"And so the first question that the priest asked -- the first question that the Levite asked was, 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'" (Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I've Been to the Mountaintop", April 3, 1968)
"God's holy presence permeates and penetrates our mission as well as our hearts. We teach, counsel, coach, and administer in the holy presence of God. We park the bus, lead the songs, serve the food, and raise the funds in the holy presence of God. When we are at our best, people can't tell if this mission is what we do or who we are." (Bro. Timothy Coldwell, FSC, General Councilor for RELAN)
During next weekend's Kairos, one of the challenges that will be posed to the retreatants will be to put God and others before self more often. This is a challenge that we know well as educators, and I think that we would be lying if we said that we always have the answer about how to live this out. But we have guidance from Doctor King and Brother Tim. What will happen to our students if we do (or don't do) what we are thinking about doing? Will our actions reveal us as not just as doing a job, but living our Lasallian mission? May we take the opportunity to ask these questions of ourselves this week.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!