Growing Communities of Faith in our Schools - Address to Secondary Head Teachers in the Diocese of Westminster

Transcription

1 Growing Communities of Faith in our Schools - Address to Secondary Head Teachers in the Diocese of Westminster Walking through the Door of Faith Firstly I would like to thank Peter Sweeney for inviting me to address you in this keynote speech. Gathering as leaders of Catholic schools in our diocese, it is a privilege to address you in the Year of Faith during which Pope Benedict XVI has asked us as a Church to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ (Porta fidei 2) 1. From visits to many of your schools in this diocese, I have seen the passion and commitment with which you seek to hand on Christian faith and the way in which students celebrate and live their faith in the Mass, through liturgies and in their love and service of the poor, especially through the work of CAFOD, school exchanges to economically poor countries, and work with other charities. I wish to express my thanks and gratitude for the way in which you serve the good of our young people. You desire that their Catholic education will help them to develop their potential to the full by using their God-given gifts in the education of the whole person. In speaking to you this morning, there are many threads which could be developed. I am reminded of the way in which my grandmother used to make rugs. On the back of the canvas there were many loose threads and strands going in many directions, only in time when it was turned over did you begin to see the pattern. This morning I hope to give you some threads on which you can reflect during this conference as we walk again through the door of faith and explore the rooms of the mansion behind the door. To grow as communities of faith in our schools requires a response to the four directions given by the Pope in his address for the Year of Faith, i.e. he desires that each person will have the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness (9), 1 Pope Benedict XVI, Porta fidei (2011) RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 1

2 study the faith (11), engage in the sincere and continuing work of conversion (13) and intensify the witness of charity (14). He sums this up in the following way: The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world. In the mystery of his death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love that saves and calls us to conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts 5:31). For Saint Paul, this Love ushers us into a new life: We were buried... with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4). Through faith, this new life shapes the whole of human existence according to the radical new reality of the resurrection. To the extent that he freely cooperates, man s thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are slowly purified and transformed, on a journey that is never completely finished in this life. Faith working through love (Gal 5:6) becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man s life (cf. Rom 12:2; Col 3:9-10; Eph 4:20-29; 2 Cor 5:17). 2 He invites us to foster an attitude of faith which leads to action and is found in the words: Faith working through love (Gal 5:6). This stance becomes a new criterion of understanding and action which changes a person s stance on life and gives a direction to one s personal narrative. This address will develop six steps: First Step: the Importance of Witness Second Step: Recognising one s operative narrative Third Step: Touched by the mystery of God s love Fourth Step: Conversion to the Gospel Fifth Step: Faith working through love Sixth Step: Go forth and do likewise 2 Pope Benedict XVI, Porta fidei 6 RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 2

3 First Step: The Importance of Witness I wish to firstly emphasise the importance of your witness to the Catholic faith. In Porta fidei the Pope emphasises the need for witnesses to Catholic faith: What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end. 3 This echoes words of Pope Paul VI to be found in his letter on evangelisation, Evangelii nuntiandi (1975), which spoke about the importance of witness: it is appropriate first of all to emphasize the following point: for the Church, the first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian life, given over to God in a communion that nothing should destroy and at the same time given to one's neighbour with limitless zeal "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." 4 I remember hearing a lecture given by Fr. Eric Doyle, OFM, who was passionate about the life of St. Francis. I cannot remember the details of the talk but I remember a man who was alive with the love of God, St. Francis and the desire to tell others of this love. He fell off the stage at one point but I thought he was a saint! On the Sunday programme some weeks ago, one young man expressed the reason for venerating the relics of St. John Bosco in Westminster Cathedral. He said that he wanted to say thank you and recalled that cheerfulness was a characteristic of his Salesian school inspired by the words of St. John Bosco, Here we make holiness consist in being cheerful. Such witnesses bring others to faith. The witness to the life of Catholic faith by school leaders and staff is vital to the life of our schools. You are each called to life-long learning in the Catholic faith as well as in leadership and particular subject-knowledge. Witness is about life. Teenagers are generally very critical of hypocrisy as they perceive it and respect integrity. Therefore the witness of staff to faith, charity, justice, and forgiveness is the first step in building and inspiring the faith of students. Witness will also include the physical environment of the school; what is being proclaimed? What is being communicated about Catholic faith by the location of a chapel in the building and what the place of Catholic symbols the 3 Ibid, Pope Paul VI, Evangelii nuntiandi (1975) 41 RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 3

