by Bishop James Conley
Pope Francis recently reminded the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in its plenary assembly, that the ongoing renewal of the sacred liturgy is essential to the new evangelization. The Holy Father said that we must “continue to let ourselves be amazed at what happens in the celebration under our very eyes” whenever we come together to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
As we begin this holy season of Lent and mark the halfway point in our three-year Eucharistic Revival, I would invite all of us to go deeper into the mystery of the “word made flesh” during these graced days of Lent. In fact, we should honestly ask ourselves, “do we let ourselves be amazed” when we encounter our Eucharistic Lord in the celebration of the liturgy?
As I travel around the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln for Confirmations and other liturgical celebrations in our parishes, I am continually struck and edified by the simple yet profound Eucharistic faith of our people. I saw this most recently during my tour of schools for Catholic Schools Week at the end of January.
For Catholic Schools Week, I was privileged to lead Eucharistic processions in three of our Catholic elementary and high schools. As the students lined the hallways of their schools and knelt in front of their lockers in adoration, I carried the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance through the school. I could see by the looks on their faces, the eyes of faith and yes, even the look of amazement as I carried our Eucharistic Lord in front of them.
For some it was, perhaps, the first time they had experienced a Eucharistic procession in such a close encounter. As I explained in my homily during the Mass, by participating in a Eucharistic procession we were claiming our school for Christ! We were saying to Jesus, “this is your school, Lord, and we want you to reign supreme in every room, in every nook and cranny, and in every course we take—not just in religion class, but throughout our whole school. You are present in our science classes and labs, in the art rooms and cafeteria, and in the gymnasium and out on the athletic fields. This is your school, Lord!”
As we so often say, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, that the Holy Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Christian life, we can also say with confidence and conviction that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of Catholic education. The Eucharistic Lord is the sign of unity and communion for everything we do in our Catholic schools.
In a recent column in “The Catholic Thing,” David G. Bonagura, author and adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York City, wrote that “Every Catholic school, every subject, every extracurricular activity exists to form students’ minds and characters after the heart of Christ so that they may live in union with Him in this life and the next. Catholic school students, therefore, ought to be immersed in the Eucharist so they can see, taste, and be transformed by Christ, present yet hidden under the veils of bread and wine.”
We believe that Catholic education is much more than a process of information transfer; it must be an experience of transformation of the student—body, mind, and spirit —for Christ. If education was simply a matter of transferring information from one source to another, a robot or computer could do that. Catholic schools are in the business of personal transformation, transforming hearts, minds, and souls—and thus transforming culture.
Dr. Bonagura goes on to write: “We can rightly call the Eucharist, then, the summit and source of Catholic education. It is the goal to which schools lead their students, and it provides the grace for administrators, teachers, and students to fulfill their vocations. The Catholic school’s mission includes developing students’ understanding and love of the Eucharist. At the same time, a school that places the Eucharist at the heart of its life stands fortified against constant pressures to conform to the world’s—and the government’s—demands.”
An exciting project in which I am involved is serving on a Diocesan Curriculum Review Committee, where we are looking at the curriculum for all six of our high schools, to make sure that Christ is at the center of all of subjects taught in our high schools, that they are historically aligned, and fully integrated into a Catholic world view. The committee is comprised of teachers and administrators from all six of our high schools, as well as members of our Diocesan Education Office.
As St. John Henry Newman wrote in his masterpiece on education, “The Idea of a University,” a good Catholic education will prepare a student for a life of meaning and purpose, possessing a clear and confident vision of all reality, and able “to fill any post with credit, and to master any subject with facility.” Catholic education is about formation as well as instruction, and it is a means of preparing individual students not only for successful careers, but for happy, holy and successful lives.
The great Catholic author of the Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien, who was Oxford trained and ranks as one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the 20th century, believed that the Holy Eucharist was at the center of all learning. Tolkien was a daily communicant and he knew that starting each day with Holy Communion, would set the tone for what happened the rest of the day. The Eucharist was his “north star”; the organizing principle for his entire life. And it is from this perspective, that he could write these remarkable words in a letter to his son:
“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament . . . There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste—or foretaste—of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.”
