The Culture of Faith

“Evangelization loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people to whom it is addressed, if it does not use their language, their signs and symbols, if it does not answer the questions they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life.”

-Pope St. Paul VI, 1975

Throughout this Advent, my family and I have spent time learning more about the saints whose feasts we celebrate therein. From St. Nicholas, to St. Ambrose, to the Immaculate Conception, to San Juan Diego, to Our Lady of Guadalupe, to St. Lucy, to St. John of the Cross, we have had amble time to (even during this abbreviated liturgical season) to dig into and pray with these holy women and men. 

While I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to know more about each of these various saints, my takeaways from feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe continue to stir my soul. 

I knew the story about Our Lady appearing to Juan Diego. I had heard, many times, about the roses and the image that appeared on his tilma and the bishop's disbelief and the subsequent conversion of more than 9 million people within ten years of this apparition. I had even heard that Mother Mary appeared to Juan Diego as a woman indigenous to the area. 

All of this is amazing and repeating the sounding joy of these facts reinforced my love for and devotion to Jesus's Mother and my Catholic faith. 

This year, however, the Lord blessed me with new knowledge. 

Well, more specifically, this year's feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe filled me with a greater sense of mystery. It provided me with an even deeper understanding of just how creative and wild and awe-inspiring and wonderfully wonder-filling our God is. 

I won't list out all of the ways in which God masterfully blended Mater Dei (the Mother of God) and the Aztec and Spanish cultures in order to declare that He is the one, true God, and that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to fully communicate His plan of salvation for all of humanity. 

If you don't know about the stars, and the black band, and Our Lady's foot, and the Aztec symbols on her mantle, and the astounding qualities of the coloring and the temperature of the tilma and its longevity, see the image below and/or watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEhjwCsDDsc.    

The mysterious miracles surrounding Our Lady's appearance and St. Juan Diego's tilma confound me. 

Much like the 16-year-old version of myself who doubted my English teacher's insights about the meaning of poems, it takes immense faith to believe these findings. 

Another key takeaway: God, through Jesus's Mother Mary, used the local culture to impart faith. From the symbols on Mary's covering to the stars on her mantle to her foot slightly forward (a posture of dancing!) to the two codexes in the image, so much of what attracted people at the time and continues to pull people into this beautiful mystery is that it taps into and uses the local Aztec and Spanish Christians cultures in a way that harmonizes the two and points them to Jesus (for some specifics, watch the clip below): 

May we, like Our Lady of Guadalupe, embrace our culture and point it toward Christ. At a time when the world is clouded by a post-Christian mentality, instead of pulling further away from the current culture and cancelling it, may we pull it closer to our loving hearts and introduce it - again - to the love and mercy and hope and joy of Jesus Christ.

A culture of faith entails using the "language...signs and symbols" of particular people. A culture of faith answers the "questions they ask" and shows how it has "an impact on their concrete life” (St. Pope Paul VI, 1975). 

A culture of faith is in the world and of the world. 

A culture of faith is of heaven and earth. United. Harmonious. Together. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Offering

One of my favorite Christmas songs is For King and Country's rendition of "Little Drummer Boy."

As my kids will attest to, I love when songs have strong percussion elements. This version has it in spades. 

While we can see the "Little Drummer Boy" as being defined solely by his drumming ability - hence the name of the song - the arc of the song's lyrics demonstrate that the boy has set off with others to see the new born King and to offer their gifts to Him. 

This journey - to see and offer gifts worthy of a King - inspires the boy to offer his gift of drumming at the service of the King. The song's message centers not on what the boy can offer, but rather Who he offers it to. 

The final scene of the video linked above shows the boy leaving behind that which we might think defines him, his drum, at the feet of Baby Jesus. 

I hope and pray that I might be able to do the same. 

Pa rum pum pum pum.

Over the course of my life, I have too often identified who I am in light of what I do - my gifts and abilities, my activities, and my profession - instead of Whose I am - God's beloved child. Similarly, as a Catholic educator, I have definitely been guilty of the sin of idolizing my ministry. 

Foolishly, I have fallen into the trap of basing my worth on my work, my value on my victories, my dignity on my deeds. 

Providence, though, has broken through the fragile shell of my ego at multiple points throughout my life to shatter these misconceptions. While I can still get caught up in equating my importance with my impact, I anchor my life in the idea that I am called to lay down my "drum" at the feet of my King.  

The motto of St. Benedict, Ora et Labora provides a helpful mode of operating to stave off the worship of work. Meaning Prayer and Work in English, St. Benedict intended for these dual actions, prayer and work, to combine in such a way that our entire lives become an offering. 

Instead of viewing the prayer of my heart and the work of my mind and hands as separate and compartmentalized, St. Benedict encourages a synthesis of these two behaviors so that the entirety of one’s life becomes an offering up to God. As such, every part of my life - my work, my recreation, my leisure, my scholarship, my ministry, my prayer - becomes an act of worship. Intentionally inviting God into each moment of my life and making it into an offering to Him to do with it what He wills, humbly transforms the fullness of who I am into a gift, opportunities to serve Him and others, and pathways to grow closer to Him.

As we continue to march through this Advent season toward the birth of our King on Christmas, may we offer to Him all that we are and all that we can do.

May we, through the work of our hands and the prayers of our hearts, make of ourselves an offering that's fit to give our King. 

Building Leaders, Forming Servers

Yesterday, the Catholic Church celebrated the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. In light of this celebration, my prayer focused on how faithfully I serve my King. I was reminded of a powerful reflection I heard a few years ago about how Jesus never called anyone to lead. Instead, His invitation was to follow. 

Ever since then, I have bucked against a secular view of the importance of leadership, acknowledging that my King and my God has called me to service. 

I recently read the Harvard Business Review Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level (Ashkenas and Manville, 2018). In it, the authors pose the six most important qualities and behaviors - termed "practices" by the authors - of effective leaders. Seen through this frame of serving Christ the King, all of these practices emulate Christ's ministry here on earth. 

As such, they are worthy of being followed. 

Build a Unifying Vision

The first practice of impactful leaders involves building a unifying vision for the organization. Connected to this important picture of the future, the organization's mission plays a pivotal role in determining where it should head. Whereas the vision centers on the organization's aspirations, the mission functions as its reason for existing. When combined, the mission and vision serve as the vehicle (the mission) and the destination (the vision) for an organization.

