The Essential Mission

"Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience, refinement is not humility, nor is largeness and justness of view,  faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.”  (St. John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University)

As we begin the school year, I think reminding parents and teachers of Newman's distinction is important. Schools can impart knowledge and teach good social skills: how to look people in the eye when you talk with them, how to shake hands, how to train students to be polite and mannerly.  

We should do those things, but our mission is grander and more challenging: to help form students who are good, and even more importantly, holy!   Being well educated doesn't make us  either one of those. As C.S. Lewis once quipped, it may only make us "more clever devils." 

Rather, to become good requires God's grace. And for that grace to stir within our students, it requires adults who live out their faith joyfully and convincingly, and invites students, through their example, to live like them. It requires a community which lives within a consistent moral framework that shapes attitudes and dispositions. It requires prayer and opportunities for worship, to remind us of who God is, and as a consequence, who we are--creatures, not lords or goddesses. And it requires the constant challenge and opportunity to serve others, to put our needs as secondary to others. 

A Catholic school that does these things can have an enormously positive impact on the formation of souls. Our schools can make, literally, an eternal difference in the life our students. 

May we have the courage to be this kind of Catholic school for our students!