From the Principal's Desk 4.3

FROM THE PRINCIPAL'S DESK

Dear Parents,

Today I was planning on sending an email about our theme.  Sunday morning I came up to the school to find that someone had spray painted the front of the school.  This thoughtless act will take us a while to completely clean up and in all likelihood the building will show signs of the graffiti for some time to come.  So what can be learned from such an act?  Quite a lot actually.

The persons doing this saw themselves as outside of the school. They considered themselves actually more like our enemy.  In other words,  they were isolated from us. Blessed John Paul the Great taught that there are three degrees of separation which humans go through.  The first is called 'other' where a person is seen as not one of us, welcomed as a guest, tolerated,  but not part of the group.   The friend, who was so close,  but now is hanging with another crowd, is 'the other'.  Very soon however persons move even further apart where the one does not even understand what the other is doing;  they have become strangers.  This person does things not  understood, they clearly are not part of any group recognized as 'other'.  They clearly have strange beliefs and practices, in fact they are 'strangers.'   The final step of alienation is when we see the 'stranger' as an enemy.  They are not only part of another group, have actions and mannerisms that are strange to us but in fact they seek to destroy our life, they are our enemy.

This is precisely how the Jew's were treated in Nazi Germany, the Christians behind the iron curtain or in many Islamic countries today and if we are not careful it can happen to us and to our relationships.  

High school is a wonderful time of making friends and forming lasting ties, but it can also be a time of isolation and alienation.  When we ask ourselves and our children 'Quo Vadis?' will the answer be that we are striving to build Christian community where each is seen as a critical member of our faith, of our family?  Or will we see others as the others, the strangers and ultimately the enemies amongst us? Let us pray and practice so that our friends and companions be many and our enemies be few. 

Timothy Gallic

Principal, Holy Family High School

303-410-1411