Taking time to consider our missions acts as the starting point to crafting compelling visions for our futures. Continue to keep the mission of your respective organizations in the forefront of your hearts and minds allowing it to inform your decisions, inspire your words and actions, and fuel your ministries.

After beginning His public ministry, Christ remained singularly focused on His mission: 

• "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19); 
• "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth" (John 18:37).

Translate the Vision into Strategy

The second practice of effective leaders focuses on translating the unifying vision for an organization into concrete and detailed strategies.

Play close attention to the strategies that will allow you to advance your school's mission. Do your best to keep the urgent at bay through timely doing, delegation, or dumping in order for you to stay committed to what is most important to your organization's purpose. Be ruthless in your efforts to align all that you do to your organization's mission. Root out practices, policies, procedures, programs, and personnel that fail to advance the mission. Graft in those ways of operating that more authentically live out your organization's core purpose. 

From performing His first miracle at a wedding, to proclaiming His identity to the woman at the well in Samaria, to healing the man's hand on the Sabbath, to every single thing He did, Jesus acted on purpose for His purpose. 

Recruit, Develop, and Reward a Solid Team

Ashkenas and Manville's (2018) third strategy entails recruiting, developing, and rewarding a solid team. The most compelling mission (the first practice) and the best designed plans (the second one) require competent and committed people to do this important work. Remember that mission and communion are intimately connected, "interpenetrating and mutually implying each other" (St. John Paul II, 1988, para. 2).

Catholic school leaders must collaborate and coordinate the efforts of the faculty, staff, and stakeholders across your communities. 

Simultaneously, and more importantly, Catholic school leaders must trust that Jesus has invited you - as He did the apostles - to cooperate in the miraculous! In turn, we are compelled to invite others to purposefully participate in God's work. Fill the stone jars with water, roll away the stone, collect the leftovers. 

Conspire with Jesus and each other to do the impossible. 

Focus on Measurable Results

The fourth skill of effective leaders (Ashkenas and Manville, 2018) centers on measurable results. After establishing a clear mission and purpose, designing a strategy to execute it, and recruiting, retaining, and developing faculty and staff to help you in these efforts, you must devise ways in which you will know whether or not you are successful.

Leaders must think about how you can prove to your stakeholders - students, teachers, families, benefactors, prospective families, detractors - that you are advancing the school's mission. Humbly consider ways to show the gap between the school's current reality and where you want it to be. Transparently communicate the successes and the challenges to those who have a hand in making improvements. These metrics can help to take next steps, devise new strategies, and refine what success looks like.

Foster Innovation

Innovation serves as the fifth skill of effective leaders (Ashkenas and Manville, 2018). This fifth principle, innovation, occurs as a result of ongoing learning and growth.

Innovation, for Catholic school leaders, entails an openness to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It requires the humility Jesus describes, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Mt. 23:12). The Christian virtue of humility promotes God's glory and recognizes God's graces in any of our efforts to do so. Far from a deprecating view of self, humility acknowledges our need for God, our connectedness with others, and our constant pursuit of God's truth.

Humility serves as the open door for God to enter into an idea and take it from good to great. Humility acts as the spirit willing to ask others to synergistically collaborate and offer their gifts and talents in meaning ways. Humility allows us to die to our tired traditions and worn out ways of operating so that we can "accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine by the power at work within us" (Eph. 3:20).

Stay humble in your efforts to keep getting better. Remain open to the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our water into wine. Continue to innovate in apostolic ways, trusting that God is at work in us and through us.

Lead Yourself

The final skill of effective leaders includes a leader's knowledge of him/herself, efforts to grow his/her abilities, self-care, and willingness to share her/his gifts and talents beyond the organization (Ashkenas and Manville, 2018). Put more simply: know yourself, grow yourself, care for yourself, and share yourself.

Ashkenas and Manville (2018) cite this set of introspective skills as the culminating factor in its suite of leadership attributes: mission, strategy, personnel, results, and innovation.

In the midst of all that you have to do, continue to harness your own gifts, talents, wellness, and willingness to contribute to the larger field of education, other sectors, and/or the mission of our Church. 

Doing so, much like Christ going off by Himself to pray, can provide the restoration, rejuvenation, and recreation needed to do the rest of the work for which you are responsible.

Peace

One of my favorite parts of the series, "The Chosen" is how Jesus says to those he encounters, "Shalom,_________." While I knew that one of its translations connects to peace, seeing a portrayal of Christ saying this to another person - the Word of God speaking this "shalom" into existence - inspired me to dig deeper. 

We often think of peace as the absence of conflict, which definitely forms part of its definition. 

The peace that Christ came to provide, though, goes beyond a ceasefire to include wholeness, completeness, harmony and total well-being. The peace that Christ came to give us is restorative. It is healing. It integrates us and allows us to flourish, becoming the people that God created and needs us to be. It brings us back into communion with God and others. Christ's peace incorporates solidarity, flourishing, wholeness, and integration in a way that only He can fulfill and that He hopes to continue to provide to the world through His disciples. 

Shalom. 

St. Paul VI popularized the phrase, "If you want peace, work for justice" (St. Paul VI, 1972) to demonstrate the active role that we must play in partnering with Christ in this important work. Being an agent of justice requires that we strive to ensure that each person gets his/her due. From education to health care to social services to opportunities to work and contribute to the common good, our ministries bring peace to the extent that we advocate for justice and ensure that each member of our communities receives these fundamental aspects of life. 

Justice entails solidarity and works to pave the pathways for all to flourish. 

Working for justice in pursuit of peace often brings us into situations of conflict, injuries, and chaos. The road to peace - solidarity, flourishing, wholeness, integration - requires that we travel in a polarized, broken, and dysfunctional world. Healing, forgiving, rebuilding, and restoring demand immense effort, long amounts of time, and a willingness to toil in the midst of tension. As Pope Francis has often said, our Church must resemble a field hospital; as such, we must work as combat medics.

Finally, I heard recently that the current generation (those from about 2010 on) are called the "Polars" because of both the melting of the polar ice caps and the highly polarized world in which we currently live. May the work we do in our Catholic schools bring about peace and imitate the work done by Christ and His Church for the past 2,000 years. 

Let us continue to erase the margins that keep people outside of community creating new systems for all to flourish while also removing the barriers that keep some from that which all are due. 

Let us continue to invite all to the wedding banquet of the Lamb living in solidarity with all of our brothers and sisters, prioritizing dialogue rooted in listening.

