One Lasallian's thoughts

From today’s gospel: “Jesus answered them and said, … ‘Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you’… So they said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.'"

“When Jesus Christ is in you, is he there as a living bread?" (De La Salle, Med. 48.1)

Backward design. “Design with the end in mind." Today’s gospel is a perfect example of this educational philosophy. Jesus lays it out very clearly. The goal is eternal life in Christ; we do not settle for less, for it will simply perish. Yes, there are interim steps. College preparation and success are certainly necessary, for what student will be able to focus on God without the ability to break the cycle of poverty? But if we believe that high grades and college readiness scores are the extent of what we are to accomplish, we need to remember that discipleship brings the bread that truly satisfies, the wine that is never exhausted. As we think about goals and standards at the beginning of the school year, may we be consistent about asking De La Salle’s question: Is Christ living in us, animating and nourishing us? Are we sharing this food with our students as well?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

Today’s first reading: “A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God, twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits, and fresh grain in the ear. Elisha said, ‘Give it to the people to eat.’ But his servant objected, ‘How can I set this before a hundred people?’ Elisha insisted, ‘Give it to the people to eat. For thus says the LORD, They shall eat and there shall be some left over.’ And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said."

“God wants you, then, to remain completely abandoned to his guidance, awaiting from him alone and from his goodness all the help you need." (De La Salle, Med. 20.2)

Tomorrow we begin with faith and Lasallian formation, as is appropriate for us. We then continue with an intense schedule that includes professional development, a potential glimpse into our future, and some time to get ready for the year. And as always, I find myself wondering if there is enough time to be ready for the students. Today’s readings, especially the first from Second Kings, provide comfort. During this four days of preparation, we receive much, even if, like Elisha’s servant, we might wonder if it is enough to share with 356 young people. John Martens of the University of St. Thomas reminds us, however, “What Elisha received as a representative of God, he gave back to the people. Everyone ate, as promised, and there was some left over" (Martens, “No One Should Have Nothing", America, July 20-27, 2015). What we receive, as ambassadors and ministers of Christ, is not for us. We are to share it with our students. If we share without cost or condition, as did Elisha, and Jesus in today’s gospel, there will be more than enough for all, simply because we trusted in God’s guidance that we would receive all that we need. May our prayer for this week be that we will look first to share ourselves and our gifts with our students, seeking God’s guidance in all that we do.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

From this Sunday’s gospel: “The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things."

“The members of the flock of Jesus Christ are also obliged to hear their shepherd’s voice. It is, then, your duty to teach the children entrusted to you; this is your duty every day." (De La Salle, Med. 33.3)

It has been my prayer this summer that your time away from school, including the next few days, has been a time of peace and a source of refreshment. Today’s gospel reminds us why that rest is so important. Just like the crowds in Mark’s gospel, tomorrow over one hundred freshmen will arrive, before many of us, at San Miguel for more CIP training. And next week, all of the rest will follow. They are coming because, like Jesus, we have much to offer, and, no matter how aware they are of it, the students are in need of what is offered here. De La Salle reminds us that, also like Jesus, we are to shepherd and teach all those who are flocking to San Miguel and have been entrusted to our care. So in our prayers this week, remember our freshmen starting the San Miguel Institute and their devoted and caring shepherds. But let us also pray that the rest of us will be ready. The sheep of this year’s flock have arrived, ready to hear the voices and model the actions of their shepherds – our words, our actions.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

From Sunday’s gospel: “So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs."

Goodbyes. When we think of Jesus ascending to heaven, or seniors graduating, or perhaps underclassmen not returning to San Miguel, we tend to think of goodbyes. We wonder about those who are leaving and we pray that they will do well. But it seems as if we have no more influence or ability to help them, and knowing them as we do, we feel that, in some way, they need more from us. Brother Gerard Rummery, in reflecting on De La Salle’s death, says, “Yet even at the end of his life . . . he had exactly 100 followers. . . De La Salle must have wondered, as he lay dying, what was going to happen to these 100 people."

We know, of course, that there are now over 4,000 brothers, 900,000 students, and 80,000 lay teachers in the Lasallian world. Why? Because De La Salle, having come to understand that God established this enterprise, trusted that He would not ever say “goodbye" to it. As the gospel passage from yesterday reminds us about the apostles (and Mark’s gospel is not particularly flattering to them) who might have said “goodbye", they went forward anyway and worked with God, who continued to work with them. Or in the words of Father William Dailey, CSC, “It started with twelve . . . who were so willing to adopt his mind and his heart that they could spread this good news as a rag-tag group of not particularly well trained itinerant preachers . . . . [A]nd nothing holds you back from it."