4 presence of the crucifix, sculpture and art? Witness includes the liturgical life of the school prayer and the Mass. This is furthered by proclaiming the teaching of the Church and making this an internalised reality in the school which will include silence, prayer and contemplation. A further question concerns the witness to the building of communio which is a characteristic of the Church. How do you foster communion in relationships with parents as the first educators of their children in the faith, within the school, with parishes, with other Catholic schools and other schools, with the local Church? To what extent do relationships mirror the life of the Trinity as a communion of love that extends beyond justice to love and mercy? How are forgiveness and conversion a part of the school life? Blessed Pope John Paul II developed the understanding of the virtue of solidarity in his social teaching, a virtue which emphasises interdependence in relationships. He wrote, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. 5 Therefore, each and every school is called to commit to the good of others by sharing best practice and building supportive relationships. Each is to seek that the excellence demanded by Canon is fostered in all schools, that the instruction which is given in them is at least as academically distinguished as that in the other schools of the area. Increasingly we will need to do this together to be a witness to the Catholic Church in our society. Second Step: Recognising one s operative narrative When we speak of the identity of an individual, philosophers consider the role of narratives in the formation of a person. My identity is formed by many narratives, for example, the narrative my parents told me through their words and actions, the narratives communicated by my schools, the narratives of culture which propose values and lifestyles via powerful tools of the media and as a Catholic, the narratives of being Christian and Catholic; a man, a Catholic, a priest and a bishop. Each of us arrives with a particular identity formed from different narratives which may at various times compete or complement one 5 Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo rei socialis 38 RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 4

5 another. We hope that these form an ever more integrated person whose words and actions are congruent with the gospel. Sin makes this a life-long work dependent upon God s grace perfecting human freedom. To grow as a community of faith in our schools requires that we help students recognise the narratives out of which they act and which shape their understanding. How have they been formed? What are the values on which action is based? To what extent do advertising images hold sway? I remember reading an article which contrasted the way in which people wear designer labels to make a statement about themselves - labels which are worn on the outside of clothes, carried on bags etc. - and the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis was passionately in love with Christ and God; this love shaped his heart and was the foundation of the stigmata which were manifested in his body. We have to help students and ourselves shift from wearing outward signs, external to ourselves, to manifesting signs of life which come from the depth of the heart. Recall St. Mark 7 on ritual washing, Jesus replies, This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines the precepts of men. (Mk 7:6-7) Some weeks ago I spoke about Catholic identity at an in-service for staff. We grow into communities of faith by deepening Catholic identity so that the institution of the school witnesses more profoundly to the gospel. Of course, the identity of a school is complex. Every Catholic school has a history and a heritage. Its identity is shaped by the narratives told by the Head with the staff under the direction of the Governing Body, all serving the Bishop; by parents and children, all seeking the good of the school and the good of all, though this can be interpreted in different ways. The work of developing this narrative is an on-going project so that new staff and students understand the ethos and identity of the school whose vision is to be communicated in a coherent and clear way. This vision will contribute to the education of personal identities and build upon foundations laid in the family. Today the self-understanding of some students may not be well-grounded in their Catholic faith and may be limited and partial. Regarding staff, there will be many different narratives in their lives and selfunderstandings. In a noisy and competitive cultural context, narratives compete for attention. The current debate about legislation for same-sex marriage shows different narratives at work and fundamental differences between those who have an essentialist philosophy, i.e. nature is foundational, and those who are RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 5

