Faith, Justice and Formation

A Reflection for the Commencement of the Year

Last Friday the whole College staff met together to celebrate the beginning of the new school year by celebrating Mass together. We do this every year and it is appropriate that we should do so, as the foundation of our Catholic faith and the inspiration of the charism of Blessed Edmund Rice is the reason for our existence. The gospel last Friday was the parable of the mustard seed.

In this gospel Jesus poses the question: ‘What can we say the kingdom of God is like?’

This is a question that Christians have continued to ask throughout history. The idea has activated the human imagination – it has been the subject of a great part of Christian art over the past two thousand years. But the answer that Jesus gives to this question is not a vision of heaven with the angels and saints around the throne, like in Revelation. Jesus speaks instead about the kingdom of God that we are building on earth.

If we could see the kingdom of God on earth – what would it look like?

Jesus tells us that it is like a mustard seed – that from the tiniest beginnings and from the smallest of actions great things can be accomplished. We can often feel in our lives that our own contributions, even when the result of considerable effort and sacrifice have very little impact on the important issues that affect us. Our world is beset by many problems, inequality, climate change, war; and as much as this troubles us, we often find ourselves asking, what can I realistically do about it?

It might not just be in relation to global issues like these either – on a simpler level, we can also find ourselves asking this question much closer to home. We might feel that sense of trepidation at the beginning of a new school year. We know what we would like to achieve – we know what we believe in, but we feel overwhelmed and uncertain about what difference we, as individuals, can make. In a large school like St Patrick’s we can all feel very small and insignificant, both teachers and boys alike. We know that we should let our light shine, but we are blinded by so many other lights around us.

Jesus shows in this parable how to respond to those kinds of doubts. Jesus is telling us that if we want to make a difference and build up our community, we can start with the smallest of actions. It is these small actions that build on one another slowly and quietly. They often go unnoticed. And we shouldn’t worry about that, because if we sow the tiniest of seeds in our community (the smallest acts of kindness to one another), over time these grow, until we have before us those big branches where all the birds can find their shade.

This is what Jesus says the kingdom of God is like. It isn’t a destination, it isn’t up above the sky, it is here amongst us; it grows slowly, carefully, sometimes imperceptibly. But in time……  it is the smallest of seeds that we plant that build a flourishing community.

In the first reading at our Mass, St Paul reassured us. He said: “You and I are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved.“ Therefore patience, courage and hope is what we need to have as we plant the seeds that eventually spread their branches through the whole community.

This is what we mean when we pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

But it isn’t easy. And we can’t do it alone, which is why the late Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that: 

“Having faith means drawing support from the faith of your brothers and sisters, even as your own faith serves as a support for the faith of others.”

So as we begin this new year, let us all stand united together in support of each other – whatever our place in the community we call St Patrick’s College, teachers, parents, leaders, our wonderful support staff, and our amazing boys and young men, and together let us plant those small seeds – those small acts of kindness, generosity and gratitude that make our school the place we want it to be – nothing less than the kingdom of God on Earth.

Adam Leslie

Acting Director of Identity