One Lasallian's thoughts

Jerry Meyer

Thoughts by a Lasallian educator, striving to live the mission at San Miguel High School in Tucson.

A thought for Teacher Appreciation Week and the sixth week of Easter

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From today's gospel: "I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."
From the reflection by Jonathan Leslie for the 2018 Holy Week prayer service: "I know for a fact that teachers here at San Miguel regularly work more than they should to prepare lessons, grade assignments, and help those students who are struggling in class. Like Jesus, they do all of this out of love. . . Teachers are the gardeners in our lives. They are the ones who plant the seed of knowledge and curiosity within all of us. They love us as their teachers loved them, so let us do the same, and love our teachers as they love us. We are appointed to bear fruit, so let us bear our gifts and share in love with one another."
From a reflection by Brother John Johnston, FSC: "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 to represent 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 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."

Our students are the fruit that we bear as teachers. Think about the beautiful and wonderful children that have graduated, have been in your classes. That you loved your colleagues and students is a major reason why they become the young people that they are. The gifts that they are creating and sharing in their own lives is a reflection of the love that you, in so many ways, lavished on them. In this way, as Jonathan said, they love us back. God has told you that you are to be his presence of love in student lives, and so you are chosen and appointed to make his presence a saving reality for them. I believe this is true because I see it in every one of you, every day. You make every day here as an educator at San Miguel a privilege of knowing God's love, and I thank you.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the fourth week of Easter

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From yesterday's gospel: "I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep."
De La Salle (Med. 33.1): "In today's Gospel Jesus Christ compares those who have charge of souls to a good shepherd who has great care for the sheep. One quality he must possess, according to our Savior, is to know each one of them individually. This ought to be one of the main concerns of those who instruct others: to be able to understand their students and to discern the right way to guide them."
The understanding of a good shepherd that Jesus provides was not a rational way of shepherding in Jesus' time. Losing one or two sheep to make sure that the entire flock was preserved was a simple and understandable cost of doing business. To know each one individually, as Jesus and De La Salle instruct, was a waste of time; just make sure you have the right count at the end!
That this staff has, since 2004-2005, done their utmost to ensure that each individual sheep is known and guided properly to the end is a tribute to each and every one of you and your desire that each student finds what is best for them. Every day, you lay down your lives for the children entrusted to your care in ways that cannot be measured except by the love that we see in the eyes of our students and hear in their voices. I would, without hesitation, want to have my children taught here (I suppose, in a way, that has happened). Our students are marvelous, but your shepherding guidance has polished their talents and brought them to the fore with a purpose. Sheep only wander aimlessly without a shepherd. Please accept my thanks for, in the words of Pope Francis, being "shepherds with the smell of sheep."
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the second week of Easter

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From yesterday's first reading: "The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need."
From yesterday's gospel: "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. . . Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hand and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, 'Peace be with you.' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.' Thomas answered and said to him, 'My Lord and my God!' Jesus said to him, 'Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.'"
From the disciples who first saw the risen Jesus, to Thomas who did not believe at first, to even Church History students, who read the description from the first reading (and a similar one two chapters later) and say, "Come on! Nobody lives like that!", it all seems to be too good to be true. Even today, Jesus' resurrection from the dead, his eternal life to be shared with us, and the joy of the resurrection and new life that spread to his disciples' way of life can seem too good to be true. "Deeper than our incapacity to understand how this can happen is our inability even to comprehend a goodness that simply gives itself away. It does not correspond to the way our world works. Yet that is precisely what the church proclaims" (Terrance Klein, "What is the real obstacle to faith?", America Magazine, April 4, 2018). Pope Francis reminds of this in his apostolic exhortation released this morning: "[God's] friendship infinitely transcends us; we cannot buy it with our works, it can only be a gift born of his loving initiative" (Gaudete et Exsultate, 54).
What does this mean for us as Lasallian educators? As Brother Miguel Campos, FSC wrote: "the Brothers and their students give themselves to one another, learning to leave a former way of life in order to achieve a new life through conversion and mutual education. It is a life of love and forgiveness, and in living this life, they discover and share the experience of the ever-present and generous love of God, and they live as children of God" (Introduction to Meditations for the Time of Retreat). So today, as we feel the infinite love of God, given to us not because we are "worthy", but because God cannot help but love, recall that we are receiving it through the young people who are entrusted to our care. Because they too are called to new life and to share that same love, remember that they must receive it from us. It is not too good to be true, and we only need to recall the times of great joy that we have had with students, joy like that of the complete sharing of the first Christian community, to know, just as Thomas and the first disciples came to know, that God's inexhaustible love is always given, received, and shared.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the octave of Easter