And so here we are. The feast of the Ascension does not call us to say “goodbye." There is nothing that can stop us from keeping our mission, our ministry, from flourishing. God continues to walk with us, and so we must continue to walk with our students, our graduates, those who seek a different educational opportunity, indeed, all who have entered this community, offering ourselves “to God to help by assisting the children entrusted to you as much as he will require of you." (Med. 197.1)

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

(Thanks to Rev. Jacek Buda, OP, homily for the Ascension, for the “goodbye" theme)

From yesterday’s gospel: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain . . . ."

From a reflection by Brother John Johnston, FSC: “John Baptist De La Salle wanted the brothers to consider these words on the first day of their annual retreat . . . We can imagine John Baptist De La Salle looking directly into the eyes of the Brothers and saying to them, “Brothers, God has given YOU such a ministry … You are the ones he has chosen." God is confiding to your care, God is entrusting to you, the children and youth that you have in your schools. . . God wants you torepresent Jesus Christ – to re-present – to make Jesus’ loving and saving presence a visible and effective reality in their lives. He wants you, in Jesus’ name and in his place, to touch their hearts and their minds. Lasallians, De La Salle addressed these words first and foremost to the Brothers . . . Today, however, Lasallians, I say that John Baptist De La Salle is addressing these words to each of you . . . In total accord with your primary life commitment, look upon your yourselves as God’s ministers, ambassadors, co-workers. Look upon yourselves as Jesus’ presence in the lives of the youth God is confiding to your care."

The next two weeks or so are challenging, filled as they are with events – reviewing, final exams, graduation, final grades – that are not normally found in the everyday rhythm of our school calendar. In this, however, we find opportunity. We have a new opportunity to be the presence of Christ, a voice of comfort and guidance, for all of our students. Maybe they are worried, scared, a little out of sorts with a change in routine, or just in need of the advice of the older sibling that encourages them to do what they already know needs to be done. We are called to touch their hearts and minds so that they will know that God does love them, and calls them just as he called us. During these weeks, let us not forget to bear fruit!

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

From the gospel of Holy Thursday: “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet."

From the second reading of Good Friday: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way . . . ."

From the epistle of Easter Vigil: “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. . . Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus."

Ten years ago this week, I took some of my seniors from Kansas City on a week long immersion trip to work in two grade schools in Memphis (Jubilee Schools) that were being run by Lasallians in the Midwest District. The Jubilee Schools are schools that meet the needs of the same urban, lower SES students that we seek to serve. All of my students had engaged in direct service to those in need as juniors, but none of them had done so in an educational setting. The reception that they received was phenomenal. Every day, they were mobbed with hugs upon arriving and leaving, escorting students to the restroom and the playground, or in helping with math and showing youngsters how to slide backwards down the slide. Every day, my students had demonstrated to them that “needy" students also needed love, care, and attention in their lives.

In our evening reflections, one of the activities that we regularly used was to list five things you were doing tomorrow and five people that you would be interacting with, and next to each activity and name, describe how you should act if you were living in De La Salle’s spirit of faith. In the middle of the week, one of the students said to us, “It doesn’t matter what activity or which student. Love them."

Thinking about Jesus’ actions during the Triduum and Easter, we might well arrive at the same summary. In all that he taught and did during this time, the message was just as simple: he loved us, and invited us to love God and one another. Just as my students learned so long ago that the essence of their service was to engage in love, may our prayer and lesson for the Triduum and Easter be a sharing of Christ’s love for us, so that we too may not only live in newness of life, but share it with those entrusted to our care.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

From today’s first reading: “The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt . . . But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

From De La Salle’s Meditations (195.2): “[The students] must also be convinced that they are a letter that Jesus Christ dictates to you, which you write each day in their heart. . . by the Spirit of the living God. . . ."

The days are here. We are writing on our students’ hearts, writing God’s words and love within them, words to be implanted forever. We write with our words, our actions, our attitudes.

A thought, shaped by the double plan article sent yesterday: When we think about our lessons and other activities with students this week, what about God do we think that we are writing? As we look at our plans from the student perspective, what will they hear? Will they hear that God is truly their god, and they truly his beloved children? What letter from God will they become?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

From today’s first reading: “Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy."

