By Troy Kassien ’14
Mr. Talarico [Director of Campus Ministry] asked me to speak today because he knows that I had a tremendously impactful and formative experience during my four years at Servite and his hope was that I would share with you something of my experience and why I believe it was so crucial in the development of the person I am today.
See, I came to Servite at a really pivotal point in my life. I didn’t have a whole lot of direction or drive, faith was completely absent, and I had no clue as to what my own meaning or purpose was, outside of playing baseball and golf, that is. But that all changed when I came to Servite. In fact, I left a person that my freshman self would have never recognized… and I’m so glad that that’s true.
When I was reflecting on what it was about my own Servite experience that made it so impactful, I was reminded of an essay I came across not too long ago by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Archbishop Sheen is hailed by many historians as one of the greatest—if not the greatest—Catholic communicators of the 20th century. If you don’t know much about him, I suggest you look him up. He led an incredible life and played a very crucial role in the development of the Catholic Church here in the U.S. during the years leading up to the Second Vatican Council.
The essay of his that I came across was on the subject of the Catholic system of education. In the essay he makes a number of claims about why he thinks the Catholic system of education is far superior to many of the secular forms of education that exist today. And many of the reasons he gave reminded me of the very reasons that I love and now cherish the education and experience I received while at Servite.
Now, I am going to share just a bit of his essay with you this morning with the hopes of affirming you all for your devotion to Servite High School and the particular form of education that its seek to impart to its students.
The Goal of Education
Sheen begins his essay by asking what the goal of education is. He says, “The purpose of education is to establish contact with the totality of our environment, with a view to understand the full meaning and purpose of life.” “But,” he says, “the purpose of life cannot be understood without God, nor can anyone enter into con-tact with the whole of our environment unless he enters into relationship with God, in Whom we live and move and have our being.”
God is the source of all that is, and to forget the source in pursuit of understanding the particular is to get education backwards. Begin first with the source and move next to the particular.
Now, what I am going to say next applies equally to the staff members present here as it does to those who teach in the classroom. You all, because of Servite’s Catholic identity, have the select privilege of undergirding everything you do with God. Whether you teach, coach, instruct, tutor, manage, oversee, or coordinate, you get to plant it all in the firm foundation that is God.
As Catholics, we maintain that God—not randomness, not chance—is the source of all that is. And it is from him that everything receives its order and its intelligibility. For you teachers this ought to be a cause for great excitement.
You math teachers have the unique opportunity to teach your students that the perfection with which your geometric shapes are formed is a reflection of the perfection of God. You science teachers have the unique opportunity to teach your students that the precision with which the universe is constructed is a reflection of the precision of the mind of God. You literature and language teachers get to teach your students that the beauty of the poetry and literature you study is a reflection of the beauty of God. And you theology teachers get to teach your students that your theology lectures are not just lessons from a big book about God, but instead a glimpse into the deepest realities of the nature of the Divine.
All of you have the select privilege of affirming the fact that your subjects are not just unrelated banks of knowledge but instead the gateway toward understanding the totality of our environment, which includes the person of God. You all have the opportunity to teach your students that we live in a universe not composed of “brute facts,” but instead one that overflows with beauty, truth, love, and goodness—all of which, in one way or another, are expressed through your particular disciplines.
Questions of Ultimate Meaning
The second claim that Archbishop Sheen makes is that the Catholic system of education has the unique ability to provide its students with answers to questions of pur-pose and ultimate meaning and with direction on how to get there. And you all get to do this because you have the treasure that is the Gospel message.
At Servite, you all have the opportunity to remind your students that their lives have meaning and purpose and are truly good; that they are a part of a grand, divine orchestration which unfolds itself in time; that they have been fashioned by God; that they are, right now, being called to excellence in this life and to communion with God in the next.
In this way, you are all like Peter and his brother Andrew at the Sea of Galilee being commissioned to be “fishers of men.” Your vocation as Catholic educators includes a commissioning to reel your men in toward the good life, the life to which Christ is calling them. And this includes instructing them as to what their meaning and purpose is.
And to make this point about the Catholic system of education, Sheen writes:
They, who have been educated in [the Catholic sense], are the only ones of all university graduates who know why they are here and wither they are going. The least that can be expected of any college or university [or high school for that matter] is that when it embarks its graduates upon the sea of life it will furnish them with a compass with which they may find their port. Students of Catholic [schools] have been given this compass, which is their faith. They have been steered toward their port, which is the Kingdom of God.
