September 3, 2024 // Bishop

‘Made for the Infinite’: Catholic Educators Gather for Mission Day

Todays Catholic

By Kasia Balsbaugh and Clare Hildebrandt

The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend held its annual Catholic School Mission Day for educators ahead of Labor Day weekend – one session at Bishop Luers High School in Fort Wayne on Thursday, August 29, and another at Saint Joseph High School in South Bend on Friday, August 30. Both sessions included a keynote from Dominican Father Patrick Briscoe, Mass celebrated by Bishop Rhoades, and breakout sessions dealing with the practical and the spiritual aspects of Catholic education.

During his keynote address, Father Briscoe presented teachers and faculty from around the diocese with a question: How do you preach in a world that refuses to look beyond itself and see the eternal? In other words: How do you evangelize a world that is one-dimensional?

Father Briscoe, a son of the diocese who grew up attending St. Charles Borromeo School and Parish in Fort Wayne, as well as Bishop Dwenger High School, serves as Editor of Our Sunday Visitor. During his keynote, he elaborated on the questions he was proposing.

“It’s a predominant secular mentality that the world today blames human beings for the world’s problems, and therefore proposes that human beings can be the answer. If we just try harder, we can remedy all of the issues that we face,” Father Briscoe said.

Looking to notable figures such as Pope Benedict XVI, David Foster Wallace, and Blessed Carlo Acutis, he posited that teachers can counter the rampant self-reliance in our culture by reminding students to be aware of the infinite. God, resting outside of time, is a far more powerful and reliable being than ourselves.

The most perfect example, Father Briscoe said, is the Eucharist – a sign of the eternal in the finite world.

“There’s something that unites us, that builds us up, that’s outside of ourselves,” Father Briscoe said. “It’s so much more powerful, and it’s God. He is that thing that brings you together. This is one of the reasons the Eucharist is so powerful. It allows us to commune with Jesus, both His sacrifice on the cross and the breaking of bread at Mass.”

Another way to allow for students to encounter God is through gratitude. Growing up around the St. Charles Borromeo community, he saw the lasting impact teachers can have on a child’s life and noted how these memories played a role in his own vocation, beginning with being an altar server.

“It was my service at the altar that I began to think part of what we’re doing is building memories in Catholic education, memories that make hearts grateful, memories that transform people’s lives,” Father Briscoe said.

He thus urged the educators to take heart that their efforts will yield fruits even if not readily seen.

“That’s really important, because so often our sacrifices feel like they don’t yield anything, they’re not doing anything, but no one sees the early mornings or the late nights or the patience you have with a particular student.”

Mercylynn Mbuguah, who teaches theology at Bishop Luers High School, commented on Father Briscoe’s speech.

“I really enjoyed the stories that he brought together relating to the Eucharist,” she said. “When we talk about the Eucharist, it can often be so unclear. [Father Briscoe] reminded us of communion with the humanity of Christ.”

After Catholic School Mission Day and hearing Father Briscoe’s speech, Mbuguah said she plans to spend more time before the Blessed Sacrament.

“Especially in my planning period, I’ve been trying to go to the chapel just to spend some time with the Lord,” she said.

Catholic School Mission Day allows teachers to be formed themselves instead of forming their students. Mbuguah told Today’s Catholic that the day of formation was welcomed and needed.

“If I’m willing to give to the students, I have to be open to receiving from Christ,” she said. “Jesus was never afraid to receive, even though He was always giving.”

In South Bend, Bishop Rhoades opened his homily with the observation that the Mass readings happened to be fitting for Mission Day, as each was about wisdom.

“As Catholic school educators, we have the mission to teach God’s wisdom to our students – that is, to communicate Christ to them,” Bishop Rhoades said.

He added: “Christ is the Teacher in our Catholic schools. We must never give Him second place, merely trying to fit Him in. He must be the vital principal of all we do.”

 

Bishop Rhoades also looked more closely at the parable of the foolish virgins from the Gospel reading, noting that St. Augustine, on whose feast day the event in South Bend took place, and other saints have seen the oil in the parable as a symbol of love, which is necessary to have with wisdom.

“If we wish to enter the heavenly banquet, we must have oil in our lamps – having lived lives of love, of goodness, of charity,” Bishop Rhoades said. “This is something we teach and model in our Catholic schools.”

Mission Day attendee Stephen Sanchez is in his second year of teaching theology at Saint Joseph High School, but he has a 23-year background in Catholic education, including as a principal. He considered Father Briscoe’s talk to be “excellent.” One aspect of the talk that stood out to him was on “creating real, practical memories for [the students]; taking them to visit statues in your school, having these very practical things so that they have a Catholic imagination. … And then, ultimately, recognize that they’re made for something infinite, that they’re not made to be small.”

Sanchez added: “And that’s the work, right? How do you get them to look beyond those things that promise them satisfaction but don’t actually deliver?”

Sanchez said he appreciated the community-building aspect of Catholic School Mission Day. “Even though we’re in this together, we’re in this in different places – as my colleague used to say, ‘different rows in the vineyard,’” Sanchez said. “So we don’t see each other. We don’t recognize that we’re a great and mighty force of people in a community having an impact – not just individually in my classroom, not just at my school, but as a community of Catholic teachers, educators. … And to see that you have these companions is reassuring, I think. You’re not the only one fighting the good fight.”

Kim Obringer, Principal of Queen of Peace Catholic School in Mishawaka, also has a long history in Catholic education. Obringer has served in different capacities at her school for two decades, and she has attended all the Catholic School Mission Days in the diocese during that time.

Of the Mission Days, Obringer said, “I feel they are important for all of us to grow in our faith each year and be reminded that our call to Catholic education is a special one.”