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From the fifth reading of the Easter Vigil: "Thus says the LORD: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life."
From the gospel of the Easter Vigil: "When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, 'Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?' When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He said to them, 'Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.'"
The disciples were to go to Galilee to see the resurrected Jesus, just as Jesus told them. Galilee was home, and Jesus told them that he would go ahead of them there. Why is this so important? The new life of the resurrection is brought to us where we are. As the disciples heard on Easter morning, so too, all of us will see on the road, in school, shopping, in all our daily activities.
What does this new life mean? What changes should Easter bring? Isaiah's description of having life when the Messiah arrives speaks to us particularly as educators. Let all who are thirsty, without money, in need, and not receiving what they need come to us, for in the education we offer, we provide that which satisfies their thirst, not for wealth or simply technical training, but for understanding, truth, beauty; a deeper, more satisfying, foundational understanding of their life and their connectedness with each other and God.
As "ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ" (Med. 195.2), we are called to bring and share this new life. May the blessings of Easter be upon us daily as we do so!
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the third week of Lent

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From today's gospel: "Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, 'Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace.' His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me."
De La Salle (Med. 202.3): "It is easy to conclude . . . that your zeal for the children who are under your guidance would be very imperfect if you exercised it only by instructing them. It will only become perfect if you practice what you are teaching them. Example makes a much greater impression on the mind and the heart than words, especially for children, for they do not yet have a mind sufficiently able to reflect, and they ordinarily model themselves on the example of their teachers."
Many people find the story of Jesus throwing the money changers out of the Temple disturbing. This is not the picture of a gentle, loving, merciful Jesus that we keep in our minds and hearts. Yet the story provides us with a true understanding the concept of zeal as the scriptures and De La Salle present it: a single-hearted focus on God with word and action.
In our interactions with students, in classrooms, CWSP, or extracurriculars, do we offer them the zeal that moves Jesus, the zeal that shows our focus on God?
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the first week of Lent

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From Sunday's gospel: "After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: 'This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.'"
De La Salle, Meditation 199.2: "[Jesus Christ] tells his Apostles, I must announce the Gospel of the kingdom of God, because this is why I have been sent. Say this same thing, that this is why Jesus Christ has sent you and why the Church, whose ministers you are, employs you. Bring all the care needed, then, to fulfill this function with as much zeal and success as the saints have had in fulfilling it."
How do I do this? I spent part of my weekend entering progress report grades, and the other part planning lessons for a short week. I've got extracurriculars to work on, students to see before and after school. How do I announce the gospel? How do I proclaim the kingdom of God?
The last line of today's first reading provides the answer: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Leviticus 19:18)
Do you want your students to learn the lessons of the gospel in a political environment in which people shout at each other, but don't listen? Show them how to love. Do you want your students to see the reality of the kingdom of God in an environment in which they worry about school shooters? Show them how to love. Do you want your students to know why you were sent to them when progress reports and grades dominate their thoughts? Bring the conversion of life that repentance supplies, and the zeal that inspired you to teach, by showing them how to love.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the sixth week of Ordinary Time/beginning of Lent

