To the Band of Brothers: April 14, 2021
Good morning!
Men for others?
Belen Jesuit has a long-standing relationship with the Missionaries of Charity. Ever since St. Theresa of Calcutta came to Miami and missioned her sisters here establishing a soup kitchen, we have been involved. Our students, faculty, and staff have volunteered there for years by serving the homeless. Both Fr. Minsal and I celebrate Mass for them on Sundays and special feast days. Whenever they call, we respond.
This connection not only comes from our desire to help a group of religious sisters who surrender their whole lives to serving Jesus Christ in the poorest of the poor, but also because of the history the Jesuits have with the Missionaries of Charity. From the very beginning, Mother Theresa had a Jesuit as her spiritual director. When in 1950 she decided to found her religious congregation in India, it was the support of several Jesuits that helped her get it off the ground.
This is the reason why they are the first people we think of whenever an opportunity to help presents itself. If there is something that can be donated, we think of them first. If there are service hours that need to be completed, we think of them. Anything we can do to help them, Belen Jesuit is ready and has their number on speed-dial, as we have insisted they have ours on theirs.
Over the Easter break, the staff of Sage Dining decided to do some spring cleaning. There was a large collection of dinner plates of all shapes and sizes that had accumulated over the years and were in storage. They brought them out, washed them, and then decided to place them on a table in our dining hall. The intention was to have members of the school faculty and staff take what they needed. Several did.
What was left we agreed would be boxed and sent to the Missionaries of Charity. They could use the dishes to serve food to the homeless. What was not used by them here in Miami would be placed in a container and sent to the sisters in Haiti. Unfortunately, that would not happen. A group of our students decided to raid the dishes and proceeded to smash them in the student parking lot after school. They made a sort of game of it.
I have been in the field of education for a long time. I know boys will be boys. But it is also important to call a spade a spade and make sure we learn from our mistakes and not simply sweep them under the carpet. Part of your formative experience is to make sure you understand that our school’s motto, “men for others,” is not simply a catchy stale phrase that looks great on a banner flown in our central patio or splashed across the homepage of our school website.
“Men for others” is a way of life. It needs to be the standard that determines what we do every day, how we think, and what decisions we make. “Men for others” is the measuring stick that helps us evaluate what we have done with our day, how we have handled our relationships, and, ultimately, how we have lived our lives.
While I know the smashing of the dishes in the student parking lot was not a conscious and direct assault on the homeless of Miami or Haiti, it ultimately deprived those who are in need and those for whom we are responsible. While those dishes could have been a testament to our mission to serve, they instead became evidence of what Pope Francis has often referred to as a “throwaway society.” There is no doubt they would have been better served in the hands of our Missionaries of Charity and not strewn in useless pieces on the floor of the Belen student parking lot.
Gentlemen, we are better than this. We are called to be more: more aware, more loving, and more giving. We are called to be more like Christ. We are men for others.
Auspice Maria.
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the School property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit sits on a 30-acre site in western Dade County, only minutes away from downtown Miami.