|
|
Alumni News
St. Edward Elementary
50th Anniversary Mass
June 7, 2009 - Trinity
Sunday
Since we’re celebrating the anniversary of our school, it
seems appropriate to start with a story about report cards.
One day a girl—not one of our students—brought her report
card home. Most of the grades were all right, and a few
were even very good—but there was one glaring exception that
stood out like a sore thumb, no doubt due to a lack of
effort on the girl’s part in that particular subject. When
her mother saw this grade, she demanded in an angry tone,
“Young lady, I want you to explain to me why you got an ‘F’
in spelling!” The girl shrugged her shoulders and said,
“Words fail me.” So it is with us when we try to
understand, explain, or describe the mystery of the Holy
Trinity, which the Church celebrates today: words fail us.
Our minds can’t comprehend how there can be Three Persons in
One God, and human language is inadequate when it comes to
expressing the significance and depth and richness of this
mystery—but belief in the Trinity is part of our lives as
Christians.
Another little girl was using her crayons to draw
pictures—first of her mother, then of her father, then of
her brother; each time she showed the finished product to
her mom, who responded, “That’s very nice, dear.” Lastly,
the girl decided to do something much more ambitious: she
drew a confusing maze of squiggly lines, then announced,
“Look, Mom, a picture of God!” The mother studied the
drawing, but said, “I’m afraid I can’t find God in that
picture.” The girl replied, “Well, He’s in there somewhere”
(Kevin McKenna, You Did It For Me, pp. 71 -72). We
might say the same thing in terms of our experience of God
in the midst of all the dogmatic teachings and official
Church pronouncements and theological terminology about the
Holy Trinity: the concept may be unclear and confusing, but
the reality does exist in there somewhere—and love is the
key to experiencing it. We won’t be judged on our
theological expertise or our religious vocabulary, but on
whether we’ve honestly tried to enter into and reflect that
love shared by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Rather than simply reflecting on today’s Scripture readings
for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, I want to share a few
thoughts on the ongoing mission of St. Edward School. Just
as there are Three Persons in One God, so I think we can say
there are three aspects to the educational ministry of St.
Edward’s. The first one, of course, is that of academics,
or the teaching of reading, writing, mathematics,
technology, health & safety, science, social studies,
spelling, and all the other subjects that make up the
curriculum in a Catholic school. It’s not an empty boast to
say that we do this very well; we know this not only from
the testimony of many former students, and not only from the
standardized test scores of our students—which, by the way,
show that the longer our students are with us, the higher
they work above their own grade level; we know this because,
like virtually every other school in the Archdiocese of
Detroit, St. Edward’s is a sign that Catholic schools stand
for educational excellence. We are teaching our students to
be academic leaders and achievers—a process that can
continue at St. Mary/McCormick Academy and at Cardinal
Mooney High School.
A
second important aspect of our educational mission is that
of personal growth and development. We urge our students to
try new things, learn new interests, and develop their
talents and abilities—whether in sports, through
participation in the CYO and the McCormick athletic program;
in music, through classroom instruction, participation in
Mass, and involvement in the children’s choir; or in
after-school activities and various other outlets for
creativity and enjoyment. A woman who belonged to the first
1st grade class of St. Edward’s was here last week; she
couldn’t be here this weekend, so I gave her and her family
a tour of our school—and she was amazed and impressed to see
all the students’ art work in the hallway and classrooms,
and how friendly and vibrant the school looked, even when
the students weren’t present. Like every Catholic school,
we recognize that each child is a gift from God, and we
encourage our students to “unwrap” themselves by discovering
and using their talents and abilities.
A third essential aspect of our educational ministry is, of
course, spiritual, moral, and religious formation—and it’s
this which, above everything else, truly makes a Catholic
school distinct from the government or public school
system. Jesus Christ truly is present in our school—not
only religion class, morning prayers, and weekly Masses; the
values of His Kingdom are reflected in our school’s
policies, procedures, expectations, parental involvement,
and volunteers—in the classroom and in the hallway, in the
lunchroom and in the gymnasium, on the playground, and
everywhere else. Our Catholic Faith permeates everything
our school does and everything it stands for. While we give
our students a solid educational foundation for their
lifetimes, our highest priority is providing them the
spiritual foundation they’ll need in preparation for
eternity.
Academics, personal growth, and spiritual formation are
inseparable, just as the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit form One indivisible God. Love is the key to
experiencing, and in some small way, understanding, the Holy
Trinity, and love is what we’re about and what we celebrate
at St. Edward’s School: God’s love for us, and our love for
Him and for all the people He has placed in our lives. Both
in attempting to describe the Triune God, and in talking
about all that our school has meant to St. Edward Parish and
our community, words fail us—but we know the truth in our
hearts, even if we can’t fully express it, and the joy and
gratitude we feel on the occasion of our school’s 50th
anniversary is but a faint reflection of the wonderful
“festival of rejoicing” that awaits us in Heaven, in the
presence of the Holy Trinity.
|
 |
