Today's first reading: "At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter. Then the LORD said to him, 'Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.' A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD -- but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake -- but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire -- but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave."
From Declaration on the Lasallian Mission: Challenges, Convictions and Hopes (2020): "We believe that in the faces of the impoverished and vulnerable we find God's saving power. Our tradition is rooted in the preferential service for the poor, the excluded, those considered irrelevant, that is to say those children and young people for whom their vulnerable condition is an obstacle to the building up of their dreams for the future and to their having a dignified and happy life. Today our commitment is to identify the new forms of poverty - which are always to be found the frontiers of dehumanization, in a lack of opportunities and in marginalization - and to serve those who suffer from these poverties."
How ironic that today's first reading directs Elijah, and us, to find God in the smallest of sounds and events. Tomorrow, we begin classes with students at home, not in a classroom. Our ability to hear their voice, see their face, and experience their responses to us and to each other, is limited. Their voice, already restricted in reach by circumstance of geography, economics, and a myriad of other obstacles, is lessened further. Yet we are taught that these children, their voices, are God's presence and salvation. What can our creative teaching ideas do during these first weeks of school to bring their voices to the fore, let them know that what they think, say, and do is of the utmost value, and emphasize that their dreams and future truly matter? May our prayer and our actions remind them that they are loved, in possession of human dignity, and our guidepost to salvation.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!