“We must be men with hope to bring.” That simple statement from the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross sums up a lot of what I believe and what the Brothers of Holy Cross believe. We can be men with hope to bring because we stand on solid foundations. Actually, those foundations are truths that have shaped who we are since Holy Cross began more than 170 years ago. They are truths lived and passed on by Blessed Basil Moreau who founded Holy Cross.
We are men with hope to bring because we spend our lives following Jesus of Nazareth. We have known success in the many ministries in which we are involved around the world. But we know that, from the perspective of faith, the only lasting success is our likeness to Jesus. If we succeed in that, we will done all that we have been called to do.
We are men with hope to bring because we trust that God is present and active in our world, always and without exception. The morning newspaper and the evening news are direct challenges to that conviction; so many events and situations seem to indicate that God has abandoned us. We choose to live in contradiction of that. However camouflaged God’s presence and activity may be at times, we believe they are constant.
We are men with hope to bring because we work to be united, with one another as brothers and with all people. There is a strength in our union; Father Moreau called it a lever that could move the whole world. We believe our example of union can be an agent for transformation in a divided world.
We are men with hope to bring because we see and have seen the power of the cross. Father Moreau situated us at the foot of the cross, next to Mary. From that perspective, we can expect the resurrection, the new life that Jesus promised. We hope because we believe those promises to be true for all time. In ministry and in community we have seen those promises come to life.
As Brothers, we can be many things for our world, but “We must be men with hope to bring.”
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