Inside ML

Having vision means having hope. Having hope means that healing is possible, and we who live, minister, and worship in this battered church are called not only to form vision but to enact that vision. It’s no longer enough to follow where the vision of others may lead. Our baptism demands that we who would claim the name Christian express that vision with which each of us has been graced by the Holy Spirit, whose gifts know no gender nor race. As Joan Chittister says, “Vision depends on an ability to evaluate the present. It’s one thing to want a better future — a lot of people do. It’s another thing entirely to recognize what’s lacking in the present so that we can, as a people, focus our energies on creating the kind of future that includes what we yet need but do not have.” 

In this issue are the results of such a focus on what we yet need but do not entirely have. The Devotional category of our Visual Arts Awards reflects a contemplative side of our worship. The Best of Show in this category depicts Joseph and Mary as a couple, embracing and rejoicing in the company of each other. Truly, we need such images, but we do not yet have many. Robert Hater, in reflecting on a well-celebrated funeral Mass, envisions the hospitality that should always be part of our worship experience. We need to be welcoming, but we are not yet inviting. Jeanette Jabour offers insights on the rights of the elders in our parish communities to participate in parish life. Their wisdom, strength, and lives of faith should have a place of honor in our future, but we do not yet value these as we should. Karen Westerfield Tucker considers the many painful challenges surrounding infertility and childlessness with regard to ritual prayer. We need sensitive ways of supporting, praying, and journeying with those in every phase of the life cycle, but we are not yet there, being as uncomfortable with beginning-of-life issues as we are with end-of-life issues. In all of this, as Gail Morris shows us, we should always be an Easter people, but we struggle even to celebrate for the entire season. 

There is vision here, and plenty of it. As we struggle with the wounds that threaten to divide us, we continue the work at hand. In that work, we endure because of the love of God, and in that endurance comes hope. And hope does not disappoint. ML

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