by Most Rev. Mylo Hubert C. Vergara, DD, MA, SThD
Homily during the Eucharistic Celebration of CEAP
Superintendents’ Commission Annual Assembly
Diamond Hotel,
Roxas Blvd., Manila, August 26, 2012
What, to my mind, are the critical
challenges that catholic educators in the 21st century face in the
administration of our Catholic schools?
Allow me to use some insights in our readings for this 21st Sunday
in Ordinary Time to draw out four challenges.
The first is credible leadership. In our
first reading, the Israelites found themselves in the land of the Amorites who
worshipped their own gods. Joshua summoned the tribes of Israel and addressed
all the elders, leaders, judges and scribes, making them choose whom to worship—either
the gods of the Amorites or the one and only true God of their Israelite
ancestors. It must have been difficult for Joshua to speak to the Israelites
and make a stand but he stood his ground and declared: “As for me and my
household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) Perhaps this declaration of Joshua, their
leader, boosted the moral of the Israelites who were in alien territory, for
them to make a firm, communal declaration: “Far be it from us to forsake the
Lord for the service of other gods..... Therefore, we also will serve the Lord,
for he is our God.” (Joshua 24:16) But I
believe that it was not only Joshua’s words that convinced them to make their
assent of faith in the God of Israel but also his integrity and credibility as
their leader.
Any institution or organization will
rely so much on a leader’s vision.
However, aside from a leader’s vision, much is demanded from his person,
particularly his behavior and lifestyle.
Today, the Catholic Church, especially her ordained ministers is put on
the stand because of clergy sexual misconduct and, among others, even the
misuse of ecclesiastical funds. There is
a lot of talk about the lack of credibility of some bishops, priests and religious
because they have not lived up to their christian and priestly identity.
In a conversation with a priest of a
certain diocese, this priest had the impression that some of his fellow priests
aspire to be assigned in parishes with parochial schools because they would
make more money for themselves and experience a lot of perks given by textbook
companies and food and beverage consigners.
In connection to this, a number of us know that some clergy and even
religious sisters and brothers administering our catholic schools have misused
and mismanaged the school funds for their own personal benefit. Though some were held accountable for their
offenses, others were able to get away with the wrong they have done. It is sad that, even in the realm of the
administration of our catholic schools, some of us fail in living up to
credible stewardship.
I think, we, catholic educators have to seriously
work on credible leadership as we live up to our mission towards renewed
evangelization in the 21st century.
We may excel in mapping as well as creating systems and structures to
make our schools competent educational institutions but we may lose sight of
the fact that anything we do and achieve rests on our credibility and integrity
as catholic educators. This means that christian
witness is an indispensable foundation in leading and managing our catholic
schools, and takes priority over any effective educational management. In this light, we are reminded of the
profound words of Pope Paul VI: “… for the Church, the first means of
evangelization is the witness of Christian life…. ‘Modern man listens more
willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it
is because they are witnesses.’” (EN # 41)
The second is communio. A little while
ago, we echoed the words of the psalmist and said: “Taste and see the goodness
of the Lord.” What particularly is the
goodness of the Lord? In our
responsorial palm, it is God’s deep communion with the just who are oppressed
and brokenhearted. The Lord’s
compassionate communion comforts them in their troubles, delivers them from
evildoers and saves them from all their distress. (cf. Psalm 33:16-19)
God’s nature is communion. His act of communion invites us to live out a
spirituality of communion in the catholic school as an educational community
and in the relationship of catholic schools with each other in the local
church. On the one hand, this means that
diocesan priests, consecrated persons and lay people, working in a catholic
school must live out what is called “an attitude of evangelical fraternity”,
enabling and empowering each other through their diverse charisms or “gifts of
the Spirit” in their task to educate each other and to be instruments of
education for the young. On the other
hand, this also means that catholic schools must tap on the wealth of creative
networks and partnerships among themselves and realize the abundant resources
that they can synergize for the development of educational communities. (cf.
Educating Together in Catholic Schools # 17)
It is sad when a sub-culture of unhealthy
competition creeps into how catholic schools relate with each other. In fact, we should be the first ones
convinced that gone are the days when a diocese or a religious congregation
managing a catholic school thinks only of itself, particularly of its own
autonomy and survival; or feels a certain sense of superiority, as if its own
educational management is the best there is.
The spirituality of communion teaches us that catholic schools should
humbly educate each other, and be happy for each other when one catholic school
achieves excellence and distinction for the local church and for God’s greater
glory.
The third is creative evangelization. In
our second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, he gives advice on
how husbands and wives should relate to each other. In a nutshell, he exhorts them to love each
other as Christ loves his Church. However,
this loving must be marked by creativity, a creative way of loving in which
spouses feel that they are cared for and nurtured by each other. For instance, St. Paul adds that a husband
can love his wife in such a way that he himself shows love for his own body by
feeding it and looking after it. (cf. Ephesians 21-32)
The 21st century can be
characterized by a seemingly limitless explosion of knowledge. We are in an information age powered by web-
and mobile-based technologies. Some management experts claim that in today’s
knowledge economy, creativity is a great need for businesses to survive and to
be at pace with the times. Even in the
area of education, creativity is urgently needed to have new pedagogical tools
for students of the electronic generation.
Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu, MSC, a noted social psychologist expresses it in
these words: “For the information era, we need a new educational policy and
fresh skills to cope with the masses of information that impinge daily upon our
consciousness. The exciting challenge is
that we don’t have to procure those skills from without: increasingly, we
are realizing that they are all within. Can we create an educational system that will
activate them appropriately?” (Our World
in Transition, p. 93) We can apply
this insight in the specific area of evangelization. I think the Second Plenary Council of the
Philippines was prophetic in characterizing the new evangelization in the
Philippines to be done with “new methods”, “new fervor” and “new expressions”.
