September 8, 2014
This blog posting is adapted from my remarks to the student body at the Opening Mass of the school year on Friday, September 5, 2014
While we were all relaxing this summer, it seemed like parts of the world were descending into chaos. A passenger plane was blown from the sky over Ukraine. West African countries were overwhelmed trying to manage the outbreak of Ebola. Children were fleeing violence in Central America and finding themselves political pawns at our border. Girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, punished for the crime of getting an education. The beheadings of two American journalists were posted to the Internet. Years of misunderstandings and mistrust along racial lines boiled to the surface as a result of a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. We live in a world crying out for love and understanding.
The cries of the suffering are not always far from home. Just last week, Sherwood High School suffered an unimaginable tragedy involving three of its students. Many of you know those boys, as they were members of the same communities in which you reside. In such a world, across the globe or just down the street, each of us is called to be a person of compassion.
Our student leaders chose COMPASSION for special emphasis this school year. The Xaverian Brothers define this value as having two characteristics: openness and courage. Openness to let oneself be touched by another’s life; and courage to reach out in loving service to others.
Openness. Someone asks for your help, maybe just your opinion. Have you ever heard yourself say to someone, “I couldn’t care less.” If we’re honest, I suspect a lot of us have.
How come? Apathy? Frustration? Spite? Anger? Weariness? Hurt? Rejection? Idleness? Jealousy? Fear? Mistrust?
Maybe you have said it to a friend, even someone in your family, a teammate, a perfect stranger. It seems like something we say (or think) because we recognize what’s at stake if we are open – the pain and suffering of another, the inconvenience, our sense of inadequacy, our own issues.
It’s easy, then, to say, “Your situation is not going to touch my life.” We can build a wall around ourselves. Living as we do in the wealthiest nation on earth, one way we often deal is we put things before people. Pope Francis says, “We do not live better when we flee, hide, refuse to share, stop giving and lock ourselves up in our own comforts. Such a life is nothing less than slow suicide.”
Choosing me, me, me and more, more, more is ultimately a dispiriting strategy. I encourage you to choose compassion—to care, to pay attention, to see and hear and act. In the words of the Brothers, “Compassion is the eyes, the ears and hands of Christian charity.”
Courage. We can avoid the call to be compassionate out of fear—fear of what might happen, fear of failure, fear of what the cost of reaching out might be. How does a person overcome that?
I think the answer to that is different for each of us. Reaching out, putting yourself out there, takes courage. You probably know that the number one fear of people in the United States is speaking before a group. Public speaking beats out fear of bankruptcy, illness, and death. I read recently about performers who get paralyzing stage fright. Popular artists, such as Adele, Rihanna, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead, get so anxious that they suffer panic attacks, sleepless nights, and even throw up before going onstage.
Perhaps it’s something like stage fright holding us back from reaching out in compassion. We care deeply about others, but we battle fears about standing up and doing something for others.
Those performers I mentioned have shown they can overcome stage fright because the desire--and more than that--the absolute need to perform, wins out. It takes courage. Where might that come from? Last weekend, I saw a posting on Facebook saying that the phrase “Do not be afraid” appears 365 times in the Bible. That’s God giving us one reminder for each day of the year to be fearless .
As you discern who needs your compassion this school year, pray for openness and courage. As we begin again, may God continue to bless Our Lady of Good Counsel High School and bless you in all your endeavors this school year.