ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

"Some women from our group...have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive."

Archbishop Wuerl, Bishop McFadden,
My brother Bishops,
Dear Priests, Deacons, Religious and Lay Faithful:
     so many committed Administrators and dedicated Educators
     in the apostolate of Catholic Education,

Everything that we are called to do in the important field of Catholic education is profoundly conditioned by the testimony of the two disciples and the proclamation of the angels that we have just heard in the Gospel: Jesus Christ is alive! He is risen from the dead!

As we gather during this Octave of Easter, the Church prays that the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ will fill you with great hope and strengthen you in your exalted ministry of Catholic education.

I am honored to express to you the Church’s gratitude for all your efforts in advancing her educational and catechetical mission. For over a century, the National Catholic Educational Association has been providing leadership and service to American Catholic Educators. Your support for Catholic education in parish, school and university communities is a faithful response to the risen Lord’s mandate to teach all nations.

It is particularly appropriate that an association of Catholic educators should gather in this historic and beautiful city. Baltimore has a singular place in the history of the Catholic Church. This city is privileged to share its name with the first diocese, and later the first Archdiocese, established in the United States. Baltimore became a harbor of light in the formation of the young Church in our land. Also, it was from Baltimore that a catechism bearing this city’s name emerged. In becoming the standard text in Catholic education for generations, the Baltimore Catechism showed itself to be an anchor of faith leading millions of people to Christ.

The Gospel for today’s liturgy, already referred to, beautifully recounts the story of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. The location of the place is relevant. Since the village is west of Jerusalem, the disciples are traveling in the direction of the sunset on a day that is nearly over. In another sense, the sun already seems to have set on their dreams. Their expectations seem shattered, dead and buried with the one they had hoped would redeem Israel.

During the course of their journey, the two disciples unknowingly encounter the risen Jesus. He questions them about the events that took place in Jerusalem. They engage in a lively discussion about the prophets and the Scriptures. The two men convince the stranger to stay with them and join them at table. During the meal, Jesus takes bread, blesses it and breaks it and gives it to them. It is an action reminiscent of what Jesus did when he fed the five thousand and when He instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Seeing this gesture, the eyes of the disciples are opened.

Transformed by this Eucharistic encounter with Jesus, the two disciples, who previously were described as foolish and slow of heart, now understand. They return to Jerusalem, now going east, in the direction of the sunrise. Already, at a deeper level, a new day has dawned in their lives. Through the Eucharist, hope has been restored to them. With joy and a sense of urgency the two seek out others of their group and recount what had taken place and how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

You, dear friends, are gathering during this week as an Association of educators, Catholic educators. The goal of all education is truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine posed the question, "What does our soul desire more passionately than truth?" (In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus, 26,5: PL 35, 1609). Christians recognize that truth is not reducible to a series of hypothetical propositions. Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for the ultimate and definitive truth. This truth is a person, Jesus Himself, the Word made flesh, the crucified and risen Lord. It is in the Eucharist that Jesus unites us to Himself. In the Eucharist, the Lord truly becomes food to satisfy pilgrim hearts—hearts that hunger and thirst for truth.

In his recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, "Sacrament of Charity" (Sacramentum Caritatis), the Holy Father refers to the Eucharist as the food of truth. It is only in association with the risen Jesus that we learn the truth about life. Since it is the Eucharist that unites us with Jesus, the Eucharist must be at the heart of all Catholic education, just as it is the source and summit of all the Church’s life. Truly, then, it must be the source and summit of all endeavors in Catholic education and catechesis. It is the font from which the teaching ministry draws inspiration and life. It is the purpose for which all Catholic education exists. Vatican II describes so beautifully how Catholic education aims at ensuring that the baptized "may learn to adore God the Father in spirit and in truth...especially through liturgical worship..." (cf. Gravissimum Educationis, 2).

Today’s Gospel is one of the biblical accounts that reveal how the Eucharist unites us with Christ and, in so doing, transforms us. In the Eucharist, Jesus does not give us a thing, but Himself. Sacramentally, He offers His Body and pours out His Blood so that we might become sharers in His own divine life. He is the bread of life which the eternal Father gives to us so that our human condition may be lifted up and enfolded in the Most Blessed Trinity. This absolutely free gift of the Eucharist mysteriously transforms us. Saint Augustine, goes so far as to teach that those who receive the Eucharist properly become what they receive, Christ Himself (Sermo 227, 1: PL 38, 1099; In Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus, 21,8: PL 35, 1568).

While the Eucharist is the pledge and foretaste of future glory, it also constitutes the Church’s being and activity as we journey toward that final goal. With the words Ite, missa est, the community gathered at the Eucharist is not merely dismissed, but truly sent on mission. As Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized, this dismissal is, in fact, a starting point. The Eucharist gives new impulse to our lives. It gives rise to a love of others and commits us to bear witness to God’s love through our words and actions. We become the means by which God’s love and compassion come to others. In his first encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI taught that the reception of the Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 14).

