During the Year of Lasallian Spirituality, Christian Brothers Conference is publishing reflections to provide spiritual inspiration and stir continued dialogue around Lasallian spirituality.
By Dr. Kevin Ahern
As some readers know, the campus of Manhattan University is blessed with two distinct chapels. In addition to the spacious bright Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers, there is the smaller, more intimate Chapel of the Holy Infancy in the former Brothers’ community.
At first glance, the name of the chapel, Holy Infancy, may seem to be a strange thing to have on a university campus, especially for those who don’t know that for the first decade of its existence, the institution was called the Academy of the Holy Infancy.
When I first came to Manhattan, I was not very excited about the name of the chapel where I often went for daily Mass. I never much liked the popular devotions to the child Jesus. These often feel far too sentimental for me and detached from the nitty gritty reality of the world and the seriousness of living the Gospel. As I have gone deeper into Lasallian spirituality (and as I have become a parent), however, a much deeper appreciation of this devotion has grown in me.
The devotion to the Holy Infancy reminds us of something often forgotten when speaking about Christian faith, that Jesus, himself, was once a child! We can develop this insight, as Pope Francis does in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christus vivit, to remember that by extension, he was also once a teenager and young adult. This often gets overlooked, but I’ve come to see it as a radical insight into Lasallian spirituality and pedagogy.
For De La Salle, faith in Jesus Christ defined both the reason and method of his educational project. But this Christ was not some distant, unreachable being. Rather, Christ could be discovered and served in our midst. Consider his meditation for the feast of Saint Nicholas:
“Because you are under the obligation to instruct the children of the poor, you must, consequently, cultivate a very special tenderness for them and procure their spiritual welfare as far as you will be able, considering them as members of Jesus Christ. … The faith that must inspire you ought to make you honor Jesus Christ in their person and prefer them to the wealthiest children on earth, because they are the living images of Jesus Christ, our divine Master” (80.3).
Here De La Salle is creatively applying the insights of Judgement of Nations in the Gospel of Mattew (25:31-46), where Jesus reminds us that he is present in the most marginalized among us and whatever we do or don’t do to them, we do unto him. This Gospel passage, as Pope Francis reminds us, “offers us one clear criterion on which we will be judged” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 95). Adapting Matthew 25 to educational ministries, as De La Salle does, invites us to look at the students, the children and the young people we serve, especially the poor and those marginalized for whatever reason, as if they were the incarnate word of God in our midst. What a radical challenge!
In his mediation on the Magi, the wisdom figures who followed the star to the Holy Child, De La Salle makes a similar point: “Recognize Jesus beneath the poor rags of the children whom you have to instruct; adore him in them. … May faith lead you to do this with affection and zeal because these children are members of Jesus Christ. In this way this divine Savior will be pleased with you, and you will find him because he always loved the poor” (96.3).
Sometimes, in our work, especially in ministries that engage large numbers of non-Christians, it can be difficult to speak about Jesus and sometimes we might even be tempted to tell the story of Lasallian spirituality without mentioning the incarnation. At the same time, it can also be tempting to overlook the centrality of the poor to Lasallian spirituality, especially given the many challenges of financing our work.
In light of these temptations, the traditional Lasallian devotion to honor the Holy Infancy has the potential to radically transformative our work by recentering our missions and pedagogies on Christ, who reveals himself in a special way in the most marginalized young people in our midst. As we celebrate this year, may we challenge ourselves to rediscover him in the people he loved, or as the prayer for the year invites us:
“May we, like the early Brothers of the Christian Schools, grow in interiority, recognize the Presence of God in the poor, marginalized and neglected, and offer the light of Christ to all we encounter.”
Amen!
Kevin Ahern, Ph.D., public theologian and author, is a professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan University in New York, where he directs the Dorothy Day Center for the Study and Promotion of Social Catholicism.