Treat others as You would Want them to Treat You (Luke 6:31)

Just above the town of Capernaum, the birth place of St Peter, is a beautiful hill where Jesus stood delivering his Sermon on the Mount.  This beautiful area overlooks the Sea of Galilee.  The Sea of Galilee borders Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

It is upon this amazing view Jesus, in what is recorded in both Matthew chapter 5 and Luke chapter 6 suggests various attitudes which help to achieve the ultimate gift of Love.

Treat others as you would have them treat you.  Our 2020 Federated theme from Luke 6:31 is one of these Beatitudes.

I now enter my fourth year of a four year contract as Mission and Faith Leader.  I can without any doubt say that our Catholic Identity has many positive aspects within the community but like all things it is always a work in progress.

This is not to despair but more to acknowledge and accept the reality we find ourselves in.

This is one reason we do not apologise as a Federated that we want to be more articulate with our Catholicity.

So what does that mean for us as members in a Catholic School?

One thing it means is that we can no longer presume that having the word Saint in front of our Schools name is enough for our community to know directly that we are Catholic and more importantly Gospel centred.

Walking into a fully working classroom and seeing the Crucifix in centre place acknowledges our faith.  Seeing our prayer table in central place, uncluttered with no school work on them to hide the bible is another positive sign.  But if we think this is enough is no longer helpful in saying to those we serve that we are people who take the Gospel seriously.

School Staff are in the trenches of Catholic Education.  This is no longer easy.  Perhaps it was never easy.  Being in the trenches means hard work which often is not recognised by those above.

During the despair of the bushfires our true identity of people of love and generosity rose to the fore.  Treat others as you would have them Treat you showed above the pain of destruction.  Every Australian, all people of different faiths and culture showed what is in their heart, but for us as Catholics and Christians we show this more than ever because Jesus expects us to go that extra mile.  It is part of our Baptisimal vows and why at Confirmation we again said Yes.

At the same time of the fires in Australia there were other fires blazing uncontrollably in other parts of the world.   Our 2020 banner shows the world inside our hands which are in the shape of a heart. We need to also be aware of what is happening outside our comfort zone as well as in the comforts of own classroom or other working space.

Catholic Identity and Catholic Education must be more than data.  Data give us insight but to focus totally on the results is very shallow.  In Catholic Schools our Students must be more than data. We must continue to display an environment where we show on our sleeves that everyone, the Staff, Students and families in our Schools are all equal in the eyes of God.  For this to work we must be united as a community and work together when the going gets tough.  And one thing is certain the going does and will get tough.

In his book, When All is Said and Done (Which by the way is a title of an ABBA song), Neale Daniher says on page 242, “Individuals become teams through disciplined and spirited action.  The discipline is enacted when individuals commit to shaping a common purpose, agree on performance goals, define and buy into a game plan, develop complementary skills and hold themselves mutually accountable for delivering results.  Spirit emerges through time spent together, which allows all team members to build a high level of trust and respect.  It happens when each member is there for the right purpose: the agreed team purpose.  This level of trust allows members to manage conflict and resolve issues that emerge in all teams, because there is genuine commitment to find the right answers and make team-first decisions.

Our agreed team purpose, our game plan must always be Gospel centred.  It cannot be anything else if we wish to call ourselves a Catholic School.  If it is something else we must close our doors because we are living and displaying a false paradigm.

In the final year of our Federated pilot where our future as a Federation is undecided, as your Mission and Faith leader where my future is unknown, one thing is certain, just as others in Catholic Education like you and I have worked tirelessly before us to show that living the Gospel message of Love is a true and wonderful way to live life, so too will come people after us.  But until the future is upon us we must live the present and strive toTreat others as we would like them to Treat us.