Through fascinating exhibits, music, performances and art, Tri-Cities Encounter:Beyond the Barricade examines the question "What unites us, as persons, cultures and Nations?"
The need and desire for unity is a common cry: we strive to create it in our schools, churches and places of work. Workshops, in-services, retreats all aim to cultivate this basic human longing, yet discord and isolation re
main. How is one to live in a divided world in which every search for unity appears futile? This is a crisis of man, a crisis that destroys man, and is displayed in family life, public life and the political arena. What moves us beyond this barricade of division and separateness?
“Will it ever be possible to obtain this brotherhood by human effort alone? As society becomes ever more globalized, it makes us neighbors but does not make us brothers. Reason by itself is
capable of grasping the equality between men and of giving stability to their civic coexistence, but it cannot establish fraternity.” -Pope Benedict XVI from the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Is it possible that this search for solidarity remains fruitless, because it already exists? Is it possible that it is not so much a searching for unity but a removal of a barrier? Saint Bonaventure… explains the path by which man truly becomes himself with the help f the likeness of the sculptor. “The sculptor, says the great Franciscan theologian, does not make anything, rather his work is “ablation” – the removal of what is not really part of the sculptor. By means of this ablation, the nobis forma (noble form) which was there all along, takes shape.” In the same way, man, already united by common human nature, human desire and, if Christian, one baptism in Christ, is indeed, united on the deepest and most human of levels. Could it be that all that is required for unity of persons, nations and cultures already exists and has all along? Is it possible that the source of this unity is a Person? Convinced that through a real encounter with other persons we can find something greater than ourselves, Tri-Cities Encounter 2014 will introduce a number of charitable and cultural initiatives. Renowned speakers from New York, Boston, Quebec and the greater Northwest will explore these topics of human interest, highlighted by various exhibits, speakers, music and performing groups.
