To the Band of Brothers: June 4, 2021

Good morning!

On Wednesday night we celebrated the 8th-grade pin ceremony. This tradition recognizes the end of the middle school experience and helps usher in four years of high school. It’s an important moment because it brings to a fitting end three years of preparation for the big leagues. We are often told universities and colleges start looking seriously at students the moment they become freshmen. But, Belen is looking at you from the moment you walk into the 6th grade.

The Mass that is normally celebrated is the solemnity of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. It makes sense. He’s the patron saint of youth. This young man was born in the 16th century in Italy and of royal lineage. From a very young age, he knew he was being called to religious life so he entered the newly formed Society of Jesus. When still a seminarian, a devastating plague broke out and he asked his superiors to go out to help the sick. He, unfortunately, contracted the disease and died at the age of 23.

The readings for this Mass are beautiful. We read from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. In chapter 12, verse 2 the Apostle says, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Man, Paul was on fire with the Holy Spirit when he wrote that because those are some powerful words. Just imagine, he is writing to the new Christians of Rome who have to live under the constant pressure of a corrupt empire that seeks to persecute them. In the midst of that, Paul encourages them to allow the Good News of Jesus Christ to transform what they think and do.

It’s a tall order. When the world around you is telling you so many things contrary to the Gospel, it is not easy to stay faithful to it. It is so much easier to conform to attitudes of violence or discord and division because they are what the world around you expects.

It’s not very different today. Things that we read or hear or are told by so many different people seem to encourage us to go against the values that our parents, Belen, and our Church propose. As Christians, we need to look at things through the lens of Jesus Christ. If what we are told doesn’t seem to hold true to the teachings of Jesus, then we cannot conform to them. When we stand up for what is right, when we respond to hate with love or respond to sin with grace, then we are more than likely going to get cancelled.

You know, our Church has been around a long time. Throughout our history, some of the greatest philosophical and theological minds have developed solid responses to the challenging world we live in. All of these teachings come directly from the gospels; they are rooted in the Scriptures. Genesis, for example, tells us clearly that we are created in the “image and likeness of God.” That makes us all brothers and sisters. Jesus reminds us on many occasions of this very fact and then goes on to say that what we do to our neighbor we do to him.

There is no need to go anywhere in order to find reasons or theories or trends to solve the world’s problems and bring about a more just society. It reminds me of a story I once read by the great Catholic journalist and author G.K. Chesterton. It’s about a boy who decided to leave his home in search of giants. He ventures through the world looking for this great thing. Dejected, he returns home and notices that his own "farm and kitchen-garden, shining flat on the hill-side like the colors and quarterings of a shield, were but parts of some such gigantic figure, on which he had always lived, but which was too large and too close to be seen” (The Everlasting Man).

That is our Church. There is no need to go exploring foreign lands or trends when the greatest giant is right under our very noses. It’s Jesus, who we hear about every day in school, celebrate every day at Mass, and read about every day in the Bible, who tells us explicitly to love each other and treat everyone with extraordinary compassion. And then, he not only says it, but proves it with his very life only to take it a step forward by giving the greatest testament to the power of it all by defeating even death and hatred and sin rising from the dead.

I told our 8th graders that it is really the sole purpose of Belen. Not to simply teach math, science, and social studies, but to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. To learn not to conform to this age, but, if anything, to conform to Christ. Only he has the words of eternal life. Only he is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. If you learn this and learn to live it, then you deserve to be pinned and consider your middle school at Belen a true success.

Congratulations to the class of 2025. Make sure those pins fastened securely on your lapels tell the world that your minds have been renewed and that the renewal has transformed your lives. This is the one true principle that is most important. Important not so much because it will get you into Harvard or Princeton or Yale, but will get you into heaven.

Auspice Maria