Let us continue to bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, whose transforming love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" and "never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:7-8).

Let us, through our words and actions, convey to all we encounter, "Shalom."

Solidarity.

Flourishing.

Wholeness.

Integration.

Peace.

Hope Will Rise

Hope stands as the second core value in support of my mission for humans to flourish through Catholic education (magnify is the first). From a catechetical standpoint, hope “is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC, 1997, para. 1817). 

Jesus Christ, when He conquered sin and death through the Resurrection, made hope possible through His passion and death on the cross.

The Congregation of Holy Cross (CSC), who sponsors the University of Notre Dame and formed me for over 13 years, captures the virtue of hope through its motto, Ave Crux, Spes Unica, or "Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope." Members of the CSC operationalize hope through their ministries in education, parishes, and in service to those affected by poverty, oppression, and marginalization. 

More concretely, this value inspires steadfastness after a failure, defeat, or mistake. Similarly, hope acts as a key ingredient in the adoption of a growth mindset and the belief that through hard work and perseverance one can push past obstacles, overcome challenges, and find success. 

As a disciple with hope to bring to the world, I remain committed to advancing my mission despite setbacks and times of despair. 

I resolve to keep my eyes and heart fixed on Jesus whenever storms come - because they assuredly will.

Different from faith, which believes in something - or Someone - even without knowing or understanding everything about it, hope believes that something will take place in the future, even though it may seem improbable, doubtful, or even impossible. 

As such, faith fuels hope, giving it gas and feeding its fire. The more faith I have in the person of Jesus Christ, the more hope I can muster in moments of trial to do the right thing. The more faith I have in the Trinity, the more hope I can have that relationships will be healed. The more faith I have in the Paschal Mystery, the more hope I possess that new life - somehow - will burst forth from ashes. 

Hope may not be a strategy, but it can be the wings required for a grounded idea to lift off. 

Hope grows through constant contact with Christ through the daily reading of God's Word, frequent participation in the Sacraments, and surrounding yourself with like-minded and like-hearted disciples who can "encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do" (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

These tactics will foster hope and guard against discouragement, "the anesthetic the devil uses on a person just before he reaches in and carves out his heart” (Howard Hendricks). 

Because of the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ, hope will rise in our hearts, throughout our schools, and across the entire world...

...at least, I hope that it will.  

Ave Crux, Spes Unica.

"Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope!"

Magnify

Magnanimity, or greatness of soul, inspires one to work for God’s greater glory. Rooted in the Jesuit motto, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which translates as for the greater glory of God, magnanimity entails a deep and zealous striving to make God known, loved, and served, honoring and bringing others into an encounter with God’s greatness.

Employing the gifts God has bestowed on me, magnanimity spurs acts of heroism, generosity, and creativity to glorify God and magnify His greatness. In a simpler way, magnanimity embodies the spirit of continuous improvement and an ongoing pursuit of excellence. It means doing more, serving more, giving more, and being more for God. The magnanimous person embraces hard work and trials, accepting that the greatness for which God created him/her requires effort.

Finally, magnanimity compels one to “perfect the works of virtue” (Sri, 2009), enhancing the employment of faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. 

Today's Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary offers us one of the best examples of magnanimity possible. Without having anything more than an angel's response that "nothing will be impossible for God" (Luke 1:37) Mary faithfully accepts the call that God has placed on her life, "May it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).  

From there she sets out on mission. She goes to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who also found great favor with God, and this encounter causes John the Baptist to leap with joy inside of his mother's womb (Luke 1:44). 

Karl von Blaas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From even this early stage of Mary's fiat, God magnified His greatness through Mary's willingness to bring Christ to the world.

Mary's Magnificat stands a powerful witness to the way that God can use each of us to magnify His greatness through our faithful service to His call:  "My soul magnifies the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior" (Luke 1:46-47).  

When we proclaim God's goodness, His greatness is magnified. 

Like Mary, as we say yes to God's call, He deploys us to bring others into contact with His greatness. More people experience His love, justice, and peace. More structures and systems within our world more closely resemble the Kingdom of God here on earth. 

When we disperse the arrogant of mind and heart, lift up the lowly, and fill the hungry with good things (Luke 1:51-53), we magnify God's greatness. 

When, like Mary, we allow God's purpose to interrupt our plans, we magnify God's greatness. 

When, like Mary, we allow God to stretch us so that more of His greatness can come into the world, we magnify God's greatness: 

Humans were created for greatness - for God himself; we were created to be filled by God. But our hearts are too small for the greatness to which they are destined. They must be stretched. (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 2007, #33)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. 

For the magnanimity of God. 

Manifesto

Manifesto: (noun) a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer

Ever since becoming a principal in 2010 and first coming across his work, I have tried to incorporate the ideas from Simon Sinek's Start With Why into my ministry. From my efforts to have Incarnation Catholic School focus intensely on its mission to my work at the University of Notre Dame to have emerging Catholic school leaders do the same, starting with WHY a person or organization does something provides greater commitment, inspiration, and direction to these efforts. 

During my time as a principal, the Incarnation Catholic School community used the mission as the springboard and impetus for its programs and the measuring stick for its policies. We even revised its language to prioritize the faith formation, ordering it before learning and service. 

Throughout my time as an instructor in the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program, I worked with both colleagues and Remick Leaders to hone in on the mission of the program while also providing students with the opportunity to consider the mission and beliefs motivating their own work within Catholic schools. Throughout this time and into my current role in the Diocese of Cleveland, I have also helped school communities clarify and commit to their missions while also declaring the school's foundational beliefs inspiring its work. 

Recently I had the opportunity to turn inward and consider my own mission and the theological and philosophical concepts and approaches propelling my ministry in Catholic education. 

What follows is my manifesto - my declaration of the main purpose of my ministry. 

My personal mission is for humans to flourish through Catholic education. 

This entails both inward facing and externally focused components. Catholic education should bring about “the gradual development of every capability of every student” (Congregation for Catholic Education, 1988, para. 99). Catholic education must generate, form, and train students who possess incredible hearts and minds who will use their gifts, talents, knowledge, and skills for the “improvement of social structures, making these structures more conformed to the principles of the Gospel” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1982, para. 19). These enhanced social structures will make the world more peaceful, loving, just, and merciful, enabling even more people to flourish.

