Catholic Schools Week, 2009
Dear friends in Christ,
Our Lord Jesus Christ is always our first Teacher. We receive His instruction in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, and all the practices and disciplines of our faith. In our Catholic schools, we strive to make this instruction take place, so that Jesus Christ can indeed teach our children, both in person and through those who love both Him and them. As our Holy Father has reminded us, “Love of neighbor… consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ…. The saints… constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbor from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its realism and depth in their service to others. Love of God and love of neighbor are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment.” (Deus Caritas Est, 18).
This year, as we celebrate the commitment of our Diocese to Catholic education, we remember that Catholic schools celebrate service. Inseparably from the formation of minds, hearts, and souls for the love and worship of God, our Catholic schools always strive to teach and model how this love bears fruit in the love of neighbor.
To love one’s neighbor is to will their good, even in preference to one’s own good. Christ teaches clearly that my neighbor’s good, in the most fundamental sense, is identical to my own: to share, now and eternally, in the divine life of God the Trinity. This highest good shapes all the other goods which we need and desire: universal goods like peace, justice, and liberty, as well as personal goods like health, a strong family life, and the willingness, opportunity, and means to accept my own vocation. As Pope Benedict says, loving one’s neighbor – that is, joyfully choosing to sacrifice the selfish pursuit of one’s own good, so that the good of another may be sought first – is ultimately motivated only by receiving the love of Jesus Christ, poured out for each one of us from the Cross. To receive Christ’s supernatural love, even if only in the natural goods of family or friendship or virtue or happiness, inevitably awakens in us the desire to share that love with others. But by the grace of the Church’s sacraments, we recognize personally and immediately the full depth and power of Christ’s love. Then we are moved beyond merely natural love. Then we are freed to die to self, choosing joyfully the sacrifices necessary to share that love, not just with some, but with all.
In this way, our Catholic schools, and indeed all Catholic education, including homes and parishes, serve not merely to educate us and our children. The catholicity of Catholic education consists in service: bringing Christ’s love and hope – most fully felt and recognized in the sacrament of Holy Eucharist – to those most needing the embrace of His most Sacred Heart.
In all Catholic education, our Lord Jesus Christ is our first Teacher, because only He teaches the full meaning of love, of self-sacrificing service for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Rooted and formed in the Church’s timeless sacraments and liturgies, our love for God drives us in to worship Him, and drives us out to love and serve all our neighbors.
As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week together, may our Lord Jesus Christ open our minds and our hearts to the power of His saving love. May our belonging to Him through the cleansing waters of Baptism more vividly move us to deeper and purer love for all. May the innumerable blessings He pours so freely upon us bear fruit through us for the materially and spiritually poor in our midst. And may He bless you with every good, both now and in eternity.
Your brother in Christ,
Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City