From former Brother Superior General John Johnston, FSC: "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."
This is a quite a responsibility. To be the presence of Christ to each and every one of our students, to touch their minds and hearts as Jesus would, calls on us to be the very best of ourselves all the time. And the reality is that we are not always our best every minute of every day. What to do?
From yesterday's first reading: "The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, 'Ask something of me and I will give it to you.' Solomon answered: 'O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.'"
We will not be Solomon at his peak, either. But his request to God is a reminder to us of what we truly need to touch the students entrusted to our care: an understanding heart. May our prayer during this first week of school be for the understanding heart that we need to represent Jesus Christ daily in our classrooms, CWSP relationships, and offices.
Live, Jesus, in our hearts!