Grounded in Christ's great commission to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt. 28:19-20), my mission strives to create disciples of Jesus Christ. This discipleship should generate people fully alive, for Jesus declared, "I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Furthermore, joy will mark this abundance of life promised by our Savior, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete" (John 15:11). The other fruits of the Holy Spirit will also accompany this human flourishing: love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], 1997, para. 1832).

This human flourishing requires the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. It also spans across the entire school community - administrators, faculty, staff, students, families, and community members. Through an integral formation, community members will find coherence between faith and life, synthesizing their beliefs with their actions through a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Additionally, this flourishing will emanate outward from the walls of the school into the surrounding community, city, state, and world, "It is not merely a question of adaptation, but of missionary thrust, the fundamental duty to evangelize, to go towards men and women wherever they are, so that they may receive the gift of salvation" (Congregation for Catholic Education, 1997, para. 3). Through service performed by students, staff, and families, as well as through programs and services made available to the broader community, Catholic education will spur human flourishing in all who come into contact with members of the community.

Finally, based upon a redefinition of success, graduates of our Catholic schools will emerge ready to make the civilization of love dreamed about through Christ's proclamation of His Father's Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven." Because of the flourishing they experience through their Catholic education, Catholic school graduates will be compelled to make systems and institutions of law, medicine, business, art, entertainment, education, ministry, and government more in alignment with the principles of the Gospel. 

They will be better husbands, wives, parents, family members, friends, citizens, community members - they will be better humans - and help others flourish in turn. 

Storm the Gates

In a recent conversation with a close friend, he offered an insight on Jesus's message to Peter before giving him the keys to the Kingdom " you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (Mt. 16:18).

Gates don't move. 

I had always taken this to mean that no matter what storms our King's castle, no force of darkness will be able to penetrate it. Subconsciously, this perspective offers a defensive posture. It presents an already established and fortified Church, limited in its reach and cloistered behind its walls, where members enjoy the comfort of being on the winning team.

Instead, Jesus commissions Peter as the chief contractor on the project of an ever expanding Church. And, instead of a passive stance that evil will not get in and win, Jesus sends us out on the offensive and no dark corner, no seedy establishment, no shady operation, no stronghold of evil will be able to hold onto its property rights. 

No gate of hell can withstand the truth, and way, and life, and power of Jesus Christ. 

But, we have to go out. We have to go out in search of the domains that our enemy has shackled with chains and mistakenly claimed as his portion and take back what belongs to our King. 

I frequently listen to the sermons of a Protestant pastor, Levi Lusko, as a way to supplement my faith life. He masterfully uses stories from history and connects them to scripture in meaningful and fresh ways. In a sermon from late 2022, Levi talked about the history of yacht clubs and how they started as rescue missions (14:55 - 16:30): 

Instead of elite places that keep people out, they were intended to be gathering places for those who would courageously go out in search of those in need of help. 

Jesus's Great Commission tells us, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt. 28:19-20).

He doesn't say sit and wait. 

He doesn't command us to stay put. 

Go. 

Storm the gates of hell with the promise that Christ leaves with us: "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). 

The Holy Spirit courses through our veins. Endowed with the supernatural gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord, and emboldened by our unique charisms - the blend of favors that God bestowed on us at our baptism for the building of His Kingdom on earth and advancing it in heaven - let us take the truth, love, and life of Gospel into every corner of the world. 

Gates don't move.

But we do and they will when they open in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Excellence Happens on Purpose

The Psalmist declares that God created everyone in His image, and as such, with intention and for amazing things, “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works!” (Psalm 139:13-14).

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:God2-Sistine_Chapel.png

We know that our Heavenly Father purposefully plans for excellence. His plan for salvation culminated in the person of Jesus Christ, who fulfilled all of the prophecies about Him throughout the Old Testament. Depending on the Biblical scholar cited, this amounts to over 300 prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus satisfied completely. 

Jesus’s life also demonstrates intentionality leading to excellence. Jesus declares the excellence for which He came, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Similarly, He understood and remained committed to His mission, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). 

In Mark’s Gospel, we encounter Jesus “(r)ising very early before dawn, (leaving) and (going) off to a deserted place, where He prayed” (Mark 1:35). In Luke’s account, Jesus tells Peter, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). Jesus’s life, ministry, passion, and death lead those of us called to be His disciples to purposefully lay down our lives, take up our crosses, and follow Him to the highest form of excellence: salvation. 

As ministers of Catholic education in the Diocese of Cleveland’s Office for Catholic education, we remain committed to our mission to “(l)ead and serve those who carry out the education mission of the Catholic Church.” Using this mission as our compass, we also purposefully consider our root beliefs in advancing this important goal. 

Therefore, we take time at the beginning of our meetings to collectively commit to our purpose, remember our root beliefs, and consider ways to actively bring these to fruition in our work. 

We incorporate these foundational statements in our communications, intentionally invoking them to infuse our efforts with direction and life. 

We share the rationale behind these guiding principles, use them during onboarding efforts, and periodically revisit them to assess our fidelity to them and make necessary adjustments to more closely align our actions to them. 

More than catchy slogans, our root beliefs and mission serve as the core of who we are and the engine driving what we hope to achieve. Through our belief that excellence happens on purpose, and our deep faith and trust in God, we purposefully add our efforts, “consciously and overtly, to the liberating power of grace, (becoming) the Christian leaven in the world” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1977, para. 84). 

But Him They Must See

A line from last Sunday's Gospel reading, the story of the disciples encountering Jesus on the road to Emmaus and one of my favorite stories, jumped out at me during my time of worship and has haunted me throughout the week. 

In Luke's account, the two disciples - prior to embarking on this seven mile walk of dejection and defeat - had talked to the people who had seen the empty tomb and encountered Christ. This inspired them to investigate the situation for themselves. 

They go to the empty tomb and find it as described: empty. 

However, and herein comes the line that struck me:

"...but him they did not see." 

As a result, they leave. They walk away from their fellowship with the other disciples. Not encountering the risen Christ for themselves, they turn away and "looking downcast" they depart. 

It made me think of our schools. Our students, families, and teachers - looking for the truth of Christ either actively or unconsciously - must go through our programs and see, encounter, and know the way, the truth, and the life of Christ.

How often though, do members of our communities come to our schools search and hoping for an encounter with Jesus Christ and find them empty? Do our students and teachers and families come to us yearning for the absolute truth of Christ only to find a watered down, moralistic therapeutic deism instead? Might stakeholders turn to us expecting to witness authentic discipleship, yet see no notable difference in our how we live our lives?

