Alliance for Catholic Education
One of my great professional challenges - which I suspect many of you can relate to - is that I struggle to find the time to read all the articles that people send me. The upside of having spent so much time on airplanes for five straight weeks is that I've been able to catch up on a lot of the backlog. I use an app called Pocket to save articles I intend to read later, and I finally reached the bottom of the very deep stack of articles that has been piling up on me.
While it's embarrassing to admit that some of these articles have been languishing in my Pocket account for more than 2 years, I came across a beautiful address delivered by Archbishop Vigneron of Detroit about Catholic schools and I wanted to share a portion of it. The full address is itself worth reading - you can find it here - and while you may want to put it in Pocket to save till you have time, I don't recommend waiting two years to get around to it! - I just want to call attention to a single passage that resonated with me yesterday morning on my Delta flight to Palm Beach, where I'm facilitating a workshop on root beliefs and Catholic school culture at St Luke Catholic School.
Archbishop Vigneron calls us to reexamine our schools with "more zealous hearts." He says we need to "go down to the very roots...re-think everything we are doing...being sure we have a laser-like focus on the mission of sharing Christ with our children." And then - critically - he explains why we need to do any of this: "We want this above all because it glorifies God when we raise up new saints."
This might actually be the best root belief I've ever read. I certainly believe it. I believe that God is glad when we lift up new saints. As educators we are called to develop the gifts and talents of our children - to cultivate their minds and their hearts - to prepare them to be citizens of this world and the next. This is why I think what we do is worth doing. It's why I send my kids to Catholic school. It's why I work for Catholic schools. It's why I think our schools are worth whatever they cost. Because this is a goal that can be achieved nowhere else, by no other means. It's why I love my job.
Clear and compelling root beliefs are at the heart of effective leadership. In all the effective schools I've ever visited, the common thread - the secret sauce - is the presence of root beliefs that clearly explain everything that happens at the school. At Mother Teresa Middle School in Regina last week, six root beliefs are posted in large, bright letters in the central hallway, and every policy can be traced back to one of the beliefs. At St. John the Evangelist in Tucson, where I visited Yvonne Chavez last week, the root belief "God in All Things" is fixed in foot-high wrought-iron letters to the front gate of the school, and every lesson is planned to reflect this belief in some way. Strong school leaders aren't just principals who know what they believe, but they are the ones who communicate their beliefs clearly, consistently, and confidently, and who apply them intentionally to every policy, program, and procedure.
I just love the clarity of this statement of belief that Archbishop Vigneron captures: "It glorifies God when we raise up new saints." I believe that. I suspect you do too. I'd encourage you, this week, to share that belief, or perhaps another, with your students and community, and let them know exactly how that belief drives you to do the work you do.
- Christian
Spiritual Reflection
by Ashley Hobbs
Matthew 25:31-46
Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?'
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."
What an extraordinarily terrifying thought; "'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment."
As a first year teacher in the PLACE Corps service teacher program, teaching 6th grade in inner city Los Angeles, I came in contact with the needy, hungry, homeless, and unloved on a daily basis. If I were to give money to every person I saw, I would run out of funds well before meeting everyone's financial needs. As a young person of deep faith, I struggled with this Gospel passage for a long time. Was Jesus telling me that every person I did not help meant that I was ignoring Him? Was Jesus telling me that if I did not help each of these people I would be cast off into eternal punishment? How was I, a teacher making less than minimum wage supposed to singlehandedly solve the problem of the needy in Los Angeles?
One day, on my way to work, I stopped at a gas station located precariously between LA's largest housing projects and the freeway. My mother would have had a heart attack if she knew I was stopping there, but I was just about out of gas. As my car filled up, a homeless man approached me. After offering to fill up my tank or wash my windows, he asked if I had any cash to spare. I did not. His next question threw me for a loop. He asked me if I would give him a hug. Feeling bad that I could not help him in any other way, I said sure. After we hugged, he said I gave the best hugs, grinned the biggest smile I have ever seen, and thanked me.
Jesus' challenge in the Gospel is not one of financial responsibility, although that is certainly helpful. His challenge is for us to recognize the humanity in each living soul. To recognize that everyone around us was created in His divine image. Mother Teresa reminds us that God would never ask more of us than we can give. We might not be able to spare a few dollars, but we can always spare a smile or a word of kindness. The man that day thanked me for seeing that he was more than his state of homelessness. He was a person longing to be recognized. His smile and thank you were a gift to me from God. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we are more than what has happened to us and so are the people around us. Underneath all of the events that shape our lives, each of us is still a child of God, longing to be loved and recognized by others.
What I once thought of as terrifying Gospel, because I couldn't help everyone, has become a saving grace of sorts. I no longer work in the inner city, but poverty is not limited to finances. Every person we come in contact with is struggling with something and our challenge is to recognize the need around us and do what we can to make someone's day a little better. Whether it is holding the door open for someone at Starbucks on our way to work, giving an unexpected compliment to a struggling student, or simply smiling and saying hello to strangers we pass on the street, we have an opportunity to change someone's day for the better. This is the essence of being Catholic—to be in community with others, not just writing that check for the collection on Sundays or giving a few bucks to the man in ragged clothes. So long as we continue to search for the sacredness of others in the chaos of our everyday lives, God promises us eternal life in his glorious kingdom. Rather than an impossible task, it seems like we are getting quite the bargain!
So recognize someone's humanity. See beyond the dirty, tattered clothes. See beyond the misbehaving student. See beyond the grouchy coworker. See beyond the exterior and look into the soul, created in the divine image of our Lord. Every person is sacred and we are given the extraordinary gift of coming into contact with God every day through all those we meet. I live for those moments. To witness the sacred. To see God in the grinning man at the gas station under the overpass.