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From Sunday's first reading: " "The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
Sunday's gospel: "A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, 'If you wish, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, 'I do will it. Be made clean.' The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, 'See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.' The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere."
The identity of Jesus is one of the key motifs that run throughout the entire gospel of Mark. Eventually, we discover that those who are marginalized - the sick, the sinner, the suffering, those without power or authority - recognize Jesus the messiah, the son of God (Mk 1:1), even as regular synagogue attendees, the Pharisees, even the disciples, do not. Why? Because they see Jesus as the way in which they can be healed and returned to wholeness, the wholeness of being returned to community. This leper, who was to live apart from others, was bold enough to not be apart, to put himself in Jesus's path, and seek healing. Jesus, in turn, was bold enough to touch and heal.
Do you ever wonder why students surround you, seek you out, talk to you about things beyond tomorrow's assignment? Because they see you as "ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ", acting in his name and with authority from him (De La Salle, Med. 195.2). They see you as agents of Christ's healing, wholeness, and relationship. How do you respond in boldness?
The season of Lent gives us an opportunity to turn our lives even more to God. Let us pray that, as part of our own Lenten journeys of reformation, our bold response will be as the late Father Theodore Hesburgh, CSC, described:
The way we put our lives in God's service . . . is to belong to the people God brings into our lives. That is what Jesus did. He belonged to the people his Father brought into his life, and thus the poor, the downtrodden, and the outcast all felt they could make a claim on Jesus and his love. As his disciples, we are called to belong to others as Jesus did, so that they, too, can make a claim on our love. In this way, our lives bring the hope of salvation to others and become prayers in service of our Heavenly Father." (in Gawrych, The Gift of the Cross)
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Today's second reading: "Brothers and sisters: If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it! If I do so willingly, I have a recompense, but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my recompense? That, when I preach, I offer the gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible. To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some. All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it."
De La Salle taught the brothers, the teachers of the first schools, that they were to teach the lessons of the gospel, as such teaching was their apostolic calling, offered gratuitously to all for the salvation of their students, as well as for their own salvation. Yet this is the calling that each of us, in association with the brothers, receive. As the late Superior General, Brother John Johnston, FSC, said, "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." And so today's second reading may well read like this for us:
Brothers and sisters:
If we model the gospel with our lives,
this is our calling, and woe to us if we do not do so!
We accept willingly,
and even if, from time to time, we are tired and weary,
we still rise up to accept and honor our call from God.
What do we receive for what we do?
When we teach the gospel, each in the way we have been individually blessed,
we do so freely and gratuitously.
We do so for all whom are entrusted to us, so as to offer them salvation.
To those who are poor and weak, we become poor and weak, to win them over.
To those who need something in particular from us,
we become what they need, to bring the salvation offered by God.
All this we do for the sake of salvation, not only that of our students, but our own,
that on the day of judgment,
our students themselves will advocate before God for our salvation.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the second week of Ordinary Time

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From yesterday's first reading: "Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, 'Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.' When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, 'Samuel, Samuel!' Samuel answered, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.' Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect."
From yesterday's gospel: "Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, 'We have found the Messiah' — which is translated Christ —. Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas' — which is translated Peter."
De La Salle (Med. 197.3): "Therefore, [the children] need the light of watchful guides to lead them on the path of salvation, guides who have an adequate understanding of matters concerning piety and a knowledge of the ordinary faults of young people. Thus they will be able to help them be aware of pitfalls and keep away from them. This is what God has provided in giving children teachers whom he has charged with this care and to whom he has given the concern and the vigilance not only to prevent anything whatsoever harmful to their salvation from capturing their hearts. . . ."
All of us have benefited from the guidance of others: parents, teachers, friends, icons, mentors. In ways explicit or subtle, we have learned, or are learning, our way in the world with the help of those who care for us. Yesterday's scriptures give us examples of our parents in faith guiding others to God. De La Salle reminds us that, just as we were once led, we are to guide the students entrusted to our care away from that which is harmful, and on the "path of salvation."
So often we think of our classroom in terms of subject matter content and pedagogical strategies. Yet in our planning, have we considered how our content and strategies can help us guide our wonderful young people to God?
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!

A thought for the first week of Advent

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It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—
This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—
This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—
This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world—
This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—
This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.

It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—
This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.
(Daniel Berrigan, SJ, "Advent Credo", Testimony: The Word Made Flesh)
We are, as Lasallian educators, "ambassadors and ministers" (De La Salle, Med. 195.2) of that same Christ, that same source of hope. So as we enter into this Advent season, let us make our own not only Father Berrigan's prayer that Christ will enter again into our world, but the words of the Brothers' 39th General Chapter: Lasallians assume an educational mission which by preference is directed to the poor, and engages each individual Lasallian educator to the service of those whose poverty is an obstacle to their development as human persons or to their ability to receive the message of salvation revealed in Jesus Christ. (Adapted from The Brother of the Christian Schools in the World Today: A Declaration, 13.4).
May this season find us living and proclaiming, to all those entrusted to our care, the truth of the life of the world against the marginalization, discrimination, destruction, evil, and despair that we see around us.
Live, Jesus, hope, in our hearts!


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