In today’s account from the Acts of the Apostles, the crippled man who is healed, leaps up and begins to praise God. In the Gospel, after the Eucharistic meal, the two disciples set out at once to proclaim to others what had happened to them. Catholic education and catechesis involve proclaiming to others, with conviction, what we ourselves have seen and heard. The love that we celebrate in this sacrament is not something we can keep to ourselves. By its very nature this love requires us to share it with all. What the world needs most is God’s love. It needs to encounter this love in Christ and to accept Him. Truly, nothing is more beautiful than to know Christ and to make Him known to others as the one true Savior and risen Lord.

Proclamation about Jesus is even more effective through the actions of our lives. Just as the eyes of the two disciples were opened after Jesus had broken bread with them, so also in the Eucharist our eyes are opened. We view others from the perspective of Jesus. As a result, we are not passive in the face of human suffering and unjust discrimination. The food of truth leads us to promote justice, reconciliation and peace. The Eucharist empowers us to work to restore respect for the dignity of all men, women and children created in God’s image and likeness. It gives us renewed strength and courage to work tirelessly in building up a civilization of love.

Catholic education and catechesis must make a clear connection between the Eucharist we celebrate and our daily life. Secularization tries to relegate Christian faith to the margins of life as if it were irrelevant to everyday affairs. The futility of living as if God did not exist is now more evident than before. Yet there is a need to rediscover that Jesus Christ is not a private conviction or an abstract idea. Jesus Christ is a real person who has become part of human history and is capable of renewing the life of every human being. Eucharistic spirituality, then, is not limited to participation at Mass and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. It must embrace the whole of life.

In generations past, the agents of Catholic education included numerous priests, sisters and brothers. The witness of thousands of priests and of professed religious, living the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, remains to this day a treasure in the Church. Their contribution to Catholic education and catechesis is of inestimable value as is that of the thousands of lay people who have come forward as administrators and teachers in the Church’s schools and educational programs. These lay people have assumed their role—in the expression of Pope John Paul II—as "full partners in the Church’s mission of educating the whole person and of transmitting the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ to successive generations of young Americans" (Address to Leadership in Catholic Elementary, Secondary and Religious Education, New Orleans, September 12, 1987).

The importance of the Eucharist and its intrinsic relationship with the sacrament of Holy Orders make it essential that all in Catholic education strive to promote priestly vocations for the well-being of the ecclesial community. Those of you in parish catechesis will have many particular opportunities to foster among your students an interior openness to a priestly or religious calling. We are deeply convinced that, through the power of His Paschal Mystery, Christ continues to inspire young people to leave everything and to dedicate themselves totally to Himself and to His Church. Parents are encouraged to rear their children to be open to doing God’s will. Young people need to be shown that a radical decision to follow Christ as a priest or religious sister or brother can be deeply fulfilling, as is the God-given vocation to Christian married love.

While the past numbers of priests and vowed religious in Catholic education have diminished, the Church is truly blessed to have so many competent and zealous lay faithful who commit themselves also to this apostolate. You, dear lay faithful, give generously of yourselves to advance the teaching mission of the Church. In solidarity with the priests, deacons and Religious you assist parents by helping to provide their children with a solid religious foundation. You understand that yours is not just a career, it is a vocation, a response to God’s call to teach and evangelize. By virtue of Baptism and Confirmation, and strengthened by the Eucharist, you are called to live out your Catholic faith wherever you are. Many of you do it so effectively in the classroom. Through the Eucharist, you are moreover able to become ever more convincing witnesses of Christ to the students you teach.

In his homily at the Eucharistic celebration which solemnly inaugurated his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI stated: "There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with him." The crippled man in today’s account from the Acts of the Apostles was quite surprised to encounter Christ in Saint Peter and Saint John. He received far more than he anticipated. All who are involved in Catholic education and catechesis offer students far more than silver or gold. You are able to offer them Jesus Christ, the Anchor of Faith and the Harbor of Light. In so doing, you offer them the truth for which they long, as you help to form them into a generation that proclaims all God’s wondrous deeds.

Dear friends: as the Church gives praise and thanks to God who, by the power of the Eucharist, has accomplished great things in and through you, she also commends you to our Blessed Mother Mary, asking her to sustain you in joy and peace, ever generous, ever responsive to all those people who turn to you in hope and cry out to you saying: "We would like to see Jesus" (John 12:21). And may you continue to respond with Peter: "What I do have I give you...." Yes, dear friends you have so much to give, because you can give Jesus Christ the Truth, Jesus Christ the Light of the World, Jesus Christ the Resurrection and the Life. Amen.