Catholic Education is a beautiful gift that we have had in this country for many years.
It is a gift that cost our forebears dear. We have so many examples of people who gave
their lives and indeed their livelihoods to ensure that many who would not have been
able to afford it got an education that enabled them to bear much fruit in life. Catholic
Education can continue today to be a beautiful gift in this country. It will continue if
the Catholic Educators don’t lose their confidence or the truth of what they are about.
Catholic education is not primarily child centred. It is Jesus centred. When it is Jesus
centred the child is to be treated as Jesus. The primary call of Catholic education is to
recognise Jesus in all people and to live in communion with all people. What makes
Catholic education different is Jesus whose call to communion we celebrate in the
Eucharist. When we live in communion we live united. We live in equality. We serve
one another. We live the love that St Paul describes so clearly in the Second Reading.
Yet as the reaction to Jesus in the Gospel reminds us, the gift of Jesus and his word
is a gift that can be undermined; that can be greeted cynically; that can be rejected.
Ironically the Good News can cause terrible reactions. One of the reasons for this is
because the Good News is primarily for the poor. That will always threaten the rich.
However the Gospel reveals to us how Jesus dealt with this negative reaction. He didn’t
fight. He didn’t become defensive. He told the truth and he continued his mission with
tremendous confidence because he believed in what he was sent to do.
As we begin our celebration of Catholic Schools’ Week it is important that we don’t
take the gift of our Catholic schools for granted or that we don’t become negative or
cynical about them. We need to celebrate and we need to own our mission. We do that
in the words of the First Reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah by bracing
ourselves for action.
The action that we are bracing ourselves for is at all times to proclaim Jesus - to
recognise Jesus - to serve as Jesus and to live in communion with all people. Then in
our day our Catholic Schools will continue to be a light to the nations.