The role of catholic education in the jubilee year of mercy

Our country, being predominantly Catholic, has been shaped by the

formations taught and shared by the institutions providing catholic education.
History tells us that these institutions have helped us in our ultimate search for
truth, our search for virtues and for justice. This search however is a continuing one,
and as much as we keep not to get lost, our today’s world of materialism and
consumerism have slowed us down.

In our search for virtues, Pope Francis declared this liturgical year an
extraordinary year of mercy. This is extraordinary as ordinarily, jubilee year is
celebrated every 25 or 50 years which apparently is not the case in our celebration.
In consideration of the world’s dire need of forgiveness and mercy, the Pope has call
us not to get tire of asking for forgiveness. My research tells me that reserved sins,
including abortion, no matter how morbid or how unacceptable in our so-called
morals, Pope Francis has granted all the priest to absolve such sins. Never mind the
traditional clergy who still discriminates, never mind the so-called morally upright
people who sees themselves pure and uncorrupted. God teaches us to just knock,
and His doors will open.

In this extraordinary celebration which emphasizes on the importance of

mercy and the need to “gaze” on it, catholic education has play and will continue to
play a vital role in providing an environment in which students are enabled to build
and deepen their relationship with God. That in fostering an academic culture aimed
at the pursuit of truth; and to actively promote growth in the virtues of mercy,
compassion and forgiveness, these institutions call us to put Christ in the center of
all we do. When Christ is the center of all we do, then we are enabled to redirect our
focus of life towards an understanding of the world in which we live that is geared
towards the promotion of human dignity and the common good.

My adolescent years have also been formed by this institution providing

catholic education and I am thankful that I have developed a keen understanding of
being called as Christians to work for the common good and to do so through a life
that is deeply rooted in Christ, combined with a vigorous desire to pursue these
virtues in the truth of things, to live through and with reality rather than merely
being guided by constantly changing feelings and preferences.

In this jubilee year of mercy, the formation provided that is oriented towards
the virtues of mercy, compassion and forgiveness becomes relevant. Catholic schools
should let the educational endeavor be guided by a constant promotion of these
virtues. No matter how strong the faith of a person might be, without a certain
degree of practice in the virtues, it will be hard not to be led exclusively by the
emotions and impressions that constantly enter our minds. It is the only way to
enable the student to beat out a coherent path of life.

We understand that this thrust for institutions providing catholic education is

not that easy. May we appreciate how these virtues have transmitted from
generations, nurtured and sustained in the generations to come. We thank the Lord
for the men and women, religious and priests, missionaries and lay leaders, experts
and professionals, who in our country dedicate themselves to the esteemed vocation
that belongs to these institutions in the Philippines today.

May we continue to value and appreciate the virtue-oriented and Christ-

centered activities that the institutions providing Catholic education has engaged us
and will continue to engage the future generations. In doing so, may we also
welcome the Pope’s invitation on all Christians, everywhere,” – including in higher
academe – “at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ,
or at least an openness to letting him encounter them, asking I ask all of us to do this
unfailingly each day and reminding us that No one should think that this invitation
is not meant for him or her, since ‘no one is excluded from the joy brought by the
Lord. As Archbishop Villegas aptly put it, for it is from the joy of this encounter with
Jesus, both personal and communal, that the exigency to share it with others is
captured. This full encounter that redeems not only ourselves individually, but
ourselves in human community, discloses the social content of the Gospel: “at the
very heart of the Gospel is life in community and engagement with others.

Thank you.