● God is ineffable
● God is above our nature
● St. Thomas Aquinas gives us the 5 proofs for God’s existence
○ But according to the Butler’s Lives of the Saints, St. Thomas says at the end of his life, “The end of my labors has come. All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me”
● At the same time
● God becomes man
● God enters into our time and nature
● God allows Himself to speak our language and encounter us
● What a strange God we have ○ I’m stealing that line from Bishop Barron
● Take a deep breath
● Pray for the grace. We want to step into the mystery.
● Imagine the place. See the tomb. Hear the morning. Smell the tomb. Taste the tomb. Feel the tomb. Engage all your senses in this moment of prayer
● Imagine the people, John and Peter.
● Act out the scene.
● Find Jesus and speak to Jesus
● Our Father
John 20: 3-10 - So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned home.
People who gave their lives but didn’t understand
● John 3
● Nicodemus
● This guy is a leader in the Jewish community
● He trained Rabbis
● He knows the Torah
● He comes to Jesus in the night to try to understand what this man is doing
● Even though he knows he keeps asking questions.
● John 20
● St. Peter
● This guy is trying to work and care for his family
● His life is totally changed by his encounter with Christ
● He sees the feeding of the 5k, he sees the raising of Lazarus, he is there at the Transfiguration, he knows what Jesus is doing
● When St. Peter sees the empty tomb he doesn’t understand
Gravissimum Educationis (The Gravity/Importance of Education, 1965)
Pope Paul VI
● Catholic Schools are to be, “proclaiming the mystery of salvation to all” and restore “all things in Christ” (preamble). ● While people mature we as teachers are called to , “gradually introduce the knowledge of the mystery of salvation” (2).
We have the responsibility of “announcing the way of salvation to all men, of communicating the life of Christ to those who believe, and…of assisting men to be able to come to the fullness of this life” (4).
As teachers our “life as much as by [our] instruction bears witness to Christ, the unique Teacher” (8).
● For a school to be considered Catholic it must have the following “essential characteristics:”
○ Inspire “not only [the individual] but the…community”
○ “Reflection in the light of the Catholic faith upon the growing treasury of human knowledge, to which it seeks to contribute its own research”
○ “Fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church.”
○ Be at “service of the people of God and of the human family in their pilgrimage to the transcendent goal which gives meaning to life.” (13)
● Our teaching needs to include, “the search for an integration of knowledge, a dialogue between faith and reason, an ethical concern, and a theological perspective” (15).
● “The salvific action of the Church on cultures is achieved, first of all, by means of persons, families and educators” (conclusion).
The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue (Congregation for Catholic Education 2022)
● “We cannot create a culture of dialogue if we do not have identity” (2).
● “The very essence and raison d’etre (most important reason) of the Church’s historical presence in the field of education and schooling, in obedience to her mission to proclaim the Gospel by teaching all nations” (5).
● We have to share in the mission at it, “implies that educators must be willing to learn and develop knowledge and be open to the renewal and updating of methodologies, but open to spiritual and religious formation and sharing” (26).
“It is tradition, consciously embraced, that offers a comprehensive way of looking at the world. It offers a hypothesis of meaning and a clear image of our destiny. Thus, one enters the world with a clear image of destiny, with a hypothesis of meaning that does not come from a book: the hypothesis is the heart…Tradition is like a working hypothesis that man is armed with by nature so he can evaluate all things” (Giussani, Luigi. Christ, God’s Companionship with Man. pg 52-53).
“...the past must be presented to young people from within an experience lived in the present which helps them to see how it corresponds to the ultimate needs of the human heart…Only a lived experience can present, or even has the right and duty to present tradition, the past as a hypothesis for life. However, if the past is neglected, if it is not presented within a living experience full of reasons, it will also be impossible to reach the third necessary step for education…” (Giussani, 53).
“Doubts bring the search for truth to an end (which may or may not last), but a question, or a problem, is an invitation to understand what is in front of us, to discover something new that is good and true; it is an invitation to a richer and more mature sense of fulfillment” (Giussani, 55).
“The mystery of mercy shatters any image of complacency or despair; even the feeling of forgiveness lies within this mystery of Christ. This is the ultimate embrace of the Mystery, against which man - even the most distant, the most perverse of the most obscured, the most in the dark - cannot oppose anything, can make no objection. He can abandon it, but in so doing he abandons himself and his own good. The Mystery as mercy remains the last word even on all the awful possibilities of history. For this reason existence expresses itself, as ultimate ideal, in begging. The real protagonist of history is the beggar: Christ who begs for man’s heart, and man’s heart that begs for Christ” (Giussani, 73-74).
● Take a deep breath
● Pray for the grace. We want to hear Christ’s voice.
● Engage your senses in the story
● Imagine the people.
● Act out the scene.
● Find Jesus and speak to Jesus
● Our Father
Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus passed on from there,d he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.”
Call of St. Matthew - Caravaggio
Gravissimum Educationis
https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_196 51028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html
Ex Corde Ecclesiae
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_ap
c_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html
The Catholic School
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccathed uc_doc_19770319_catholic-school_en.html
The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccathed uc_doc_20220125_istruzione-identita-scuola-cattolica_en.html
Christ, God’s Companionship with Man, Luigi Giussani
https://www.amazon.com/Christ-Gods-Companionship-Luigi-Giussani/dp/0773545662