But Him they must see. 

Christ on the Road to Emmaus, Jan Wildens, 1640s

Perhaps these disciples walked away from the empty tomb because they expected to find the living among the dead. Their search had taken them to the wrong place. 

Maybe - like me - they needed the additional catechesis Jesus supplies as He accompanies them on their seven-mile journey to Emmaus, which Bishop Caggiano states means "nowhere." They couldn't absorb the truth of the resurrection because they didn't have a strong enough foundation upon which to build. 

Could it be that because the disciples had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the witness of those who had encountered the risen Christ earlier that morning stemmed more from fact than faith, thus limiting their testimony to the head and not also incorporating the heart?

So, we must make sure that our schools do not resemble dead places where people will never find the living - punitive and vindictive discipline policies, academic approaches that don't account for the process of learning, liturgical opportunities that go through the motions without moving anyone.

We must make sure that our schools pour the foundations of faith with rich study of Catholic theology, scripture, and doctrine, ensuring that our schools proclaim an unabashed and irresistible Catholic identity. 

We must take seriously our own discipleship, recognizing that we cannot give what we do not have, and that "(people) listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if (people do) listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses."  

May we be the witnesses who allow all who interact with our Catholic schools to see, encounter, and know the way, the truth, and the life of Christ.

Because, Him they must see. Him they must encounter. Him they must know. 

Accompany. Inquire. Teach. Love. Send.

As Jesus did. 

As Jesus does.  

Serve With Love

At some point in the Spring of 2021, I stumbled across this reflection by Mike Donehey, lead singer of Tenth Avenue North who now has a solo musical career: 

In this interview, Donehey passionately argues that Jesus never told anyone to lead. Even Peter, the first Pope, was told to "Feed (Christ's) lambs", "Tend (Christ's) sheep", and "Feed (Christ's) sheep" (John 21:15-17). 

Feeding lambs and sheep presents as a much different posture than our typical images of leadership. 

The latter displays someone out in front with others following behind; the former unveils someone with outstretched hands, going toward others. 

Lowered. Humbled. Giving. Serving. Loving. 

The celebration of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, typically proclaims John's version of this Passover meal. In it, John positions Jesus at the feet of His disciples, washing their feet and offering a model of service and love that continues to echo throughout the centuries and across the world. 

Service done out of love - selflessly, sacrificially, humbly - has the power to change the world. 

In fact, it is the only thing that ever has. 

Feed and tend His lambs and sheep. Like Pope Francis urges, "(We) must be shepherds who smell like (our) sheep" not leaders who expect others to serve and cater to us. 

Like Christ, we must serve with love. 

Cooperators with Grace

"The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian, that is, to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism." 

-Pope Pius XI, 1929, para. 94

The Gospel from this past Sunday, the fifth Sunday of Lent, offered the powerful story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. 

Jesus commands, "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43), and this man who had been in the tomb for four days comes out.  

A relatively new song by the artist Judah Akers (lead singer for Judah and the Lion as well as his solo project JUDAH) captures the essence of Christ's power in his new song, "Anything is Possible":

Anything is possible / When it seems improbable / That’s when He is unstoppable / In His name any grave is robbable / Unthinkable / Unreachable / Unbelievable / Unpreachable / That’s just who He is / It’s too good to be true / But it is

Jesus didn't come to make nice people better. He came to bring dead people back to life. Dead in our sinfulness, doubts, fears, anxieties, brokenness, addictions, ideologies, and failures, Jesus intends to awaken us to the reality of being created in God's loving, powerful, and intelligent image and likeness.

Jesus desires that we experience fullness of life through a relationship with Him, "I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

This, ultimately, serves as the goal of Catholic education. "But (the Catholic school's) proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and finally to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and (humanity) is illumined by faith" (Second Vatican Council, 1965, para. 8). 

Pope Pius XI framed the goal of Catholic education in supernatural terms, "Hence the true Christian, product of Christian education, is the supernatural (person) who thinks, judges and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illumined by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ; in other words, to use the current term, the true and finished (person) of character" (1929, para. 96).

As Catholic educators, we cooperate with divine grace to carry out this important work. Much like the supporting cast in the story of Lazarus, we remove stones, untie hands, feet, eyes, ears, and mouths, so that others can walk forward in the light and faith of Jesus Christ. 

His Word saves. His love moves. We can create the circumstances and orchestrate the atmosphere for these transformative encounters with Christ to take place. 

So, continue to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in creating supernatural people who will emerge from their graves of ignorance, selfishness, and sinfulness and set out to "make human society more peaceful, fraternal, and communitarian" (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1982, para. 19).

Let us continue to cooperate with grace so that Christ can continue to do the impossible. 

Every Person is a Gift from God

Catholic anthropology views the human person as endowed with inherent and inestimable worth and dignity. Sacred Scripture declares this truth in the opening chapter of Genesis, “God created (humankind) in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them….And so it happened. God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good” (Genesis 1:27-31). God deems the other acts of creation as good; God finds His creation of humans, however, as very good. Every person bears the imago Dei, the image of our all-loving, powerful, and knowing God. 

Fundamentally good yet fallen because of original sin, humankind stands in need of a Savior. It is our Savior, Jesus Christ, Who reminds us of our goodness and value in the eyes of our Heavenly Father, “Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30-31).

In addition to our inherent giftedness, God also bestows His followers with His grace, “the free and undeserved help that (He) gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons (and daughters), partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1997, para. 1996). 

This grace takes on supernatural forms through our baptisms and confirmations, wherein we receive our charism, the Greek word used in the New Testament for "favor" or "gratuitous gift." Charisms, or spiritual gifts, are special abilities given to all Christians by the Holy Spirit to give them power both to represent Christ and to be a channel of God's goodness for people (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1997, para. 799-801). 

In this way, we understand our giftedness both as something we are and something we are called to selflessly give away to others. 

Since every person is a gift from God, our unified collaboration provides a coordinated diversity of talents, multiplying the effects that any one of us can have alone. Recognizing our strengths, talents, and charisms allows us to meaningfully contribute to the collective mission of Catholic education. Being aware of both our and others’ giftedness empowers us to purposefully involve and partner with others in carrying out this important work. In celebrating the accomplishments of our teams, we also recognize the offerings of each individual. 

