“Let the children come to Me and do not hinder them, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mark 10:14; Matthew 19:14; Luke 18:16

At the close of every school day, Sister Kathleen asks this question of everyone within the sound of her voice on the public address system: “Was St. John the Evangelist School a better place today because you were here?” I’d like to paraphrase that question and ask all of us, “Is St. John the Evangelist Parish a better place because the school is here today?”

My assignment is to write an article about the effect of the presence of the school on the vitality of the parish. My personal feelings about this run deep for two reasons: because I am an unabashed fan of St. John the Evangelist School; and because Holy Name, the parochial school in Minneapolis from which I graduated in 1935 closed down in the late sixties when the Sisters of St. Joseph were no longer able to staff it. I always felt bereft when I returned to Minneapolis for a visit, attended Mass at the church and the school building sat there like a ghostly specter with the life drained out of it. I learned from those experiences to appreciate the interdependent relationship between the parish and its school. The school stood vacant for more than five years until a new generation of young parents, lay teachers, graduates, parishioners, and community supporters decided to bite the bullet and make the sacrifices necessary to reopen the school.

But that was Minneapolis in the seventies. We have a similar but different situation in Silver Spring in the very early twenty-first century. Our school is still a going concern; we still have a number of dedicated Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary working at the school. Thanks to their foresight and hard work and the generosity of people who believe in the importance of the school, we now have an endowment fund of three-quarters of a million dollars. In three to five years it will reach a million and then the interest can be used to give a financial hand to young parents who don’t have anything else to sacrifice to pay the ever-increasing tuition costs. So “survival with style” seems to be the keynote for the rest of this decade.

I wish I could interview all of you and find out what you think about the need of the parish for the school, what you think about your own personal need for the school. I have spoken with a number of people:

• young and old;
• people with and without children;
• people who enjoy the company of children and those who do not;
• people who have had a parochial school education and those who have not;
• people representing a variety of professions and walks of life;
• people who have sent their children to parochial schools and those who have not;
• parishioners who have been intimately involved with this school over the years as students, parents, grandparents, teachers, staff, or volunteers and those who have not.

After all this preparation, the article should have flowed freely but it didn’t. In response to my request for a deadline extension (because I was off to a three-day Lenten retreat) Kate Campion emailed saying maybe the Spirit would act during the retreat. That’s what seems to be happening. The theme of the retreat was “Blest are they . . . .” and focused on Jesus’ teaching of the Beatitudes and their effect in the lives of several saints, all missionaries in their time and place. I was most moved by an American saint, Katharine Drexel of Philadelphia who was chosen as the mirror for “Blest are the Poor in Spirit. . . ..” St. Katharine gave her fourteen million dollar fortune and her life to serve African American and Native American people. She was particularly focused on education of the young, wanting them to learn as she had lessons of love of God and neighbor, especially the poor. For her and the missionary order she founded, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist was the center of and sustenance for her life; seeing in it the source of unity among races.

And isn’t that what the interdependent relationship between our parish and our school is all about? The very worldly community in which we live has little or no appreciation of why we’re here. So we must support each other in our efforts to know, love, and serve God. We have to “rummage for God” through our days with little or no help from our larger community. No one I interviewed said we didn’t need each other. No one said we could get along without our school. Even those who raised logical questions about whether we can afford to have the school decided it’s all a matter of priorities and careful, thoughtful use of our time. In the next year we can explore possibilities for supporting the two groups making the greatest sacrifices -- the young families and the teachers. We all stand to gain from acknowledging our mutual need.

I have been in attendance this year at three liturgies, on Ash Wednesday and two First Fridays, in which the congregation included the entire student body, many parents and grandparents, and people who almost always come to daily Mass at 9:30. It is such a delight!

• The earnestness with which each member of a grade waits until all are gathered and facing the tabernacle before genuflecting;
• The reckless abandon with which the younger readers fling their arms toward Heaven to encourage recitation of the responsorial psalm;
• The puzzlement of the younger children as to why their adults, usually so fussy about cleanliness, don’t wipe their foreheads clean after receiving ashes;
• The careful discipline and excellent skill of the older children in proclaiming the Word of the Lord;
• The conversational homilies between the celebrant and the pleased child who has been chosen out of the sea of hands to respond to the simple but profound theological question.

If I had my way, every parishioner would be required to attend at least one of these liturgies annually. They provide an on-the-spot example of how our parish school increases knowledge, changes attitudes, and develops skills in the children and in all of us. Think about it. How are you learning that God delights in you and learning to delight in Him? How are you learning to live in communion with the Trinity of persons in love? While our spiritual journeys are unique, they all require sustenance, and for me, watching the growth of our children in faith and hope and love is rich nourishment.