Which one of us hasn’t been in the place of the Lord from this reading during the school year? “Early and often" have the children been warned about doing work, turning things in timely, studying for tests, and making time for school instead of doing that which gets in the way of learning. And while we may not have been mocked to our faces, sometimes the turn in rate or test results strongly suggest that our words have been ignored, just as the kingdoms of Israel and Judah ignored the messengers of God.

From today’s gospel: “[S]o must the Son of Man be lifted up . . . For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

And yet, God is so persistently and deeply in love with his people that God becomes man to bring them even closer to himself, the only Son loves us in such a way that we now gaze upon the true, unconditional, self-sacrificial meaning of agape. Perhaps this reminds us of Father Boyle’s story in Tattoos on the Heart of the young man in juvenile detention whose mother came to see him every Sunday for two years, taking seven buses just to get there. We also can see this attitude reflected in the seemingly lax instructions on readmitting students to school found in De La Salle’s The Conduct of the Christian Schools (205): “Students who have already attended our schools and who have left of their own volition . . . shall be very carefully examined, and they are not to be readmitted too quickly. Without rejecting their request outright, the Director should leave the parents in suspense for a while. This will make them appreciate the favor they are asking. . . If a former student who had been expelled is brought in to be enrolled, the reason for the expulsion will be ascertained from the register. After reminding the parents of the serious reasons for the dismissal and after making them wait for some time, and if there is some hope of improvement, the Director may readmit the child with the warning, however, that if the behavior has not improved, expulsion will be final. If there is little hope that the child will improve, which is most often the case, readmission should not be granted without a serious trial period. If the behavior is not corrected, the child should be expelled for good."

What we do is often hard. But as we continue our own journeys to the cross, seeking to give more of ourselves, perhaps our prayer should be: Can I see hope of improvement even in the hardest situation? Can I be persistently and deeply in love with that troublesome or failing student just one more time? Am I willing to take that seventh bus to prove to a student that he or she is something more than, in the words of the young man in Tattoos, a “sorry ass?"

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

From last Sunday’s gospel story of the Transfiguration: “Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, ‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.’ Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them."

The beauty of Father Hesburgh’s life with Notre Dame is not that he was able to propel it into being a world-class university, with all the benefits to students, community, and world go along with such a status, or that Our Lady’s university became, in Father Jenkins’ more recent description, “a force for good in the world." The true beauty of his life and work with the University is that in all things, we were directed to Christ. Jesus Christ was, in the actions of the University, the beginning and the end, the starting point and the goal.

How do I know this? I was simply an undergraduate student from 1979 to 1983, a member of Jazz Band, Chapel Choir, and the Debate team. I wasn’t in Student Government and I didn’t report for the Observer. My parents weren’t well connected alumni. I was a non-Catholic public school kid when I arrived. I had no special knowledge or insight into the workings of the University. As it turns out, none of that was required to see Christ in all we did; it was much simpler than all that.

We prayed to start most of our classes, not just ones in theology. We were taught by a wide variety of professors, including priests. There was mass in my dorm every day, and guys went. Our rector was a priest who was pretty gruff, but despite his reputation (enhanced regularly in the great Observer comic strip “Molarity"), he truly cared for us “fellas." We talked about God, scripture, religion, and how all of these things affected the world in our hallways and room at night over popcorn, ramen noodles, and Diet Dr. Pepper, it never seemed absurd, and even the priests and nuns who were our assistant rectors listened to and engaged us as if we were fellow theologians. We took theology classes not just because we had to, but because we loved and respected the professors like Father Dunne, Father Malloy, Dr. Ford, and Father McBrien. We deeply desired to see how they saw God through literature, other people, scripture, and tradition, and they were more than willing to feed that hunger and show us what it could mean in our lives. The Center for Social Concerns, the Logan Center, the Nestle ban, the debate over nuclear freeze vote, spring break trips, liturgical ministries; all of these invited us to live what we learned. And in all of our classes, God was never far away; not because we brought him, but because our professors wanted us to engage with ideas of theology, ideas of the divine.

It is no surprise, then, that Father Hesburgh wanted to be known as, and was remembered all of last week for being, a priest. As was mentioned more than once, he was our pastor. I have worked in Catholic education long enough to know that my experiences on campus were influenced by his good leadership, leadership which set an example, but provided those “below" the room and opportunities to carry out the goal of being Catholic, pastoral, and becoming disciples of Christ in the world we strove to enter and change. In the end, it was not Father Hesburgh that we encountered: we “no longer saw anyone but Jesus" in our lives. But Father Hesburgh’s seventy-one years as priest took us to that place and, as we descended from the amazing mountain top experience that was Notre Dame, encouraged us to live it.