ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear brother Bishops,
Dear Priests, dear Deacons, dear Religious,
Dear Seminarians, dear Students,
Dear Catholic Educators,
Dear Friends in the Risen Christ,

All during these fifty days after the great feast of the Resurrection, the Church is faithful to her Easter proclamation and to her Easter challenge. Jesus Christ is alive. Jesus Christ goes before us to lead the way, to invite us to ever greater conversion and holiness of life.

It is a great joy to welcome all of you to this National Catholic Educational Association Convention in Philadelphia and to be able to celebrate the Eucharist with you today, this Tuesday of Easter week. I am pleased that you have come here to our local Church of Philadelphia in order to encounter the Risen Lord and to renew to Him your commitment. United with Peter and the other Apostles, as Catholic educators you have such a privileged and important part in the massive witness that the Church bears to Jesus Christ risen from the dead. You live and work to enrich the lives of your students with the fullness of the Gospel of life, to invite them boldly to accept Jesus Christ and His Church, and to help them deepen their faith and understanding of the Paschal Mystery.

Today in this Easter season how uplifting it is to realize that the Risen Lord Jesus shares his teaching ministry with you. When the Holy Father visited with teachers and catechists of the United States in New Orleans in 1987, he said: "Yours is a great gift to the Church, a great gift to your nation" (September 12, 1987). How providential that you now gather in Philadelphia. Here, in this City, our nation was born and was immediately nurtured on those truths and ideals which we as Americans value and cherish: those God-given gifts of life, liberty and the authentic pursuit of happiness. How greatly you, as Catholic educators, enrich this noble cause by communicating to your students the Gospel of the Risen One, who is the source of life, liberty and true happiness.

In the setting of today's Gospel Saint John tells us that Mary Magdalen came to the tomb when it was still dark. As we listen to that Gospel, we realize that darkness described not only the time of the day. Mary, like other friends and followers of Jesus, came to the tomb devastated. She and all of the disciples thought they had lost the person whom they had trusted more than anyone else. They loved Him more than family and all they possessed. He had been with them for three years; they called Him Master, Lord and Teacher. He had told them they were no longer slaves but friends. Now it seemed that He was gone. There was darkness in their lives.

We need to ponder carefully what we heard in Saint John's Gospel this morning. Jesus asks Mary, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" In her darkened state of spirit and soul Mary did not recognize Him. She thought He was the gardener. Had she given up? Did fear, or the uncertainty about the future, or her lack of understanding of the Paschal Mystery blind her to the presence of Christ in her life? But once Jesus calls her by name, once she hears His voice, once she sees Him, once she recognizes Him, once she knows that Jesus is alive, she is ecstatic and everything in her life changes. We can only imagine how quickly she ran back to the disciples with the message, "I have seen the Lord." She then reported what He had told her.

Dear friends: your mission in our Catholic schools and parish religious education programs is like that of Mary Magdalen. With much urgency you are to bring the message of the Risen Jesus to the children and youth whom you teach. It is important, as you fulfill your mission in Catholic education, that your students know that you too acknowledge Him as risen from the dead; that you have recognized Jesus' voice calling you by name; that you have seen the Lord with eyes of faith; that you believe that Jesus is present in your lives; and that you believe in the power of His Paschal Mystery. It is so important that you yourselves acknowledge that He goes before you and that He is never far from you.

In the world in which we live it is easy for young people to be overwhelmed with fear, with uncertainties about the future. It is useful to recall once again that six years ago, during his pastoral visit to St. Louis, Pope John Paul II stated: "Sometimes the world itself seems filled with darkness. The darkness of children who go hungry and even die. The darkness of homeless people who lack work and proper medical care. The darkness of violence against the unborn child, violence in families, the violence of gangs, the violence of sexual abuse, the violence of drugs that destroy the body, mind and heart. There is something terribly wrong when so many young people are overcome by hopelessness to the point of taking their own lives. And already in parts of this nation, laws have been passed which allow doctors to end the lives of the very people they are sworn to help. God's gift of life is being rejected. Death is chosen over life, and this brings with it the darkness of despair" (January 26, 1999).

