Lasallian Saints challenge us to take stock

Br. Finbarr Murphy from the De La Salle College Waterford Community reflects on how Lasallian Saints challenge us to take stock in a world where our identity is being questioned.

Inside the main entrance door of De La Salle College, is a modest notice board presenting small portraits of our Lasallian saints and martyrs. These eleven 'holy pictures' measure about half the size of a common postcard, and three of them present more than one Saint or Blessed.

Does not this notice board then present something of a rather embarrassing example of religious understatement? Just consider for a moment the value of just one Blessed to any modern community of 'consecrated life', e.g. Blessed Ignatius Rice of the Irish Christian Brothers. 

Many Lasallians will be happy to learn that the principal of our Waterford college, plans to enlarge these mini-pictures and suitably mount them along the spacious B corridor. He must also leave space for 'a few more recent Brothers who have made it to the rank of Blesseds and/or saints'.

Some readers may ask, why the fuss, what's the big deal? After all, this is modern Ireland, and just a side street in McLuhn's Global Village. But our very ID is being challenged to the core by the dominant ideology of our time - consumerist capitalism. We are what we eat, drink, wear, use. 'Image is everything...'

Our Lasallian saints, many arising from the French and Spanish revolutions, challenge us to take stock. By our Baptism, we teachers share especially in the ministry of Christ the Teacher, the Prophet.

Prophets speak truth to power.

In St John's Gospel, Jesus declares, I am the way, the truth, the life...know the truth. the truth will set you free.

Suggestion: Try this discussion with more senior classes: Holding a ref's whistle, complete with string in one hand, and a crucifix in the other, ask, What is the relationship?