"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."
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.