There is, however, something that counters all this darkness. Our young people in particular need to believe in the power of Christ's Death and Resurrection. They too need to believe in the victory which is Christ's. As in the case of Mary Magdalen and the early disciples, everything will change for them once they know that Jesus is alive and present in their lives. You, dear friends, are signs of hope to the young people of our Church, to the extent that you embrace and share the Light that is the Risen Christ, who goes before you.

We know that there are times when teachers, catechists, principals, administrators, directors of religious education, superintendents, vicars and members of the clergy can become excessively anxious. We can become like Mary Magdalen approaching the Lord in darkness. We can think of times when teaching might have seemed so much easier, with fewer obstacles and lesser challenges. But we never lose hope because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! He is alive and in our midst, working through the power of His Spirit. He goes before us!

In the draft of the National Directory for Catechesis there is a thought-provoking and beautiful paragraph which reminds all of us that we are not alone in this work of Catholic education. This paragraph summarizes quite well what we will all celebrate on the fiftieth and last day of the Easter season, on the feast of Pentecost. Here are those words:

"[The Holy Spirit] gives the catechist faith in which to form disciples. He is, therefore, the principal catechist ... inspiring all catechetical work and all who do this work. He is the Advocate whom the Father will send in Christ's name - who will teach the disciples everything and remind them of all that Christ told them. He is the Spirit of truth who will guide you to all truth. The Holy Spirit is thus promised to the Church and to each Christian as a Teacher within, who, in the secret of the conscience and the heart, makes one understand what one has heard but was not capable of grasping. He transforms believers into disciples, and disciples into witnesses to Christ in the world" (no. 73).

In our Catholic schools and parish religious education programs we constantly need bold witnesses. Not just silent witnesses but educators who have encountered the Risen Christ and are willing to work in the community of His Church, with the Holy Spirit and under His guidance, for the transformation of the individual and the world - educators who expect not only intellectual changes but spiritual changes as well, teachers and catechists who will invite young people to follow Jesus Christ and to be active members of His Church.

On this occasion you have come together with thousands of your fellow Catholic educators to stand in solidarity with the Risen Christ and with one another, committed to your profession of Catholic education, which belongs to the vital mission of the Church. Your commitment is both professional and personal. It requires the gift of your entire self. Like Jesus, your entire life teaches, not just by what you say but also by who you are and what you do, and how much you give of yourselves.

While you are here in Philadelphia, you may have the opportunity to visit the Shrines of Saint John Neumann and Saint Katharine Drexel, two great saints who valued and in so many ways dedicated themselves to what you have dedicated yourselves to: the Catholic formation and education of youth. Certainly these two saints are smiling on the efforts of this Convention, and on all those who accept and live the special vocation of an educator in the Catholic Faith.

You may also be in a position to visit another place that is special to all Americans. It is Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. There, too, our Founding Fathers forged the Constitution, with its challenge to protect freedom and all human rights. There you may see the chair in which George Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention. On the back of the chair is a carving of the sun. It is said that during the Convention, one of the delegates, noticing that carving, leaned over to Dr. Benjamin Franklin and said, "I wonder if it is a rising or a setting sun." The aged Benjamin Franklin quite optimistically responded: "It is a rising sun!"

With optimism far greater than that of Dr. Franklin, the Church knows the meaning of the rising sun. For two thousand years, since Mary Magdalen came to the tomb while it was still dark, the Church has basked in the radiance of that Easter morning. That radiance is none other than the Sun of Justice, the Risen Christ, whose light shines on the Church and on all those committed to the mission of the Church. Today the Risen Christ challenges you to be, with Him, the light of the world! As educators, you observe the tender light of faith which dawns and grows ever brighter in the eyes, the minds, the hearts and the souls of our children. So much of the reception of that light depends on you, for you are bearers of the light of Jesus. Remember always: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:5). Jesus who has conquered sin and death reminds us: "I am with you always" (Mt 28:20). He says: "Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!" (Mk 6:50). I am confident that, with the help of Mary the Mother of Jesus, who stood at the foot of the Cross and who waited in hope for the Resurrection of her Son, you will bear the light of Jesus magnificently in all that you do for the Church.

Dear friends: what a great ecclesial mission you have! By the Church you are sent out in the power of your Baptism, and given the strength of the confirming Holy Spirit to sustain you. And the Risen Lord Jesus goes before you in this Easter season and always, as He draws all people to Himself, for the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity. Amen.