By Tom Korta, CAO of Pius X
I have no doubt that you are familiar with the story of Jesus posing The Question to his disciples: “And you…Who do you say that I am?” Simon’s immediate response acknowledging Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” gave him a new identity. His outward identity was changed to Peter, and he was declared to be the rock on which Jesus would build His Church.
Our classrooms and offices are filled with lay teachers and staff who give witness to our faith through their daily interactions and explicit integration of the beauty of God’s creation into their work.
Pius X exists for one reason: to lead our students to be able to give Peter’s answer. Our challenge is to move our kids from seeing our faith through the lens of “who do they say that I am” to the point where they can make the heartfelt confession of Jesus: It is important for our students to know, using their gift of intellect, all of the statutes and precepts of the Church, how to read the Bible, to understand and to profess with courageous love to others Church teachings on morality and sin, etc… However, to our students these might be seen as answers to who others say that Jesus is. It is a personal encounter with the person of Jesus Christ—to experience His love, compassion and mercy—that will most effectively move our students to proclaim, from the depths of their hearts, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Within this newsletter is an excellent article that describes the many ways our campus ministry team is leading the charge to bring kids to a personal encounter with Jesus. This year we have 16 priests and religious in our building every day (praise God!) modeling the joy to be found in living a life devoted to Jesus through their special vocation. Our classrooms and offices are filled with lay teachers and staff who give witness to our faith through their daily interactions and explicit integration of the beauty of God’s creation into their work. We are blessed to have so many faith-filled people pulling together to make our school a place of encounter.
I will end with an invitation to join me in prayerfully considering the question of who you say that Jesus is. For me, as I have wrestled lately with this question, it has been a sort of gut-check of whether my life truly reflects what I profess with my lips. Do I indeed believe in a merciful God who loves me even though I fail him over and over and over? Do I believe that my joy is to be found in suffering with Him and detaching from the allure of worldly delights? Do I live according to the two commandments to love God above all and my neighbors as myself? Am I fully committed to my primary vocation as a husband and father, keeping my wife and kids as a priority? Do I accept both blessings and crosses from the Lord, praising Him the same in both circumstances?
In a certain way, we are each called to be rocks on which Jesus can build His Church. It is my prayer for the Pius X Family that we can all encounter Jesus in a way that our lips and our lives proclaim, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” In doing so, we will be building the Church of tomorrow by our witness to the young people of today. May God bless us all!
