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Let the darkness cover me, and the night wrap itself around me, even darkness to you is not dark, and night is as clear as the day. - Psalm 139 Into all of our lives come times that seem pitch dark. Nothing seems to be working right. Like Paul, we will the good, but do what is not good. We want to be wise, but our choices all seem unwise. Problems that we can solve for another person, we cannot solve for ourselves. The darkness covers us and we find ourselves without heart (discouraged) and without insight. We are unable to move – frozen, as it were in a quagmire of doubts, indecision, and blindness. We seem bitterly alone. Maybe it is a situation with another person. Maybe it is a situation with us. God seems to be hiding and the next step seems a thousand miles away. Then comes the prayer: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! Then comes our Lasallian call to focus: Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God! Then come the Virtues of a good teacher and we are reminded of five of them in particular: As Lasallians we are at such times armed with a deep belief in God's Providence that holds us up in times of blindness. We hear the final words of De La Salle declaring that he adored in all things the guidance of this provident God. We recall the trials of the foundation period in Reims when step-by-step he was led into what would be a life association with the masters. We recall his desire to step down from being superior and the election of Brother Henri L'Heureux as superior and then his delight wiped aside by the word of the Archbishop who declared that a priest and Canon could not be subservient to a mere Brother. We recall the hope of his moving to Paris and the long years of contention, legal struggles, disorder in the community and finally his trip to the South that offered promise and became bitter in the end. We see him stripped on his deathbed of his faculties because of a complaint made to the Archbishop of Rouen and the abject personal poverty in which he died. Yes, De La Salle's provident God covered his life with darkness in which the only point of light was a never-ending candle of hope deep in his heart. Human beings, like all the facets of God's creation, are constantly changing – constantly becoming. With each new dawning we carry forward something of yesterday and begin the creation of something new. We change outwardly and inwardly. The butterfly is a wonderful metaphor for this changing that we experience. The butterfly begins as an egg attached to the fresh green of a live plant. In the egg is the potential for everything that the butterfly can become. In each of the stages of change, the butterfly becomes itself more and more fully. The chrysalis is born of the caterpillar that is born of the egg. The butterfly is born of the chrysalis. Each stage comes from the potential contained in the previous stage. De La Salle and the founding Brothers realized this miracle of nature. In writing The Conduct of Christian Schools they demonstrated how the obstacles to becoming were challenged in the Christian schools. In this holy place ignorance, mistrust, isolation and fear gave way to knowledge bolstered by wisdom, trust bolstered by fraternity, community bolstered by interdependence, and confidence bolstered by love and personal regard. In the Christian school all participated in both the teaching and the learning. Students who learned with facility assisted students who had difficulty. In a mutual interdependence, the brotherhood which all shared was experienced and practiced. The teachers kept a close watch on each student and learned to discern the student's needs and strengths. These were communicated regularly to the Inspector who with the teacher decided on areas of correction and promotion. The teacher never did what a student could do. Tasks such as prayer leader, the almoner, the holy water bearer, the rosary carriers, the bell ringer, the monitors and supervisors, the first student in the bench, the distributors and collectors of papers, the sweepers, the doorkeeper and the keeper of the school key were all tasks fulfilled by the student. When a student had a question and addressed it to the teacher, the teacher called on two students for the answer before giving it himself. In times of difficulty, the teacher exercised wisdom by going through the steps required for correction – steps which required the cooperation of the student being corrected. Practices such as these promoted an atmosphere that created and enhanced the bond of fraternity between the teacher and the student. It was in this atmosphere that becoming was marked by grace and wholeness. In this atmosphere ignorance, mistrust, isolation, and fear gave way to knowledge and wisdom, trust and fraternity, community and interdependence, confidence, love, and personal regard. Even today, in the Lasallian school the teacher becomes the older brother (sister) and the student becomes the disciple. In today's Lasallian school the chrysalis becomes the butterfly and the Gospel in its beauty and potential bring new life and possibility to our world. The Conduct of Christian Schools, page 141. Article 3: Qualities Which Corrections Should Possess (paraphrased): | ||||||||||||
