Our Commitment is an Invitation for our Fellow Christians to Fulfill their Vocation

This week's bulletin column provided an introduction to the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Staff changes in a parish occasion a long process of getting to know each other.  You’re getting to know your new priests and me, your soon-to-be-deacon, and we’re getting to know you.  You have an advantage, though: you know our family.  These parishes have been served by generations of religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross.  If our bonds of religious profession are serving as they should, meeting us should be like meeting the extended family of old friends.

An excellent way to get to know this family better is through reading some of our Constitutions.  This document is moving statement of who we are, our Rule of Life, guiding principles and spiritual understanding.  It is freely available online: http://tinyurl.com/CSCcons .

The Constitutions start and end with God’s action. We begin with the only reason such varied men would join themselves together: a call from God.  This section tell us that “our commitment is an invitation for our fellow Christians to fulfill their vocation.”  This is the chief reason for me to invite you to spend some time with our Constitutions: not just to get to know us better (we’re really not all that important), but to understand how God might be calling you to be leaven in the world.

The end of the document takes us to the Cross, the privileged place to witness God’s love, the love that urges us on in our mission.  We hear about the cross as a world-changing event which re-echoes throughout time for those with ears to hear.  We hear of the dying we experience daily, the crosses we carry and the crosses that, like Mary, we stand beside.  We hear also of the rising.  We hear of hope, hope that can see a crown of glory hidden in every crown of thorns.  So we hail the cross; we call it our only hope. Ave Crux, Spes Unica!

Standing in between those reflections on God’s action, we read about what we are to do: the mission we undertake, the prayer that sustains and animates it, the brotherhood that refreshes us and that witnesses to the possibility of union in a fragmented and lonely world.  Most of you reading this do not share our vows, our experience of formation or our leadership structures.  What we have in common is that God has called us all.  You each have a gospel to proclaim in word and deed, a prayer that is yours to pray, and people to walk with on this pilgrimage.

Our constitutions show how these are connected.  A few quotes are in order: “The more we come through prayer to relish what is right, the better we shall work in our mission for the realization of the kingdom”; “It is essential to our mission that we strive to abide so attentively together that people will observe: ‘See how they love one another.’”  How will you and your family make God known, loved and served this week?