(PCP-II ## 192-201). This means that our
catholic schools must seriously consider more creative methods and expressions
in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the youth of today.
In this light, we ask and are challenged
to seriously respond to the following questions: How can we creatively
evangelize the students in our Catholics schools immersed in an electronic,
digital milieu? How can we creatively highlight the distinct catholicity of our
schools in today’s information age? Are
we even willing to channel a great chunk of our resources for creative
evangelization so that our students, who almost always look at their mobile
phones, Ipads, laptops and desktop computers, and who, a number of times, feel
that Sunday mass is irrelevant, will be able to know, understand, and perhaps
long for Christ in their lives?
One time, the chaplain of one of our
parochial schools presided over a first Friday mass for elementary and high
school students. During his homily, he
did an exercise to check how many attended the past Sunday mass. He asked those
who did not attend to raise their hands with the instruction that all of students
and even the teachers close their eyes so that no one will feel embarrassed in
case he or she raised his or her hand.
To his great surprise, there were many students and even some teachers
who raised their hands, admitting that they did not go to mass.
Creativity in evangelization is the call
of the times. Last month, during a
gathering of seminary formators held in Cebu, Bo Sanchez, one of their invited
speakers, shared that his experience as a lay preacher has challenged him to
think “out of the box” in his task to proclaim the gospel. He is very much aware that, in as much as he
is in touch with the 15% of catholics who go to mass and listen to his
preaching on TV, he must target the 85% who are nominal catholics and find
going to mass on Sunday no longer relevant in their lives. Because of this, he thought of organizing
what he calls “The Feast” that happens sort of simultaneously in different
parts of the country on Sunday outside the parish church walls. Mass is still celebrated for those who
gather and assigned lay preachers called “builders” give a teaching on God’s
word in their respective “feasts” held in designated places. The biggest gathering is held in the
Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) where Bo Sanchez is their
“builder”. There are 103 “feasts” that
take place every Sunday. Bo Sanchez told
me how he is amazed by the increase of new attendees each Sunday. I was fortunate to see this for myself when I
was invited recently to celebrate mass in a “feast” held in Valle Verde Country
Club (in the Diocese of Pasig). I was
struck by the flux of people who filled the session hall, most of them young
people. In fact, they have a creative
corner where new comers are recognized during the celebration.
The fourth is conscience formation. In the
past weeks, we have listened to the “bread of life” discourse in the Gospel
according to St. John. This Sunday, we
conclude our reflections on this discourse with a seemingly sad note. This time, a number of the disciples of Jesus
expressed their dissension to his teaching.
Many of them left him and decided to go back to their former way of
life. One can observe that Jesus did not
force his disciples to believe his teaching and stay with him. What mattered for Jesus was to boldly speak
the truth about himself and present this to their consciences for consideration
and discernment. His words posed more
questions to form their consciences so that they could make a decision for or
against him: “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man
ascending to where he was before?” And
to his twelve apostles, he even asked: “Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:61,67)
We are currently immersed in a postmodern
era in which our young people’s consciousness is shaped by a moral relativistic mindset that teaches:
the individual person becomes the sole judge of what is good or evil, and of
what is right or wrong. Quite
alarmingly, the Philippine Bishops noted: “In the secular and postmodern
culture that seems to disregard the need for faith, we are confronted with a
society that offers varied and conflicting ephemeral values.” (CBCP Pastoral
Letter, January 29, 2012) It is at this
at time, more than ever, that our catholic schools are given the tremendous
opportunity to educate and form young consciences in faith and morals.
In a recent talk given by Professor
Randy David to us, bishops, on “Postmodernism and Faith”, he told us that this
crisis of faith and morals should not lead Church leaders to pessimism but,
rather, optimism. He finds this time as
a blessed opportunity for the Church to proclaim fundamental truths that will
challenge pluralistic views. In fact,
from his research and readings, he considers Pope Benedict XVI the best expert
in understanding postmodernism and how it affects our faith as well as other
aspects of life. He even said that he is
the right pope at this right time in our history.
Pope Benedict XVI asserts that: “It is
by forming consciences that the Church makes her most specific and valuable
contribution to society.” (Meeting with Representatives of Civil Society,
Croatia, June 4, 2012) In fact, he
considers the catholic educational institution as a potent source of what he
calls the “diakonia of truth” for the
conscience formation of the young. In a meeting with Catholic educators, he
said: “With confidence, Christian educators can liberate the young from the
limits of positivism and awaken receptivity to the truth, to God and his
goodness. In this way you will also help
to form their consciences which, enriched by faith, opens a sure path to peace
and to respect for others.” (Meeting with Catholic Educators, Catholic
University of America, April 17, 2008)
These words tell us that this is an opportune time for any catholic
school to capitalize on the wealth of her moral and spiritual resources to
teach the centrality of God in the life of any human being, to be heralds of
truth of Jesus, our only Truth, and to live up to our vocation and mission of
becoming instruments of peace and love for others.
In my own little way, I humbly share
these four challenges for catholic educators in our time: credible leadership, communio, creative evangelization and conscience formation. As we celebrate 400 years of Catholic
Education in the Philippines this year and approach 500 years of the coming of
Christianity in our beloved land in 2021, we continue to pray that catholic
schools in the our country live up to their identity and mission “to become the
locus of the encounter with Christ” that will be a transforming and
life-changing experience, especially for the young, whom we hope will live
saintly lives and be vessels of grace for others (cf. CBCP Pastoral Letter,
January 29, 2012). Amen.
Comments