PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE

Speaking recently to several hundred men who had completed the “Rites of Passage” program he founded, Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan Friar, author, and spiritual sage, expressed self-doubt about the significance of his work. As he approaches the end of his life and ministry, he wondered aloud, almost despondently, “When we started this work, we really believed that we could change all this, and now I look back and I wonder what of it really mattered. How did we end up in a place [all these years later] where I look at the world and it’s still this difficult? . . . How is this happening after 2000 years of Christianity?”

I confess to often having similar doubts. How is it that after two millennia of the spiritual revolution that is Christianity, that our world does not reflect the spirit and the values that revolution birthed? And how is it that we Christians have contributed so thoroughly and unrepentantly to the reality we live in today? These questions and others occupy my thoughts often as I think about the work of the seminary and what it is that we’re preparing leaders to do in the world. At times one is tempted to throw in the towel and to conclude that the tradition is beyond reform and that the decline we are seeing is the consequence of our compromising so thoroughly the spiritual revolution and tradition Jesus gave us.

When those thoughts are most tempting, I often return to the wisdom of Ángel Villarini Jusino, professor at the University of Puerto Rico, who wrote, “Humans are beings of traditions, we feed on them, our lives gain meaning and direction thanks to them. To belong to a tradition is to feel part of a historical process that transcends us, it is to recognize that nothing important is built in a generation. The achievement of great aspirations only occurs in the succession of generations.... In this sense, educational [and spiritual] reform must be conceived as a long-term historical process of which we are part and within the framework of which our efforts and struggles gain a sense of mission and critical hope” (translation mine).

The work of spiritual formation and reform is neverending. It is in these most difficult times that the best of our tradition is most in need, and that the wisdom, the call for justice, for spiritual renewal and awakening, and the work of forming leaders in the way of Jesus is an imperative. At GarrettEvangelical we cannot and will not tire of attempting to grow in the way of Jesus, and of preparing others to do the same. The challenge may feel overwhelming, the work will be arduous, but the calling endures. As we do so, we also remember, as Bishop Ken Untener has so wisely reminded us, “We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development.” That is the work our graduates go forth to do. Pray for them and for us, that through our striving to walk in the way of Jesus, the world will grow in compassion, justice, and hope.