6 existentialist and so argue that things can be as we wish them to be based on experience and freedom. We need to help students understand the cultural values which have shaped their understanding. As the Pope identifies, Whereas in the past it was possible to recognize a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today this no longer seems to be the case in large swathes of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people. 6 Third Step: Touched by the mystery of God s love In his first encyclical Deus caritas est (2005), Pope Benedict XVI opens with a call to reflection on verses from the First Letter of St John, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1 John 4:16). This love has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ, the sacrament of God s love in our history (von Balthasar). The saints witness to this love in their lives and reveal the diversity of ways in which this love is lived so that they too become like sacraments of God s love in history. We too are called to this lofty vocation since we are each called to perfect holiness (Lumen gentium 11) and called to offer our lives as spiritual sacrifices which witness to Christ (Apostolicam actuositatem 3). We offer ourselves to Christ as Mass when we carry the gifts of bread and wine to the altar and also carry ourselves to be sacrificed on the altar and transformed. The encounter with Jesus Christ is at the heart of the renewal called for by the Pope during the Year of Faith and is the foundation for the New Evangelisation. In the first paragraph of Deus caritas est, the Pope writes: Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives a new horizon and a decisive direction. 7 An encounter is a meeting and the beginning of a relationship. This is the starting point for growing in faith. We are called to help students to be touched by God s grace and from this encounter deepen the meaning of their baptismal life and vocation in the world. The encounter with Jesus Christ reveals God s 6 Porta fidei 2. 7 DCE 1. RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 6

7 unconditional love for all humanity, God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety. (Spe salve 31) 8. In his encyclical on hope, the Pope uses the example of St. Josephine Bakhita as an example of a woman who was touched by God s love through the love of her master and then committed herself to the gospel. When we consider her life, we see that she is an example of a woman saint who overcame abuse and terror and came to know God and so was able to straighten up and know God s love for her. Recall Luke 13: 10-17, the woman she was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight he laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. Josephine Bakhita was born about 1869, in Darfur, Sudan. At the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan. Eventually she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general where she was flogged every day till she bled; as a result of this she bore 144 scars throughout her life. Finally, in 1882, she was bought by an Italian merchant for the Italian consul Callisto Legnani, who returned to Italy as the Mahdists advanced. After the terrifying masters who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of master paron in Venetian dialect, who respected her. She began to learn about Jesus Christ from his example and called her living God, the God of Jesus Christ, her paron. Up to that time she had known only masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard that there is a paron above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good. She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her that he actually loved her. She was known and loved and knew that this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now was waiting for her at the Father's right hand. Now she had hope no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope: I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good. 8 Pope Benedict XVI, Spe salve (2007) RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 7

8 Through the knowledge of this hope she was redeemed, no longer a slave, but a free child of God. When she was about to be taken back to Sudan, Bakhita refused; she did not wish to be separated again from her Paron. On 9 January 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion from the hands of the Patriarch of Venice. On 8 December 1896, in Verona, she took her vows in the Congregation of the Canossian Sisters and from that time onwards, besides her work in the sacristy and in the porter's lodge at the convent, she made several journeys round Italy in order to promote the missions. She felt that the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ needed to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people. The hope born in her which had redeemed her, she could not keep to herself; this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody. In this way, she hoped that others would come to say, I believe. On February 8 th, the Church is asked to pray for victims of human trafficking and ask the intercession of St. Josephine Bakhita. How can we help our students to know this mystery more deeply? I believe that happens through the witness of life, the beauty of the liturgy, through silence which leads to prayer and growth in gratitude and generosity. The following words from Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ never fail to make me reflect on the gift which I have received: Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything. (Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ). Fourth Step: Conversion to the Gospel The fourth step is about putting on the mind of Christ and growing in love for him. This is about being shaped by a new narrative by which each person is conformed to the gospel. St. Paul writes of putting on the clothing associated with being a follower of Christ: Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 8

9 quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17) As Catholics we stand in the traditio - what has been handed on (Tradition) - of the Catholic Church and are formed in and by Christ and his Church. This is our clothing. To be Catholic means being faithful to Catholic teaching and practice and fostering the goal of Catholic education articulated by the teaching of the Church. It means building communio and serving the common good, especially the poor and the vulnerable. It means always looking outwards to the wider Church in the diocese and beyond; it is inclusive and universal. It means never being content with what is partial or limited. Our tradition includes the teaching of the centuries from the early Fathers of the Church, in the creeds and the Councils, in the lives of the mystics and saints and lived faith of today. It can be enriched by art and architecture, whether Gothic or modern I think of Chartres, Westminster Cathedral designed by John Francis Bentley, the monastery of Saint Marie de la Tourette designed by Le Corbusier, and by music whether Mozart, James Macmillan or Marty Haugen. We have aesthetic reactions to each but all are part of a wider Catholic heritage. Catholic identity is embodied and involves posture; kneeling, standing, sitting, genuflecting, bowing, and fasting etc., both collectively as well as individually. The school has the task of communicating this tradition in its affective, cognitive and physical dimensions. Fifth Step: Faith working through love The Pope writes that faith working through love becomes the new criterion for understanding and action for the disciple of Christ. There is always the constant danger that we separate or compartmentalise each of them and insufficiently consider the relationship between them. This warning is given in the Pope s Lenten message for 2013 which is a profound reflection on the relationship between faith and charity, Believing in Charity Calls Forth Charity : We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us. 9 From St. Luke s gospel, consider the three stories which are well-known to each one of us: the story of the Good Samaritan, the story of Jesus visiting the house 9 Pope Benedict XVI, Lenten Message _en.html RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 9

