My work often involves frequent visits to our guest house. Many come to the Hill because their struggles, infirmities, and troubles impel them to run toward the nearest “safe place.” Our guest house becomes a microcosm of uncertainties, struggles, and vicissitudes that plague contemporary life. We monks and our co-workers often are the “first responders” for those seeking refuge, solace, and healing. We become witnesses to their testimonies of past trauma, present struggles, and future dreams. We encounter Christ coming among us, bringing light and grace for those yearning for salvation.
Polarization, social unrest, and economic instability are becoming the new norm. Ideologies based on racial purity, national sovereignty, consumptive economics, theocracy, or technocratic progress continue to plague us. Each, in turn, perverts, corrupts, and obscures our intrinsic human dignity and bonds of fellowship rooted in the one human family and all of creation. Unsurprisingly, each of us is susceptible to moments of optimism and pessimism these days. And yet, every visitor, retreatant, or guest brings the possibility of newness and hope.
To be blunt, I am not an optimist, and there may be more troubling times to follow. However, each time I welcome someone to the Hill, it is an opportunity to be attentive, intelligent, reasonable, responsible, and loving because Christ is here again! That is our hope! Thus, through our imperfect striving to be more fully ourselves in Christ, we bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth as in heaven. That is my hope for Saint Meinrad this year of Jubilee.
Br. Gregory Morris, OSB, Monk, Saint Meinrad Archabbey