Because of this belief - that every person is in fact a gift from God - we presume the positive intentions of each other, tempering our frustrations and quickening our understanding. We hold each others’ well-being as sacred, investing time and resources in fellowship, faith-sharing, fun, and frequent check-ins. 

Honor the giftedness of each person we encounter in our ministries by seeing them as Christ and being Christ to them in turn, incarnationally serving all people with love, “...for whatever you did for (others), you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).  

Leadership Matters

"Without a vision the people lose restraint; but happy is the one who follows instruction."

-Proverbs 29:18

Leadership matters. 

Whether titled or assumed, the leader of a group determines its trajectory. Just as a rising tide lifts all ships, an effective leader can bring out the best in others and amplify the efforts of the collective. Similarly, leaders can create unnecessary tension, anxiety, doubt, and fear. 

The cart follows the ox.

As leaders within a Catholic context, we must take the yoke of Christ upon us and lead others to Him. In this way, our discipleship impacts our leadership. 

In turn, discipleship matters.  

Jesus' messages throughout scripture include, “Follow me”, “Go, make disciples”, and “Feed my lambs.” He gives the disciples “authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness” and instructs His followers to proclaim the kingdom of God, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse leapers, and to give without cost (Mt. 10:1-15). Christ gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven during his installation as the first Pope, declaring that Peter is the “rock” upon which Jesus “will build (His) Church” (Mt. 16:13-20). The apostle Paul describes himself as a minister or steward, recognizing that “God cause(s) the growth” behind our human efforts” (1 Corinthians 3:1-9). 

Catholic school leaders must understand that we are called to inspire others to follow Christ and establish His kingdom here on earth “making (social) structures more conformed to the principles of the Gospel…form(ing) human beings who will make human society more peaceful, fraternal, and communitarian” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1982, para. 19). 

Research demonstrates the power of strong building-level leaders in schools: effective principals can yield an increase in student learning in reading and math of about three months (Grissom, Egalite, & Lindsay, 2021). Compared to the effects of a strong teacher, which remains confined to only the grade-level and/or subject of that educator, the positive gains of an effective principal affect the entire school community. Actions of these leaders include an emphasis on learning, building a productive climate, facilitating collaboration, and managing resources and personnel strategically. 

Additionally, effective leaders foster trust through humility, honesty, open and frequent communication, care for the human person, and following through on obligations consistently and with conviction. Strong leaders attract and surround themselves with dynamic teammates and they empower these members to use their gifts and lead others in turn. 

Finally and somewhat paradoxically, strong leaders embrace joyful and strategic servanthood, casting a vision for the future, designing systems and structures to bring it to life, and then selflessly offering his/her own gifts and talents to help others find success.    

Leadership matters. 

Discipleship does, too. 

Collaboration is a Force Multiplier

TEAM = Together Everyone Accomplishes More.

Birds fly in a V to increase the total distance that any one could fly on its own. 

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. 

United we stand, divided we fall. 

We are better together. 

My superpower is us. 

Collaboration is a force multiplier. 

The mystery of the Trinity declares our belief in a God who exists as a relationship - three persons in one God. Since we are made in God’s image and likeness, we are made to exist within relationships as well. We are made for each other and we are truly better together. 

Jesus often invited others to participate in the miraculous: the wedding at Cana, feeding the 5,000, and raising Lazarus from the dead all involved people working with Christ to bring about a miracle. Additionally, the disciples are often called in the context of community, as in the examples of the sets of brothers Andrew and Simon, and James and John. Jesus also reminds us that He is present where two or more are gathered in His name. And, as we witness in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles are sent out in pairs. 

Christ worked with others to advance His mission. Following His model, we understand that we must do the same: “Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion” (St. John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, 1988, para. 32).

In 1972, the Bishops of the United States, in a statement about the gravity of Catholic education, wrote the following: 

Beyond question the vision of the threefold educational ministry presented here is an ambitious one. Were it of human origin, one might well despair of its attainment. But since it represents God's plan, it must be energetically pursued. (To Teach As Jesus Did: A pastoral message on Catholic education, 1972, para. 31)

Not only must this mission be energetically pursued, it must be pursued alongside and in collaboration with others and with Christ. Only in this way can our human efforts be multiplied into superhuman forces.   

Collaboration takes on different forms in different circumstances. For example, sometimes collaboration entails the co-generation of ideas and products with a group. 

Sometimes collaboration requires a differentiated division of labor, where people work individually on distinct parts of an overall project. At times, collaboration might involve a mixture of both co-generation and differentiated integration. Similarly, collaboration may occur at various levels, at times in the ideation phase and at others to move something to a final decision. 

Leaning on the principle of subsidiarity, collaboration encourages us to engage and listen to the voices of those most involved in and/or affected by our work. 

Collaboration, however, does not mean that everyone participates in everything. For example, there are times where only a few have access to privileged information which must be kept in confidence. Similarly, involving everyone in everything is neither feasible nor productive. 

Instead, we multiply our forces by leveraging the gifts and talents of each individual to advance the collective mission of our Church, Diocese, Office of Catholic Education, and schools, honoring that “(t)here are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:4-5). 

We weren't meant to do any of this alone. In fact, we can't. 

But together...

Together, in collaboration with others, we can dream big and live bigger, because "(w)hat (we) dream alone remains a dream," but "what we dream with others can become a reality" (Edward Schillebeeckx). 

Made for More

Yesterday our Church celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. 

Saul got knocked off of his horse - literally and metaphorically - and became an apostle of Christ. He went from fighting against the Way to fighting for it, working alongside Peter, John and the other apostles to "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature" (Mk. 16:15). 

He composed over 25% of the New Testament and in doing so helped to unify the teachings of the early Church across various lands and communities. 

In many ways, St. Paul stands as one of the greatest saints of the Church. Ironically, though, Paul means "little one." Saul, his former name, translates as "one who is asked for" or "great one."

It wasn't until Saul was willing to be little and become Paul that he would truly become great. 

It wasn't until he gave his life completely to Christ, that Paul became more than what he could be on his own. 

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Timothy and Titus, two of St. Paul's students and associates, who helped to spread the Gospel to the whole world. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul encourages Timothy "to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:6-7). 

Power. Love. Self-control. 

We were made for more. We were made for God.

In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “Humans were created for greatness - for God himself; we were created to be filled by God. But our hearts are too small for the greatness to which they are destined. They must be stretched” (Spe Salvi, 2007, #33).

