Perpetual Oblation: “Are we weak enough to be Oblates?”

On May 1st, 2026, in the chapel of the General House in Rome, Scholastic Brothers, Chanel Kuyituka Gianga and Alphonse-Thomas Kabamba Mukuti, both members of the Province of Congo (DR), made their Perpetual Oblation as Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

The Superior General, presided over the Eucharist and received their vows in the name of the Church and the Congregation. Here’s Fr. General’s homily:

Homily on Perpetual Vows
1 May 2026, Rome

Dear Alphonse and Chanel

“It is not you who have chosen me, but I who have chosen you”. You belong to the generation of Oblates who will take their perpetual vows in the year marking the bicentenary of the approval of the Constitutions and Rules. This is a grace, but also a responsibility. What can we expect of you? I dream that you will be the driving force behind the renewal of our Congregation as we enter our third centenary. I dream that you will live the Constitutions and Rules in such a way that many others will want to live as you do, and that the poor will rejoice in having holy and zealous missionaries at their service. How worthy and holy the undertaking! Do we dare to accept the challenge?

Last Tuesday, the preacher at our monthly retreat, the Provincial of the Mediterranean, asked us the following question: are we weak enough to be Oblates? St Paul said that he took great pleasure in boasting of his weaknesses because in them the power of God was made manifest. Jesus saves the world from sin and death by becoming weak and dying on a cross. Risen, he appeared to his disciples, showing them his wounds, and it is his wounds that have healed us. Jesus invites us to be like him, the wounded Shepherd who heals the wounded people. The life of Saint Eugene de Mazenod is proof of what we are saying: how wounds transfigured in the love of the Crucified One become channels of God’s own mercy and a means of sanctification. In this context, we may ask ourselves whether we have allowed Christ to transform our weakness with his grace.

Our vocation is pure grace. ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I chose you; before you were born, I set you apart,’ the Lord tells us, as he did to Jeremiah. He knows our history, our weakness, our wounds. He knows us and searches us, but he does so with a loving gaze. That gaze is capable of transforming our wounds into a source of grace for us and for the poor. Dear Alphonse and Chanel, are you weak enough to let God reveal his love in your weakness, in your wounds? Are you weak enough to let God transform you into Good News for the poor? One who feels weak asks God every day to assist him with his grace; he learns to trust in Him and not in his own strength; he learns to take risks and try everything because he has experienced that nothing is impossible for God. God is able to make our wounds speak of his love.

The second reading speaks to us of the wisdom of the cross. Called to look at our world through the eyes of the Crucified One, we Oblates learn from him the wisdom of the One who, though rich, became poor; of the One who, though Lord, became a humble servant, ever obedient to the Father; of the One who, though life, embraced death; of the One who, though holy, redeemed sin by dying on the cross as a cursed man. Dear Alphonse and Chanel, by professing your religious vows, you wish to embrace that wisdom of the cross forever, living the very same way of life as the Crucified One. Through your vows, you commit yourselves to living with Jesus and to living like Jesus, who was chaste, poor and obedient, and who gave his life as an oblation to the Father for the salvation of the world. Jesus invites and calls us to continue this way of life, which is already a proclamation of his Kingdom and the Good News for the world. Do you wish to make your perpetual oblation? Do you wish to be poor, chaste and obedient like Jesus? Do you wish to place yourselves at the service of the poorest, giving your lives out of love for God and your brothers and sisters?

The Oblate cross you will receive today is the sign of a covenant of love in which we offer our poor humanity to receive the love of a God who, by dying in Jesus, has conquered death and sin. The cross is not a decorative item; it is the constant reminder of this story of God’s love for us. A reminder that urges us to strive always and ever more to love as He has loved us. To this end, strive to live out the CC and RR that you will receive today. Do this and you shall live! If you wish to know whether you are walking in the wisdom of the cross, evaluate your life against the CC and RR and strive always to put them into practice.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks to us of the love between the Father and the Son. At the same time, he asks his disciples to love one another as he has loved them and to remain in his love. He does not call us servants, but friends, because we know him and follow him. Called to be friends of Jesus in community, we are a sacrament of the love of the Trinity. By making your perpetual oblation, you commit yourselves to living out the Lord’s commandment of love. Only the love we receive from Jesus and share in and from the community will save the world from its deadly dynamics. Our apostolic charity, lived out in community, is also a sign of hope and a prophecy of the final world where we shall all be in loving communion with God. Our vow of perseverance manifests Jesus’ total love for his Father and for his community, a love to the very end, a love that holds nothing back and that stands the test of time. We persevere in the community and in religious life to proclaim to the world that only love will save it.

Do not be afraid to love God and to let yourselves be loved by Him. Do not be afraid to love your brothers in the community and to let yourselves be loved by them. Do not be afraid to love the poor and to let yourselves be loved by them. Do not be afraid to live chastity, poverty, obedience and perseverance with radical commitment. Do not be afraid of your weaknesses, your wounds, your vulnerability; let us not be afraid to be Oblates. Jesus tells us that whatever we ask of the Father in his name, he will grant us. With Mary, with all the saints, we pray for you today. With the holy and blessed Oblates, we pray to the Father that, in the  name of Jesus, He may grant the holiness of Oblate and missionary life to Alphonse and Chanel, so that they may help all their brothers to live the wonderful vocation to which we have been called, and so that they may be zealous missionaries. May God bless and accompany you to bring to completion the work which He Himself has begun and inspired in you. Amen.

By Luis Ignacio Rois Alonso, OMI

Published on the OMI World website