In the Voice of Moreau: The Cross is our truly unique hope. It is not just another thing among a myriad of things to put one’s hope in, but instead it is an altogether different project. Think about it – there is a difference between putting our hope in a football team, a politician, a career or even a spouse and putting our hope in the crucified Christ. The football team wins and loses, the politician rises and falls, a career comes and goes, a spouse is not always faithful, but the Cross does not change! The Cross cannot change! The Christ who has been stripped of everything cannot win or lose, rise or fall, come or go, or be unfaithful – he has made the decision to hide nothing, to leave nothing to the imagination. We can trust the Cross precisely because we know what we are getting! Perhaps we are secretly attached to the drama and suspense of false hopes. We like to be in the darkness as it were, the feeling of not knowing and leaving things up to fate. We feel special when things go our way and we are “blessed” with what we want. The Cross is an emphatic No! to all of this. The Cross is instead an orientation, a posture, a way of relating to the other, a true act of trust that is guaranteed to put us in touch with what is – no matter what! Let us therefore make the decision, here and now, to take the risk of the Cross with our master, our absolutely unique hope that cannot but give us life. Ave Crux Spes Unica!
Holy Cross Educator’s Reply: Blessed Basil Moreau believes that “effective teach[ing]” is the result of a call from God. It is more than a vocation: it is “an orientation, a posture, a way of relating”. How do teachers and administrators in Holy Cross schools assess whether or not they are truly called to teach, to lead? In Christian Education, Part One “Teachers and Students” (Moreau, 1856) Moreau lists nine virtues that Holy Cross educators need to cultivate: faithfulness, knowledge, zeal, vigilance, seriousness, gentleness, patience, prudence and firmness. For the teacher in a Holy Cross school, faithfulness is far more than showing up each day ready to present the lesson. “It is the virtue that draws us to fulfill faithfully our duties to God”. It is the virtue that develops Christians not just scholars. It is the foundation upon which the essence of the mission is provided: “the development of the heart and the soul on which good values depend”. Truly reverent teachers consider their students as gifts from God, “and they consider them adopted children of God and temples of the Holy Spirit”. Moreover, “[t]hey do not cease reminding students of Christian commitments, the works of God, and the effects of the sacraments”. Moreau concludes that teachers imbued with faithfulness “’will shine like the stars of the heavens for eternity’” (Book of Daniel 12, 3). Ave Crux Spes Unica!
Voice of Moreau 