Where the Cross and Hope Meet
(Lee este reflexión en español.)
When I began my inquiries about priesthood and religious life, the Congregation of Holy Cross caught my attention with the motto: Ave Crux, Spes Unica, the Cross is Our Only Hope. I was working as a journalist on Capitol Hill covering Senate Banking and eventually taxes and budget through the House Ways and Means Committee in the mid to late 1980’s. During my time in our nation’s Capital, I found myself stepping over one homeless person after another. I then began stopping and talking these folks. Although I would not have expressed it this way at the time, I found myself listening to and seeing the face of Christ in the homeless.
These experiences, plus my background as a cradle Catholic with one uncle a diocesan priest and another uncle a Franciscan brother and missionary, led me to seriously consider a vocation. My experience with the poor in Washington, D.C. and other places led me to understand our founder’s charism of sending out the brothers and priests of Holy Cross to be educators in the faith to the poor and the abandoned.
As the pastor of St. Rita’s in Dade City, Florida, I am privileged to walk with the poor, immigrants and anyone in need. Holy Cross took responsibility for the people of this parish in 2008 because we knew that it was an option for the poor. Most of the parish is either Spanish-speaking or bilingual. Many of them began their time in the United States as migrant farm workers.
I find that the Cross of Christ in their suffering consistently gives way to a joy in them that can only be described as faith. For me, the people of this parish, especially the poorest and the undocumented, represent a great hope for the Church in the United States. The very same hope in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ that our founder knew of: Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
Cuando tuve la inquietud sobre el sacerdocio y la vida religiosa la Congregación de Santa Cruz me llamo la atención con su lema: Crux Spes Única que significa, la Cruz es nuestra única esperanza. Yo era periodista en el Capitolio en Washington, D.C. justo después de graduar de la universidad. Allí en los años 80 hubo mucha gente desamparada y pobre. Empecé a platicar y escucharles a ellos en la calle. Ellos me hicieron tomar la conciencia de la presencia de Cristo en los más pobres. Estas experiencias y más una mi familia muy Católica con mi tío que era sacerdote y otro que era misionero con los Franciscanos me animaron a hacerme religioso y sacerdote.
El carisma de la Congregación de Santa Cruz como misioneros es ser educadores en la fe a los pobres y gente abandonada. Como párroco de una comunidad, Sta. Rita en Dade City, Florida, tengo el privilegio de caminar con gente inmigrante y pobre. Hay un porcentaje que no tiene sus documentos pero sus niños nacieron aquí. Muchos de ellos llegaron de México piscando y trabajando en la agricultura. Ellos han sufrido mucho simplemente cruzando la frontera. Pero en medio de sus cruces y sufrimientos ellos tienen una fe profunda en la resurrección del Señor y en Nuestra Madre de Guadalupe!
Acompañándoles a ellos yo he encontrado día a día la Cruz de Cristo que no es una Cruz de muerte pero de vida, resurrección y esperanza: Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
