“We grow close to one another as brothers by living together in community. If we do not love the brothers whom we see, then we cannot love the God whom we have not seen.” (Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross 4.34)
Contributing to the mission of Holy Cross delights me. I have been busy in the preparations of welcoming students back to campus for this upcoming semester and I can often get swept up in the work. I spend most of my day thinking about the ministry I have before me – the tasks that need to be completed, the students I want to reach out to, the campus events I look forward to. I spend a lot of time thinking about and being a brother to the people I serve – so much so that sometimes it is easy for me to forget about being a brother in community.
In Holy Cross, we spend a lot of our time and devotion to caring for the mission. It is what often drives much of our common life together. And yet, in Holy Cross we are also called to see how our common life serves as not just an addendum to our mission, but part and parcel of it. Before the semester started to sweep us away, our local Holy Cross community serving at King’s College and in the Diocese of Scranton decided that it would be important for us to take a fresh look at our common life and what it means for us.
Eleven of us took a day to retreat together, and we received reflections from another religious priest serving locally who helped us think in fresh ways about our common life. One of the major reflections we shared together was the way that God has called our local community not just as individuals to our own individual missions but as a community to each other. God wants the eleven of us to be together. God has called each of us here for this year – just as he called the disciples not only as individuals to follow him, but also to form a community of believers. As the disciples were called into community, so too God has called us Holy Cross religious in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to be a community.
The retreat was called “This Place, These Brothers” and the focus was on what community means for each of us. Everybody has their own expectations of what community life will provide for them, and this retreat served as a chance for us to share and listen attentively to the experiences, needs, and blessings our brothers have had in community life. As our Constitutions quote 1 John, “If we do not love the brothers whom we see, then we cannot love the God whom we have not seen.”
This love we share with each other then serves as witness to those we serve in ministry. As I ask students to have hard conversations with their roommates, I can point to our community’s witness of living in community. Ultimately it is the way that we show love to our brothers that witnesses to the love that we have for God and the love with which God has first loved us.
Having conversations about the common life isn’t easy – everybody has their own expectations, needs, and experiences. I am so grateful to my brothers for modeling to me what it means to live together in community, to love each other as brothers, and to witness to the communion God calls all of us to in His love.
Br. Jimmy Henke, C.S.C.
Published on August 13, 2025
Photo provided by Br. Jimmy