10 of Martha and Mary, and teaching of Jesus on the Our Father. We are all familiar with them but do we recall that they follow sequentially at the end of chapter 10 and the beginning of chapter 11. In the way that we hear the scriptures, either over a year on Sunday, or at daily Mass, we can easily forget how the various readings join together and why they are presented like this. St. Luke presents these three as a triptych with the story of Martha and Mary at the centre. Mary listens to the teaching of Jesus; Martha is busy about many things. Mary is commended for having chosen to listen: But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:41-42). Looking to the left of this story, Jesus has taught the lawyer about the meaning of loving his neighbour being like Martha. Looking to the right, Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer and love of God being like Mary. We can see that for Luke, both Martha and Mary are good, and that prayer must be the foundation for our love of neighbour. Similarly we see this integrity in St. John s teaching on the Eucharist. The community to which St. John writes is familiar with celebrating the Eucharist. They know the oral tradition recorded in the Synoptic Gospels of the Last Supper and the words of institution handed down to the Church culminating in Jesus commandment Do this in memory of me. However, it would seem that there are believers who have been influenced by those who are dismissive of the need for charity towards others or who are withdrawing from the service of love in the community. St. John writes against those Christians who may have been influenced by Gnosticism and consider Christianity as a religion which is so focused on spiritual matters that the material side suffers, there is to some extent a denial of the Incarnation. St. John s account of the last Supper in chapter 13 profoundly links the Eucharist with the commandment of love through the example of Jesus washing his disciples feet and giving himself on the cross. The disciples are called to imitate this sacrificial love for others and do this also in memory of Him. Participation in the Eucharist and the works of charity are intimately linked. This is summed up in the dismissal from Mass, not thank God it s over but God in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life or Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord. RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 10

11 Sixth Step: Go forth and do likewise We need to help the school community identify the personal and collective narratives which form the individuals and the institution. Through a commitment to faith working through love, we communicate primarily by witness and then by words to those around us. From this standpoint the invitation is to consider how this criterion can more fully shape action within the community. The initiatives for fund-raising for CAFOD are good but the explicit motivation from faith must be developed. At Mass we gather and are nourished by Word and Sacrament to be sent out as the Body of Christ in the world. We are called to be the leaven. We are called to sow the seeds which in God s time will bear fruit. We do our best but then leave the rest to God. As Head Teachers you must face many seemingly intractable situations and so there is an important witness in recognising that they must be handed over to God. Prayer must lead to action in love; then we return from action to the Father to be nourished again and to give thanks. The integrity of faith and charity is emphasised by the Pope in his Lenten message for this year. He writes: In light of the above, it is clear that we can never separate, let alone oppose, faith and charity. These two theological virtues are intimately linked, and it is misleading to posit a contrast or dialectic between them. On the one hand, it would be too onesided to place a strong emphasis on the priority and decisiveness of faith and to undervalue and almost despise concrete works of charity, reducing them to a vague humanitarianism. On the other hand, though, it is equally unhelpful to overstate the primacy of charity and the activity it generates, as if works could take the place of faith. For a healthy spiritual life, it is necessary to avoid both fideism and moral activism. The Christian life consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God s own love. (3) Let us scale the mountain and bring the members of our schools, staff and students, with us so that then we can return and serve others. Then we will see how the small seeds grow into large communities of faith and action. Bishop John Sherrington, February 2013 RCDOW Secondary Headteachers Conference 2013: 11