known to all who might read his works or hear his words.

    As he was approaching death, he said to the priest who was attending his deathbed, "Oh, why should I fear God Whom I love so much." Frederick Ozanam died in Marseille in France, on September 8, 1853. And although his life was only forty years long, he was able to make an impact upon Church and State, which still reverberates through both even until this day.

    Frederick Ozanam is a marvelous and splendid example to all those who are members of the society of Saint Vincent de Paul. He placed at the disposition of God, and most especially God, Whom he saw in the poor and downtrodden, his means and also the myriad talents with which God Himself endowed him. Above all, his involvement in assisting the poor was not mere altruism or philanthropy, he saw more, much more in his activities than just the obtaining of some superficial satisfactions from assisting those who were lower on the economic and social scale than he was. He definitely was motivated by that Christian charity that Jesus requires all of his followers to exercise. Love of God and love of neighbor, because one sees in the neighbor’s face the face of God and the image of the Creator as well as the very Person of Christ Himself. "What you do to the least of My brothers," Jesus told us in Matthew 25, "you do to Me."

    Indeed, the life and work of Frederick Ozanam can deliver some important lessons to us across this century and a half. I think he can teach us first, and most of all, that genuine Christian charity is not simply a matter of emotion, or passion, or ardor, or desire, or sentiment, but it is represented really most authentically by a willingness to sacrifice. Love is the other name, we are told in Sacred Scripture, for God Himself. God is love, and those who love are known to be in God and God in them. But this love is far above the area of feelings, which can be dependent upon what we ate for supper last night or how hot the room is. In our human condition, since we are bodies as well as souls, feelings accompany us through life, and feelings can be good or can be bad. Whatever they are, they are always poor guides for what we do and how we act. No, human love, especially when manifested in concrete activity must be a reflection of God’s love. Jesus said, "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son," and He said, "Greater love than this no one has, that one lays down his life for his friends." So it is in sacrifice and giving that we really can accurately measure love, rather than by the depth or profundity of our feelings, although feelings can legitimately accompany human love.

    The second lesson that I believe we can derive from the life of Fredrick Ozanam is the fact that charity is really not optional. In our own language, and possibly in our outlook, we often contrast charity and justice, and understand justice as something, which is required, but charity, is, to a great extent, left to our choice. It would be, however, a serious mistake to suppose that we are free to practice or not practice love, (that is to say, charity—in Latin, caritas). We are obliged as followers of Christ to be people who love. Jesus’ commandment was very clear, "Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you." The supreme commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself, which is like the first and greatest of all commandments; that is to say, we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our strength and with all our mind.

    As a matter of fact, both justice and charity interpenetrate each other. If we understand justice as that virtue which requires us to give to everyone what is his due, we can see why Saint Thomas Aquinas places religion under the virtue of justice, religion being the virtue of giving to God what is his due; that is to say, adoration, total and absolute obedience, worshipful thanksgiving, due and appropriate sorrow for sins and offenses committed against him. In the same line, we might also situate to a great extent, supernatural Christian love and Christian charity. Mother Teresa of Calcutta observed what Saint Vincent de Paul himself observed and certainly what was motivating in the very life and activity of Frederick Ozanam, namely, that while we give to the poor, in a certain sense, they give more back to us. They present us with the opportunity of serving Christ in their person, and the more ungrateful, loathsome and repulsive we might find the poor and the down-trodden, the closer we are to receiving through them from God, His grace and His goodness.

    Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, once said that in the evening of life, we will be judged by love. And of course, he meant this in two ways. First of all, love itself will be the criterion by which God will judge us. Jesus our Divine Judge, will ascertain if we have been people who gave, who pardoned and who loved. Saint Francis of Assisi puts it, "It is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life" particularly, when we seek not "so much to be loved, as to love."

    The second way is the profound insight that Jesus, Who will be our Judge, is the Love of God made visible. Christ is the mercy, the pardon, the forgiveness, and the self-giving of God Himself. Therefore, the transcendent and almighty Father gives over all Judgment to His divine Son, and Who is love, will be the One Who then judges us in that final movement when we stand before His throne and our eternal destiny is determined. Let us pray that when that moment comes, we may be able to say as Fredrick Ozanam did in his dying words, "Oh, why should I fear God Whom I love so much."