Given on the occasion of the blessing of the Centenary Building at The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School on 10 February 2015.
Fr. Paul Murray, the Dominican, recounts the story of the opening of a new centre for the Missionaries of Charity in the Vatican City. Pope John Paul II had generously donated the land and the property. The cardinal appointed to bless and open the building waxed eloquently about the generosity of the Pope. Mother Teresa was sitting in the congregation, began to fidget, put up her hand and started to try and attract the cardinal’s attention. He was in full flow and tried to ignore her. However, her persistence won out and when we could no longer ignore it, with irritation he stopped and said, “Yes Mother”. “Thank God”, she said… “Thank God”… and he continued to praise the Pope!
This evening we thank God for the gift of this new building which I am delighted to bless. It is the fulfilment of the hopes and work of many people and for this we firstly thank God. To embark on an ambitious building plan is an act of hope. It reminds us that education itself is an act of hope as the staff draws out the gifts of each pupil and develops the potentialities to their fullness. Providentially this week we listen to the Book of Genesis and the story of creation. At the climax of God’s act of creating, we hear the words, “God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves”, and later “God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them” and then, God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good.” Created in the image and likeness of God we are gifted by God and people are given the talents to create buildings which serve God’s plan so that in a school the individual gifts of each and very pupil can flourish and reach their full potential. We thank God for the bestowal of his gifts on so many people who have helped to plan and complete this project.
In the light of revelation, we understand that God in whose image we are created is a God who is Three Persons living in relationships of love. We reach our fulfilment in relationship, in community and in the service of love. This new building will help serve that purpose in the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School provided we remember that God is at the heart of all our enterprises and must always remain at the heart of the school. Fidelity to your mission will enable you to flourish. Today’s gospel also directs us to reflect about the integrity of our own hearts as we hear Jesus criticising those who fail to live the commands of God out of the depths of their hearts and who have turned them into human commandments to serve their own purposes; “This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.” They even go as far as using the commands of God to justify the neglect of their parents and so again break the community which God seeks to be characterised by relationships of love.
Today we also keep the memorial of Saint Scholastica, the sister of St. Benedict. We are reminded of the first words of his Rule, “Listen, carefully, my son, to the Master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” Listen… listening is central to the process of learning, whether listening to a teacher, reading a text, or listening with the heart in prayer to the Father. The pictures of monks standing at their desks copying out the words of scriptures, illustrating them with love speaks of the perseverance, commitment and renunciation needed in order to pursue any learning well and to succeed. Buildings can either build this capacity to attend with the heart or diminish it. It is my hope that this new building will help the pupils to listen and learn and so become the people God wishes them to be to serve his creation and the common good.
The Rule of St. Benedict is characterised by humanity and love for the sake of each monk so that he may more readily attain holiness. The life of the monastery with its structures and timetable provides the stability that enables the monk to listen and hear with his heart. In the life of the school, we know that there is need for a structure which provides clarity and safety for learning as well as moderation to the needs of each pupil. St. Benedict writes, “Therefore we intend to establish a school for the Lord’s Service. In drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome. The good of all concerned, however, may prompt us to a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love” (Rule, 45). The regulations and structures are needed to safeguard love which is the message at the heart of the passage from St. Mark’s gospel we heard today. With the sensitivity of the Abbot to the sick and the struggling, so those in leadership may learn from the Rule of St. Benedict about the particularity of each pupil so that each may flourish as God intends.
As we thank God and all who have been involved in the planning, design and construction of this building, we present all our works to the Lord in the offering of the Mass, so that through the power of the Holy Spirit and his grace, this building and all the activities which occur here may help the pupils to listen, Learn, and incline their hearts to knowledge and understanding as well as grow in their friendship with Jesus Christ. May God bless the work of the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.
Bishop John Sherrington
Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster