Hardwired to Connect

Tough questions, to be sure. And no easy answers.

 

Brian Justice, a 1985 Collegiate graduate who’s enrolled in the Deacons’ School of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, has fielded those queries, or similar ones, in the two months that the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted lives and ravaged the economy.

 

“Certainly, when the normal is taken from you, you question,” he said, “and there’ve been a lot of questions about Why? and How?”

 

An Upper School history and religion teacher and member of the boys basketball coaching staff at his alma mater since 1996, Justice

is 15 months into a two-year program to become a vocational deacon.

 

As a diaconal intern, an assignment he undertook in January, he fulfills a wide variety of duties at Church of the Holy Comforter located on Monument Avenue at Staples Mill Road. Those duties include participation in services as well as outreach ministry and pastoral care.

 

Each Friday and Sunday at 8 p.m., he broadcasts live on the church’s Facebook page a short meditation called Compline from the Book of Common Prayer. In the monastic tradition, he explained, monks and nuns gather seven times daily for communal prayer. Compline is the night prayer, the last of the day.

 

“It’s a much-loved service,” Justice said. “The language and rhythm are beautiful. People find comfort and consolation in it. They find strength and security. It’s a time for reflection because there’re pauses and moments for silence to offer prayers and thanksgiving. In terms of giving people coping mechanisms, it’s certainly there.”

 

Justice also finds interesting the parallels between his role as a teacher and his preparation for the diaconate.

 

“As an historian and theologian, if I can dare call myself either,” he said, “I would think that history and theology teach at least a couple of things.”

 

History, he explained, teaches that the world is constantly in change.

 

“In that sense,” he said, “everything is on schedule. Much of what we have suffered is separation from what we have socially contrived: our calendars, our comings and goings from this place or that or meetings with this group or that group.

 

“When we look at history, war, famine, other disasters either natural or human-made have constantly racked the world. It’s sobering that, while the world has suffered many pandemics and plagues, we’ve already seen several pandemics (SARS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola, and now COVID-19) in the 21^st Century. This is not normal, yet it’s totally normal.”

 

Theological tradition, he explained, teaches the importance of community.

 

“That’s true for all the world’s religions,” he said. “We’re hardwired to connect with something and someone beyond ourselves and greater than ourselves. None of us exist alone. We exist in dependence on and in connection with our families, friends, communities, localities, and traditions. People are reflecting on those connections. One of the things schools and churches are doing is finding ways to keep those connections alive.”

 

So what does Justice tell parishioners and anyone else who seeks his counsel?

 

“I’m there to listen,” he said. “I certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers. I’ve had the great fortune and privilege of an amazing education at Collegiate and UVA, in the church, and in life. If anything, I channel and pass along the wisdom of others.

 

“The first thing is just to be ‘with.’ I’ve discovered in my education and in pastoral care that the most important word is ‘with,’ not ‘for.’ A lot of times, we think ‘for’ is most important, that we want to do something ‘for’ somebody.

 

“‘For’ is great, but at a more existential, interior, human level, people want to be ‘with.’ They want to connect…with another person, another community. What I’m trying to do is be ‘with.’”

 

And in challenging times, he added, summoning inner strength is essential.

 

“Spiritual discipline, for me, means many things,” Justice said. “It means daily practice of prayer, meditation, silence, and study. It also means physical activity and exertion. I find that balance in what St. Benedict called Ora et Labora. Pray and work. Spiritual work and physical work.

 

“We don’t know about tomorrow or the next day or next year. What we have is the moment. That’s where we focus our practice. The best thing I can tell people is the truth.”

   ~Weldon Bradshaw