Little Flower Parish at 204 1st St. N.W., Browning, MT 59417 US - On Everlasting Life

Who is Your Guide?

DE LA SALLE BLACKFEET SCHOOL PROJECT By Fr. Ed Kohler October 1,2001 In these troubled times, besides the Eucharist, there is no reality that brings me more joy than seeing these young children open the doors to our new school. I see our Catholic school as one of the most powerful tools our parish now has to bring our people to a fuller experience of Jesus Christ and to learn in a more focused way the teachings of the Catholic Church. Quite frankly, I believe with my whole heart and soul that Catholic education is much more important than we would commonly want to think. Let me explain. Let me start with a scripture passage, John's Gospel 14:6 where Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me." These thoughts I first shared back in 1994 at a class reunion at Loyola Sacred Heart high school in Missoula Montana. At that time I was trying to get our own school going here in Browning and was doing a lot of reflecting on the subject. I believe the Lord took me on a faith journey. It started at an Easter Vigil Mass. In between one of the readings at the Vigil our choir sang the song Amazing Grace. One of the verses of the song states that when we have been in God's kingdom 10,000 years, shinning bright as the sun, at the end of those 10,000 years we can look at each other and say, "Everlasting Life has only just begun". The words struck me in such a way that on the spot I changed my homily. I wanted to preach on everlasting life. So after some introductory statements I said to the congregation that when we have been in God's kingdom 10,000 years, at the end of 10,000 years everlasting life would only have just begun for us. I got no response from the people. So I backed up and started again: "When we have been God's Kingdom for one million years we will have only just begun everlasting life. I saw a few people stir, so I said in ten million years we would just have begun eternal life! Next I used one hundred million years and I could see that it was registering in the hearts of the people. So I said, "When we have been in God's kingdom five hundred million years, shinning bright like the sun, we can look at each other and say Everlasting Life has only just begun!" At that moment the understanding of everlasting life stung me at the core of my heart. I woke up. Until that moment I never really understood what it meant to live forever. This understanding has changed the fabric of every spiritual thought I have ever had-- including my estimation about the value of Catholic education. All of a sudden one realizes that life on earth is just an instant in our personal history in which we receive our human body and get faced in the right direction to be born into eternal life. This time on earth is just our first breath. (Remember, Easter teaches us that we are destined to live out eternal life in a physical glorified body.) Getting faced in the right direction is no easy task. The Truth is so precise and we so easily follow ways of untruth. Just think of all the suffering, personal, in our family, our community, or in the world that results from someone doing untruth. We need a guide. We need someone who can constantly show us the Truth. In Johns Gospel 14:6 Jesus teaches us that He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only one who knows the way, not only through the traps in this life but also the traps we would encounter in everlasting life if we tried to live it with out Him as our guide. Jesus says to go it alone is like the "wailing and grinding of teeth". He is God's only Son. He is the only one who knows the way to the heart of the Father. No one can come to the Father but through Him. We will never find the Father except through Jesus. And we will never find the Kingdom of God except through Him. By being born, and then reborn, we are deciding to go on a journey. At the end of five hundred million years this journey will have only just begun. If we think we are so wise at age seventy here on earth, how will we be in five hundred million years? And who will show us the way to our true self if we do not know Jesus? Let me ask you this question. Do you think that in our present day public schools, places where one cannot even pray, secular society is going to allow teaching Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life? And given that human life here on earth is only one breath in relation to eternity, what is more important to learn? The truth is that getting our body and finding our guide is ultimately what life here on earth is all about. In Catholic schools we teach Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. We make sure all our students know that they cannot get to the Father except through Jesus. It is true that some of these students will reject this teaching and lose their way. Some will accept it. Others will come to their senses later in their life and at least have the knowledge to know where to turn to find the way, the truth, and the life. I was one of these students. I praise God for my Catholic education. It is the only forum that we have to effectively teach our children (in a concentrated, protected, spiritual environment) the person of Jesus Christ and His message of Salvation. It is the only forum in which we can teach Jesus Christ and His truth in an extended time frame that competes with secular society and it's values. What we teachers need to do is capture more completely the importance of this task and make it more central to everything we do in our Catholic school system. Every lost opportunity is wasted time for us. Jesus is everything for us. He is our savior and our God. He knows the way home. Time on earth is so short to learn this truth. Catholic Education offers us the best way to use this time in teaching our youth the most important lesson of their life-- Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The evil one knows this too and wants to destroy this insight. Please pray for our De La Salle Blackfeet Catholic school project here on the Blackfeet Reservation. It is so fresh, so fragile, and so good. If you would like more information about us, please see our Web site: http://LittleFlowerParish.Catholicweb.com. If you would like to help us financially please send your donations in care of Little Flower Parish, P.O. Box 529, Browning, Montana 59417. We pray for all who are our benefactors. (Please feel free to copy these articles and share them with others)

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