Let us stretch our hearts and allow them to be stretched by our God who wants to fill us with more of Himself.

Stir into flame the gift of God that we have received so that we can become who He created us to be. 

If you're baptized, the Holy Spirit courses through your veins. Christ claimed you as His own and set you aside for a definite purpose. Receiving Christ in the Eucharist brings us into an even more intimate relationship with Him, and offers us the grace - the spirit of Christ - to more fully become who He created us to be. Confirmation galvanizes these gifts, reinforcing them, and strengthening them in ways that more fully develop and entrench His unique stamp on us. 

I’ve often thought of this unique spirit as a charism - special grace (or unmerited gift) given by the Holy Spirit for some specific service to the world. Confirmation helps us to discern what our unique charism is and awakens it in us so that we can use it in service to the world. 

You were made on purpose for excellence. 

You were made for more. 

You were made for God. 

Sts. Paul, Timothy, and Titus, pray for us!

Saving Christmas

Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening-in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery.

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

As I write this, there are about 17 minutes of Christmas remaining.

And, for as much as I'm holding fast to what's left - Christmas cookies, Christmas carols and songs, sitting by the lights of the Christmas tree that is still up - I know that come tomorrow (and even by the time I finish typing this post) Christmas will officially be over. 

I can and will hold it in my heart, this year probably more intentionally than most. During the Christmas octave my family had a chance to connect with one of my wife's cousins and his wife. As we chatted about some of the movies we had watched as a family for the first time, he commented on how it always seems like Christmas is in danger of actually taking place. Almost every Christmas movie revolves around the frantic pace and chase of saving Christmas. 

Rudolph's nose shining through the foggy night. Singing a Christmas song loud enough for all to hear for Buddy the elf. Little Sally Who stumbling upon the Grinch and his three sizes too small heart. Making it back home from Europe or New York or wherever else Kevin's family travels for Christmas. Kris Kringle on trial for being insane. Arthur trying to deliver Gwen's gift to Trewel, England. Charlie Brown's last stand against the commercialization of Christmas. Even in Narnia - a place where Christmas doesn't even exist - it is always winter but never Christmas (one of winter's saving graces according to Lucy) because of the curse of the White Queen. 

The list could go on and on. 

We need to save Christmas. 

As I've pondered this idea, I'm struck by how Christmas has always been under attack. Even from the very beginning, the Holy Family couldn't find any room. Herod plotted to and succeeded in murdering the Holy Innocents, with Jesus only finding safety due to His family's finding refuge by fleeing to Egypt. 

Perhaps we need to desterilize the Nativity and infancy narratives. 

Christmas is incredibly joyful and hopeful and peaceful and wonderful but it also comes - Jesus comes - in the midst of the muck and grime and stench and trials and difficulties of a manger filled with animals and void of comfort. 

He brings comfort but in the midst of the difficult, not in the absence of it.  

Our Church loving and wisely reminds us of this throughout the octave and the season of Christmas. December 26 tells us the story of the first martyr, St. Stephen. On December 27 we commemorate St. John the Evangelist and meet him and St. Peter at Jesus's empty tomb. The 28th somberly reminds us of the aforementioned slaughter of the Holy Innocents. The Feast of the Holy Family on 12/29 retells Jesus, Mary, and Joseph immigrating to Nazareth. The octave ends with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the Incarnation of Jesus - fully human and fully divine. 

No silent nights. All was not calm. Even the night Jesus was born had choirs of angels singing "Gloria!" and shepherds flocking to the delivery room of the newborn King. 

This recognition, I think, offers a way to save Christmas. Like the family in Tomie dePaola's book, "Christmas Family," I want to be different in my preparations and celebrations of this important feast. Like Good King Wenceslaus, may I go out and help those in need. Like the Little Drummer Boy, may I offer Christ the best of what I have and play for Him - boldly, humbly. May I face unafraid not the plans that I've made but the ones that God has in store for me. And, in the midst of the darkness, because of the darkness, may I employ songs to repeat the sounding joy to bring the light of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, to the world. 

It's not too late. Let's save Christmas.

Restoration

Then, still like a star, I saw them winding up, scaling what seemed impossible steeps, and quicker every moment, till near the dim brow of the landscape, so high that I must strain my neck to see them, they vanished, bright themselves, into the rose-brightness of that everlasting morning. 

-C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Aronsyne, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In an address to the faculty, staff, and administration of Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Cleveland this past fall, Fr. Damian Ference posed many strong insights about who God is, who Jesus is, and who we are as humans created in God's image and likeness. 

Starting with a discussion about how things exist - water bottles, chairs, bibles - Fr. Ference then moved to how God exists: as existence itself. Whereas everything else has a creator and exists as a creation for a specific purpose, God exists as existence itself. 

And, this existence is love. God is love. 

Following this logical flow, since God is love, God is also - inherently - relational. God exists as a relationship and for relationships. God exists as love and therefore to love. He creates out of love and is constantly revealing Himself to us through His created world and all that is in it. 

At the beginning of the Bible, the Book of Genesis opens with the Word - Jesus - bringing things into existence and into order. Fr. Ference led us through the six days of creation - day one, the light; day two, the sky and sea; day three, the land; day four, the sun, moon, and stars; day five, the birds and the fish; and day six, the land animals. After each of these acts of creation, God deems His creations "good." However, His final act of creation on day six, after creating the land animals, involved the creation of one in "our" (notice the relational nature of God) "image and likeness" - humans. And, after this act of creation, God deemed it "very good."

Being made in God's image and likeness endows us with capacities for intellect, will, and love. Being made in God's image and likeness means that we are relational and therefore want love. This love entails sacrifice, it involves making something holy, and it wills the good of the other for the sake of the other. Imagine the scene of a parent caring for a sick child in the middle of the night - willing the good of the the other for the sake of the other. Sacrifice. Love.

Being made in God's image and likeness provides us with intention. We can make choices with intent - once again willing to do something - out of which arises virtue and vice. Chapter one of Genesis ends with God giving all of creation to humans to use and the responsibility to do so ethically in accordance with each thing's purpose. 

Use, not abuse.

Moving to Genesis's second chapter, Fr. Ference unpacked the gems of this take on the creation story. Creating man out of clay and His breath, God forms humans with two unified parts - visible and invisible, body and soul. The body acts the visible manifestation of our invisible soul. Unfortunately, we can reduce people to only their bodies and/or see the body as a hindrance to our true selves. This leads to the problems of things like pornography and reassignment surgeries - seeing people as only bodies or the body as something that can be changed at will.

