LIVING INSIDE HOPE

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire is from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” – Barbara Kingsolver

Next weekend, Regis Jesuit will send a delegation of students and teachers to Washington D.C. for the Ignatian Family Teach-In. The Teach-In has been going on for the past 22 years, beginning in the 90s with a desire to remember and honor the Jesuits and their companions who were martyred in 1989 in El Salvador. Regis Jesuit began participating in the Teach-In in 2005, sending a delegation of two girls with two chaperones. Today, about 2000 students from Jesuit high schools, universities and other members of the Ignatian Family—including 14 students and four adults from RJ--will meet to learn, reflect, pray, network and advocate together. They gather to be a voice for the voiceless and to seek justice for all, particularly those on the margins.

This formational trip offers our students an opportunity to live “inside hope.” They will spend many hours preparing for this experience as they learn about the issues and prepare to meet with our representatives on Capitol Hill. In that process, students are challenged to see with new eyes—ones that notice all of God’s people and hearts that are moved in compassion for the world. Hope is not about blindly expecting good things to happen. Hope is about diving in, engaging the messiness of life with eyes that see beyond the mess. As the students do their research, they uncover many issues of injustice and face the suffering of our world directly. It can be easy to lose hope or to see the problems of the world as too big to solve.

I recall the first time I attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In in 2007. I felt overwhelmed by all the things to fix and the places to help the world. I sat in sessions that offered great ideas about how to engage our community and walk justly in the world. The information was insightful and inspiring, but I also felt overwhelmed. I wondered what more I could do in my own community and doubted my own efforts and abilities. It wasn’t until we celebrated Mass together that I took some time to reflect. I recall sitting in a huge conference room during the Communion procession listening to the song We Are One Body and being moved to tears at the power of the moment. I looked around and saw people of all ages singing this song together. I felt connected to the Body of Christ, and my heart grew a bit larger than it had been before. My eyes saw not only the suffering that I had been learning about, but the hope that lies in our community through the commitment of everyday men and women who desire a world rooted in Gospel values. I felt God’s grace through the invitation to live under this roof of hope. “We are one body, one body in Christ, and we do not stand alone.”

So as our Ignatian Family Teach-In delegation leaves on November 15, may we as a community keep them in our prayers. May they be brave enough to do more than admire hope; may they engage the suffering of others and live under the roof of hope so that we can be one. To live with hope in the midst of this suffering is a bold enterprise. Let’s all be bold.

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Catherine Cole is in her 14th year of teaching at Regis Jesuit. She teaches theology, coordinates the senior retreat program and works on a team that is developing the Community Partnership Initiative.