Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and companions(Click here for readings)
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you...I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them...and everything of mine is yours."
Summer time. This morning I celebrated our last school mass of the year for our kids at All Saints Catholic School. I noticed immediately that the kids were not sitting in their usual places. They had already "moved up" in rank and taken their new seats of "power." For example, the seventh graders were now sitting where the eighth graders once sat. Wow!
During these growing years, it's easy to exert one's personal rights and privileges, but we must never forget that responsibility and sacrifice go along with age as well.
Jesus never hesitated to give His Father all the glory. After all, all that the Lord is comes from the Father. This truth was never forgotten by the Lord. Our kids can learn a lot from His incredible example of honesty and humility.
Yes, summer time is the best time for games and fun, but it's also the ideal time to put into practice all the good things learned throughout the school year.
And so what have we learned this year? Is it that working hard earns you an award? Yes, it does, but awards are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Perfect Attendance Award would be useless unless it signified that people could count on you. The Perfect Conduct Award would be worthless unless it meant people could trust you. The Honor Roll Award would be dangerous if it didn't acknowledge the conscience. We don't need more smart people in the world without a good conscience. The Good Citizen Award would simply be political correctness if the recipient were not a holy person.
All these awards carefully spell out who the world really needs: God's presence and love and His peacemakers. In summary, the world needs Jesus and more Christians.
Does anyone not read between the awards?
I told our students this morning, "Wherever you go, whatever trip you take, take with you the Lord. If you are heading off this summer to Disney World, then make sure you take a picture with Mickey or Daffy or Donald and then look straight through their mask and into their eyes and tell them, "God bless you." It will shock the hell out of them.
Good job! Give God all the glory.
Evangelization Time As we come of age, we get more rights as well as responsibilities. As we grow in our Christian faith, we are given more graces and more responsibilities. As we get closer to holiness, we carry a bigger Cross.
Like St. Charles Lwanga and his companions, St. Paul received helping upon helping of graces from God. He also received the martyrs crown. He wasn't the first nor will he be the last.
This meditation really, really resonated with me. It was the best one yet for me. I come from a family of over achievers. It definitely wasn't easy growing up in a highly competitive family where it was expected that you would be the high school valedictorian and earn your PhD. (Even when a family member won the Rhodes Scholarship, it was no big deal). Growing up, it was definitely tempting to see the accolade as an end in and of itself. I remember thinking in law school that the cycle of ambition is never ending -- junior Congressmen in DC want to the Committee leaders and the Committee leaders want to be the Speaker, and the Speaker wants to be the President! Where does it end?
ReplyDeleteThe buck stops here. The buck stops with JESUS CHRIST! During our school days and beyond, my mom kept us grounded. She would always say that whatever little talent we had should be developed to the fullest only for the glory of God. We had to be responsible with our talents and never use them against the Church. That's why I love your quote "We don't need more smart people in the world without a good conscience." It is so true. Two of my four siblings are research scientists at major institutions and they have used their positions to evangelize in a profession where is it commonplace to be an atheist.
As a parent now, I try to pass on the same wisdom to the kids. "Succcess" is such an amorphous goal. Awards don't mean anything unless they are attached to virtue. True success is complete surrender to Jesus himself.
When temptation looms high, I repeat the words of Blessed Mother Teresa "God doesn not call us to be successful, he calls us to be faithful."
Thank you Father for this meditation.