From this Sunday’s gospel: “And [Jesus] asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter said to him in reply, ‘You are the Christ.’ Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.’ He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.'"

“Whatever kingdom Peter’s mind conjured, it probably did not involve denying himself and taking up his cross to follow Jesus or losing his life for the Gospel. What kind of kingdom is that? Feel for Peter for a moment. What kind of ridiculous kingdom is built on the broken body of a defeated Messiah?" (John Martens, “The Things of God", America, August 31-September 7, 2015)

These questions took deep root for me this week in the context of grades. What kind of school exists without grades? Look at all the infrastructure that schools, teachers, parents, and students have built around getting and improving grades. Like death and taxes, they seem unavoidable, and to students, sometimes all-consuming.

But we have constant reminders that there is something to schools that is just as “ridiculous" as what Peter had thought about Jesus’ teaching:

• “It is necessary to keep coming back to that fact: the pastoral plan of the Founder is all embracing. It is the whole person who is to be converted to Jesus Christ." (Pungier, John Baptist de La Salle: The Message of His Catechism)

• “Almost by instinct the living tradition of the Institute has integrated faith in Jesus Christ into the daily lives of the students." (The Brother of the Christian Schools in the World Today: A Declaration)

• “[The Catholic school] is not simply an institution which offers academic instruction of high quality, but, even more important, is an effective vehicle of total Christian formation . . . a center for evangelization. . . ." (National Directory for Catechesis)

I doubt that we can divorce grades from school, because there has to be a way to determine and communicate student progress. The Kingdom of God is not well served by mediocrity. But Jesus, the Church, and the Founder focus our priorities on the things of God: seeing strength from weakness, living for others before ourselves, building life from death. As we are called to build the Kingdom of God, may this be the faith that we strive to bring to our classroom, forming disciples through the truth and beauty of what happens here daily, and animating our community. Perhaps we will find that grades will take care of themselves from there.

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!