Never cease to repeat to your students Servite’s Freshman Poem: “In the beginning, God / Out of nothing, created. Odd! / From nothingness called me, / To be me, / To be great, / Like He.” You have the privilege of reminding your students that Christ is calling them to greatness.
A Life Lived Well
The third and last point that I am going to make from Sheen’s essay has to do with joy. Sheen thinks that happiness and joy come not from a head full of knowledge, but from a life lived well, oriented toward man’s end—which is God.
Because secular education must refrain from discussing too often the “Good Life” for fear that it might run into the G-O-D question, the primary goal that many secular educators are encouraged to have in the classroom is high test scores.
But, lucky for you, you have an additional goal: namely, the development of your students’ moral and spiritual compasses. You get to care for both their test scores and their consciences; for both the kinds of colleges they at-tend and the ethics behind their decision making. So, never underestimate how significant a role you can play in the types of people your students become. You have this unique ability to educate your students, not just instruct. And if done well, they, like me, will hopefully continue on in their college years and in the years after living lives of great joy because of their assurance of the presence of God, and their confidence on how to reach him.
On this point, Sheen writes:
With the passing of time they will forget the refinements of Latin syntax, they will no longer remember a delicate point of law, the year of Kant’s birth or the battle of Waterloo. Hamlet’s soliloquy will fade from their memories and much of the materia medica will become a thing of the past. The one thing that will endure will be the assurance and the joy that they have, [a kind of assurance and joy which can only come from God]. This will be to them one of the greatest joys of life, for in knowing that there is an-other world and another life, they can have a great deal of pleasure in this one.
Years from now, your students may not remember the intricacies of a particular lab or assignment or lecture, but they will most certainly remember those life lessons that you weaved into your class time. And the most important life lesson of all will concern that of their relationship to God—which is the only thing that can provide lasting joy. You are all here at Servite because God wants you here; because he knows that you have the unique ability to impact the lives of the students with whom you come into contact.
Never underestimate the role that you can play in the lives of your students. I am just one example of a student who bit after the line had been properly baited for him. I’m just one example of a student who took the bait.
I took the bait, Mrs. DiCrisi, when you pointed out to me the complexity of the human cell and said to me, “A little science estranges man from God, but much science leads him right back.”
I took the bait, Ms. Bonfadini, when you showed me that no matter what was going on in the class prior to mine, that no matter how short on time we were running, there was always time to begin and end class with prayer.
I took the bait, Mr. Ronan, when you invited me to attend daily Mass in the Chapel during lunch one day. And I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but it was during that Mass that, I think, I first felt the presence of God.
I took the bait, Mr. Garrity, when you found time during the semester to play your famous “Bible Challenge” just so that we might have the opportunity to spend more time with Scripture. And I’ll tell you all, his class wasn’t even on Scripture, but he thought it important enough to weave Scripture into his history course. That’s the kind of guy he is.
I took the bait, Mr. Angel, when you offered up your office as a place for lively conversation about the meaning and purpose of life.
I took the bait, Mrs. Hamrock, when you offered to have me join the secular Servites for a Holy Hour in the Chapel because you realized I needed a little more prayer in my life.
I took the bait, Mrs. Lewis, when, against all odds, you found a scholarship for me, one that allowed me to stay at Servite when times were too tough for my family to keep me there.
And I took the bait, Mr. Murphy, when you extended to me an invitation to attend a discernment retreat with the Servites in Portland—a retreat that would turn out to be one of the most important of my whole life.
I took the bait. But I’m not the only one. All of your small acts of selflessness, those acts in which you were Christ for your students, those acts in which you, advertently or inadvertently, introduced your students to Christ, do not go unnoticed. A student knows when a teacher or staff member is looking out for him. And maybe your small acts of selflessness don’t change a student’s life immediately, but you can be certain that you’re planting seeds within him for years to come, you’re baiting the line for further down the road. Just continue to bait the line. What Servite has to offer—what you all have to offer—is good; these young men just need to be presented with it in its authentic form.
And so I say again, never underestimate the role that you can play in the lives of your students. Never.
And never forget that the greatest gift that you can offer to your students is an encounter with Christ. What that looks like for each of you will be very different, but you all can still offer it to them.
You all could have wound up working or teaching some-where else. Maybe somewhere else that might have paid better, or been more convenient, or might have even resembled more closely the kind of position you desired. But you wound up here. And glory be to God that you did. Because you all have a special and unique role to play here.
From me and all the men who have sat in your desks and in your offices, thank you. Thank you all.