In this version of creation, God plants two trees in the garden - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Whereas we might think our lives easier without both trees, this demonstrates the powerful gift of our free will and that God allows us to choose to enter into relationship with Him. It reinforces that He truly did make us in His image and likeness. 

Man alone, though, makes no sense. The male and female bodies come together in such a way that they complement and complete the other. Stamped on our nature by our Creator is a desire for relationship, for someone to love and for complete us. 

At this point in the presentation, Fr. Damian belted out a few verses of Queen's "Somebody to Love", one of a few artistic performances he sprinkled throughout his powerful messages.  

Find me somebody to love...Find me somebody to love...

At this point in the creation story, the union between and among people and God remained whole and complete and in communion. 

Enter sin. Pull away from God and each other. Curve inward toward ourselves. Start using people for selfish reasons instead of loving them for sacrificial ones - loving things and using people and not the other way around. 

Covered. Hidden. Ashamed. Broken. 

Enter Jesus to restore God's relationship with humanity. Drawing parallels between Mary - the New Eve -and the original one, as well as Jesus - the New Adam - and His predecessor, Fr. Damian highlighted how instead of a fallen angel, Mary was visited by Gabriel. And, instead of choosing the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Mary chose the tree of life. Jesus, instead of hiding and watching the enemy devour others, wages war with the forces of evil, darkness, and sin by letting His light shine for all to see.

Jesus's first miracle, turning water into an abundance of wine, illustrates how He came to both show us who we were created to be - the recipients of God's abundant love - and who God is - love itself. 

To further demonstrate this point, Fr. Damian literally rolled up his sleeves and dug into the healing of the Gerasene demoniac found in Mark 5.  

The person possessed by the demon has no name, making it easier for him to represent each of us. 

He lives among the tombs - sin and death - and no chains can restrain him - much like we cannot control our addictions to sin on our own. 

Jesus goes to the peripheries, meeting this man where he is. Jesus heals the man, driving the demons - because sin divides - into the pigs that go running off the cliff into the waters below (another artistic performance highlight). 

The people of the town, having heard about this event, come to see what's happening and they find the man "sitting there clothed and in his right mind" (Mark 5:16). Desiring to stay with Jesus and this mountaintop experience - who wouldn't?! - Jesus tells the newly restored man to go back to his family and proclaim "all that the Lord in his pity has done for you" (Mark 5:19). 

On the cross, Jesus brings us back into communion with God and with each other. He consummates and completes the relationship that had prior to this been severed. The Resurrection offers the love, grace, and life for us to maintain this communion. 

In closing, Fr. Ference referenced the powerful restoration Peter experiences on the shore after the Resurrection. Once again highlighting the parallelism found throughout the greatest story ever told, Peter experiences healing around a charcoal fire, the same environment where Peter had denied even knowing Christ. Instead of a gathering of strangers, Jesus restores Peter through the context of a meal where those gathered are made closer than blood relatives. 

Jesus restores Peter and sends him on mission to love, to serve, to heal, and to restore.

In a final moment of performative glory, Fr. Ference ended with a retelling of C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce where a person is restored to his created glory and goes riding off into the distance on a powerful steed. 

We were made for greatness, built for holiness, and destined for sainthood. Like Peter and the man possessed by a demon and the person in C.S. Lewis's tale, we often fall short of this noble call. Christ came, though, to return us to who were were created to be. 

In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, "(Humans were) created for greatness—for God himself; (we were) created to be filled by God. But (our) heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched" (Spe salvi, 2007, #33).

Marek.69 talk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

May we open ourselves to this stretching so that we can live up to the greatness for which we were made: to love, to serve, to heal, and to restore. 

To God.

And to each other.  

The Rest of Rest

 "Our hearts are restless until they rest in God." 

-St. Augustine

Today we conclude the octave of Christmas and celebrate the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. A dogma that reinforces the belief that maintains the fullness of Jesus's divinity and humanity, Mary the Mother of God brought the Son of God into the world. 

She can also, if we go to her as children approaching their mother, bring Him to us.

I experienced the Blessed Virgin Mary's motherly care in a profound way in the late fall and early winter of 2015. During a period of stress and strain, Mother Mary helped me to remain faithful to the call her Son issued to me to be all in for Him. 

In an attempt to make my school more unabashedly Catholic, the Holy Spirit inspired me to help Incarnation Catholic School understand and have a greater devotion to Mary. So, throughout the month of October we focused on learning about the Rosary so that we could pray the full Rosary as a full school on Halloween.

Despite my teachers' new reason to believe in my insanity, we journeyed together as a school to discover insights about the Hail Mary, repetition in prayer, and the mysteries of our Catholic faith emphasized through the Rosary. In order to lead this effort, I engaged in much behind-the-scenes work to remain a lesson ahead in our collective formation. 

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation 

Striving for authenticity, I dabbled in praying the Rosary. 

In preparation for our school's auction that November, I prayed a novena of Rosaries.

In two months, I had prayed the Rosary more often than I had throughout my entire Catholic life. 

Then, in Advent of that year, I accepted Fr. Mike Schmitz's Advent Rosary Challenge. For the first nine days of Advent that year, I either prayed the Rosary or went to Mass. On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, however, I did both. 

December 8, 2015 marked the third anniversary of my father's passing into eternal life. It also marked the day that my mother gifted me my dad's Rosary. Furthermore, it marked the day that praying the Rosary became a daily prayer habit. 

My mom had no idea about my Marian studies that fall. I hadn't told her anything about the Advent Rosary Challenge. But, with a mother's intuition, she gave me my dad's Rosary after we went to mass together to celebrate the Immaculate Conception. She said, "I just thought that this would be meaningful to you." 

I reflect on this season of my life often, especially how my earthly and heavenly mothers and fathers conspired to bring me closer to Jesus. Perhaps, if you're reading this, I'm co-conspiring to encourage you to grow closer to Jesus through a relationship with His mother. 

As we begin this new year, consider turning to Mary, Mother of God, to bring her Son to you. 

Go to Mary, Mother of you, and she will take care of the rest.

 

*For one of the many resources that helped me in my understanding of the Hail Mary and the Rosary, check out this talk from Dr. Edward Sri: