By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
St. Irenaeus, an early Church Father once said: The glory of God is man fully alive, but the life of man is the vision of God.
This explains why the
Church has put so much emphasis on education. Catholic schools seek to help
their students to achieve their full human potential, and in doing so, we
believe that they can give glory to God and one day to obtain the vision of
God.
Commitment to our mission and our Catholic identity is what makes our schools special, unique, and irreplaceable. Our Catholic identity should make us more than just toney “private schools” or “public schools” that charge tuition.
As I like to remind teachers and students alike, while other schools teach the “test”, in Catholic schools we teach the “yes”. We want our kids to follow the example of Mary, the first disciple, who with complete freedom – for she was sinless – said “Yes” to God when he asked her collaboration in bringing to fulfillment his plan for the salvation of the world.
Our lives, and the lives of our students, should be manifestations of God’s goodness. They should reveal to us something of God’s generosity and his wisdom.
Catholic schools still offer a unique blend of Catholic doctrine, moral values, and academic excellence. A Catholic education, necessarily supported by parental example in the home, can teach character and form our young people in the virtues, i.e., those qualities that will make them free to say yes, to say yes to excellence as in the sense of St. Irenaeus’ maxim: the glory of God is man fully alive.
This is freedom for excellence, the freedom to commit oneself to the pursuit of the good; it is the freedom to become holy, to become a saint. It is a freedom that helps us to contribute to human flourishing by promoting justice and the common good of all people in society. Our nation, our democracy is stronger and better because of our Catholic schools and institutions.
In today’s culture, our children have a difficult road to travel, especially since various reductive and false ideologies have sown much confusion about our understanding of the human person. Which is why we invest in Catholic schools – because we can teach the truth about man, about his origin and his ultimate destination. In teaching the truth, especially the Truth with a capital “T”, Jesus Christ, we can help teach the “yes”.
Our graduates generally do go on to do very well in their lives and their career paths. But to return to that quote from St. Irenaeus, if the Glory of God is man fully alive, then the life of man is the vision of God. In Catholic schools we educate the child not only to do well – but also to do good. For it is in doing good – loving God and our neighbor in all things and above all things – that we hope to enjoy eternal life.
The mission of Catholic schools is to make our kids love God’s plan for their lives. It is to teach them that they can be holy – and to encourage them to embrace the pursuit of that holiness with a resounding yes, a liberating yes to the knowledge of the truth, the truth that makes us free – free to discipline their desires towards achieving the good for which we were created, free enough to do the good that God asks of us.
Pope Benedict XVI once said: “The aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult faith that can make him a ‘new creation’, capable of bearing witness in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him.” (Sacramentum Caritatis)
We can give our students the best technology available, the greatest teachers, the winningest sports programs; we can give our students entry into the best universities; we can give them everything – but if we do not give them God, we end up giving them too little.
