New School Year

As another school year begins, parents and teachers take stock of the daunting privilege of nurturing the inner lives of children. In this task of sowing seeds today, in the hope of fruit tomorrow; I find in the passage below a perspective to be embraced.

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, and no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

† Amen

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Salvadoran Archbishop and Martyr 1917 – 1980