Be a Witness of Hope

I believe there have been three reckonings with the novel coronavirus since it became clear that the U.S. would be infected. The first reckoning was the recognition that it would take extreme measures to protect ourselves against this threat. That was the lockdown. Then, as time lagged on and infections began to increase again following Memorial Day, we depressingly recognized that this thing was going to be with us longer than we expected. Now, I think as we have lived through those two reckonings, we know that it is going to be a long time before we feel completely safe again, not counting the lingering trauma of learning that our world still holds plagues that can disrupt our lives to this degree.

In our Pentecost letter, I drew on the Institute’s namesake to help us to find hope in this reality. “Yves Congar, OP described himself during the nine years he was silenced and exiled by his own beloved Church as being under constant duress. Nine years is a long time, especially compared to how long just these few months of living under the duress of the coronavirus seem. Yet, Congar used those nine years to continue his work as a professor, not publicly, but in quiet research and writing, trusting that this work would be useful for the Church’s future renewal. Of course, his journey mirrors that of Christ’s early followers who were cowered and silenced under the duress of the religious authorities until they were freed by the irrepressible power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when an immense energy of renewal and hope was released into the world.”

This year, “the Congar Institute celebrates 15 years of our mission to partner with dioceses in the formation of lay pastoral leaders. Like Friar Congar, we have always taken a hopeful stance, looking with different eyes at what has been called a “vocation shortage”, seeing instead an abundance of vocations among lay persons called to pastoral leadership. This hopeful attitude continues at the Congar Institute, even in this difficult time.”

While we are prevented from working as before, our work continues with hope. This newsletter demonstrates some of the ways that we are doing so. Since the U.S. onset of the pandemic in January, we have completed major projects for Galveston-Houston and Victoria, we continue with our Hispanic formation inventory in Beaumont, and we’ve continued our consulting work with the USCCB Subcommittee for Certification of Ecclesial Ministry and Service and with the USCCB Subcommittee for Hispanic/Latino Affairs’ V Encuentro Young Adult Hispanic Leadership Initiative. We’ve “Zoomed” 3 Resource Persons into the Lay Ecclesial Ministry Formation Program in Salt Lake City and continued to consult with them on implementing their pastoral plan under current conditions. We’ve begun conversations with another diocese about assisting with their planning to help them come out of the Pandemic stronger and even more focused on mission.

We dug deep to try to provide means for strengthening, comforting, encouraging, and offering hope to our partners with hand-washing meditations and daily Scripture reflections in the early days of the Pandemic and weekly blog entries in these latter days. We are gearing up to offer a unique resource of theological reflection for all takers in a few weeks, recognizing that we need to go to the deep reserves of our faith to emerge from this Pandemic even stronger in faith, hope, and love and in closer communion with God, our neighbor, and ourselves.

Perhaps one of the most hopeful events over these last few months is the coming together of our new Board of Directors. We have also continued our hopeful efforts at fundraising. In addition to our successful Pentecost appeal, we have managed our most successful Big Give event ever.

Perhaps the most important witness committed Christians have to offer the world at this time is hope in the face of difficulties and challenges. Hope that brings forth a creative and determined response that presents a viable option to despair. Like Congar, we may not be able to continue under the current circumstance in the manner to which we had become accustomed, but we can find new ways to be a resource to others and we can prepare to be a resource for a renewed and renewing future. Your partnership in this vital response is our great hope. Thank you for being with us in this essential mission. We look forward to walking with you for the next 15 years.