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!