8/16/15 - A vision of a Catholic school here at Epiphany Part 1

August 16th, 2015

I wanted to share with you the vision of a Catholic school here at Epiphany of the Lord as well as, in the next few blog entries, take this opportunity to explain how we would achieve this promising goal in the coming years.

A Catholic elementary and middle school here in Katy would be a true investment in the future of our Church. Nobody, I don’t think, would only think of our Church as just a place that is there for us during our lifetime. That was the whole purpose of a Master Plan, to plan for the future of the church here in Katy because we understand that the Church most grow in strength and grandeur and in beauty. And so that twenty years from now, we don’t say, “We should have built a school.” Building up the Church by offering a formal Catholic education speaks to the truth that there are only two things that will outlive us as Catholics—our children and our faith.

A Catholic school is not meant to compete with the wonderful and amazing public schools in KISD. God doesn’t expect everyone to go to Catholic school. I myself went to public school from elementary through high school, and I would not change that at all. But if we are supporters of education for children, we have to as Catholics carve a generous place in our heart and in our community for Catholic education. You see, offering a Catholic education to our young children will add another necessary layer to the spiritual fiber of our faith community. I spoke with a gentleman who serves on one of the parish councils. His wife is also a key volunteer here at Epiphany. They were founding parishioners of the parish in fact, and all of his children were baptized, confirmed and married here at Epiphany. He said to me, “I never thought we needed a Catholic school here in Katy, and I grew up going to Catholic school.” I asked him, “Don’t you know how much you’ve added to our community? Your Catholic education is a part of who you are and now it is a part of the spiritual make-up of our community.”

Although God does not expect everyone to go to Catholic school, He does expect the Church to do our part in educating our children and not leaving it up to the government or other private institutions to be the sole and primary educators of our youth. That is why we have the responsibility to continue the tradition of building Catholic schools in our day and time. The alternative is a “dystopian” society in which no one has a Catholic education to add another layer of spirituality and understanding to our collective Catholic identity. People criticize the state of society, the government, the Supreme Court, and ask, “What is the Catholic Church doing about it?” Well, the Church here in Katy is building a Catholic school to invest in our future and to invest in our children.

Part of the explanation of how we would accomplish this vision is the basic question, Can we afford a school? First, we should recognize that this question comes from an “Attitude of Scarcity,” that we only do what we can imagine we can afford. That attitude is actually reasonable for a single household. But a Church is a congregation of thousands of households where we are called to adopt an Attitude of Abundance. Because although we all have our own needs, deep down inside, we know that God has given to us in abundance in our lives. So we certainly can “afford” to believe that God will give to his Church in abundance, especially when it comes to teaching and educating his children.
That is the basis of our faith—that God gives us in abundance. He gives us his Son, because he would not trust anyone else when it comes to our salvation. He generously offers to share in his eternal glory for those who have faith in his Son. And He promises us treasure in heaven (beyond our imagining) for the sacrifices we make in love of him while here on earth.

In the coming weeks, I will share with you additional information about what a Catholic school would look like here on our campus. Let us continue to pray to Almighty God, thanking him for the abundant gifts he has bestowed in our life and to ask of him to bless this praiseworthy endeavor of envisioning and building a Catholic school here at Epiphany.