Finding Hope in Our Charism
As I reflect on the celebration of the 165th anniversary of the arrival of the first two Brothers in Brooklyn, I give thanks to God for the gift of our charism in the Church and the world! I had the opportunity to speak about hope last year on the World Day of Consecrated Life at a joint event sponsored by the National Religious Vocation Conference, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Religious Formation Conference, and the Religious Brothers Conference. A couple of months later, my world was turned upside down and I quickly put that hope-filled talk in the back of my mind. That same talk later appeared as an article in a section of NRVC’s Horizon Journal called Feed Your Spirit that was published in August. The article took on new meaning and gave me an opportunity to reflect on hope as I personally dealt with a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. I also realized that it was not only me or my family who was dealing with this diagnosis, but my Franciscan Brothers were also dealing with this. This diagnosis, along with the several deaths in the community, also represented a bigger reality of diminishment within the Franciscan Brothers. How do we find signs of hope in the midst this?
We have known all too well how difficult
it has been recently to have hope the last couple of years with all the
weariness in our world. Yet, despite
this weariness, Pope Francis invited us, in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, to a renewed hope, a hope that “speaks to us of
something deeply rooted in every human heart.” It is a hope that is bold and
courageous. It is a hope that is deeply rooted, not only in our individual hearts,
but also in the heart
of our congregation – our charism.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, charisms are “graces of the Holy Spirit
which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her
building up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world” (CCC 799). In
everyday language, we could say that charism can be understood as the gifts
from God that allow a person or group to live out the Gospel in relation to the
world around them. Looking at our Rule
and Constitutions, our Charism is found in the way we live the Gospel. According to our Identity and Consecration in
our Constitutions, our gift is “to make Christ present by rebuilding His
Church, by sowing seeds of Christian Consciousness and brotherhood, and by
living together in peace” and we have traditionally done this in educational
and pastoral ministries. Originally,
this charism was shared with an immigrant population. Our founding Brothers put the Gospel into
daily practice in schools for Irish immigrant children as teachers and
administrators. One could say that our
founding Charism is living the Gospel by meeting the needs of an immigrant
population and we accomplished this in schools.
How do we find signs of this hope in our charism when
there seems to be so much weariness?
Perhaps we re-tell the story of the first Brothers who took the risk to travel to Brooklyn to undertake a new ministry. They had hope, a hope that speaks of a thirst as Pope Francis says, a thirst for living the Gospel and meeting a need. They established relationships, built community, and celebrated the interwoven, interconnected, and interdependent relationships. Their hope was bold. It looked beyond inconveniences and roadblocks that were placed before them. How do we rediscover the signs of this hope?
Is it possible for us to have this same type of hope? I say yes. If we tell the stories of these Brothers and those Brothers in more recent times who took risks to think outside the box and live our charism in a “non-traditional” way, or those Brothers who may have proposed or who might in the future propose a new ministry or new expression of our charism, perhaps we can see signs of hope that may have been overlooked or forgotten. As we approach our 165th anniversary, is there enough spark left in our charism to have hope for the future? I say yes.
This hope is perhaps even more important for us today. This hope calls us to something bigger than ourselves. This hope calls us to rediscover the heart of our religious profession; it calls us to continually look for ways to reconnect our individual hearts with the heart of our Congregation – the charism – and paying attention to how the gift of our charism can be lived today. This is the hope of our charism.
I heard a question that I continue
to reflect on, and I think can be helpful
in finding this hope: Where
is the cry of those in need so strong that I must respond with my life? To
answer this question, we must use the Gospel as the guide for living radically,
the radical living that is being as faithful as we can to the calling of our
founders – Francis, Clare, and the
first Brothers who arrived in Brooklyn from Ireland to educate immigrants, even
though the response to the calling of our founders might look differently
today. This, too, is the hope of our charism.
There
is still hope and we cannot lose the thirst for that hope, a hope that is bold
enough to say, yes, our lives as Franciscan Brothers are relevant and needed in
our world; a hope that is willing to listen to and respond to the loud cry of
those in need; a hope that embraces the present with passion to bring about a
future that is filled with abundant
hope; it is a hope that does not give up. Perhaps
it is now time to have the courageous hope to do what needs
to be done. We must bring hope;
we must be hope bearers against all odds, to be the voice and action of
hope. I believe this hope that we bear is in the courageous living of our
Charism. A charism that is uniquely
lived by us, the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn. Living our charism with abundant hope is what will again attract
vocations to our Congregation. So, is there hope for the Franciscan Brothers of
Brooklyn? I say yes! We find this hope in the living of our charism.
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