This year marked my third and last year at Creighton Prep. In a few short months I’ll be shipping off to Berkeley, California to study theology and continue my journey as a Jesuit on the path to priesthood. Fortunately, such partings are not only endings but also opportunities: to know with clarity in hindsight what in the moment seemed only partial and obscure.
That was certainly the experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke’s Gospel (Lk. 24:13-35), and it seems to have been the supposition of St. Paul as well when he wrote to the Corinthians: “When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:11-12).
Looking back on my three years at Prep I’ve come to realize that one of the greatest gifts we offer our students is not knowledge (though there’s plenty of that) or success (though that comes, too), or even failure (no one can live without some). It’s perspective. Prep at its best paints for each young man a horizon unexpectedly wide … and then points to where he stands within it.
As a science teacher, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing students see the world - both chemical and biological - in new ways. I’ve heard students talk about the ways theology class, history class and English classes have forced them to take new perspectives on their own life or American society. I’ve seen the faces of students light up when they talk about band or soccer or zoology or any number of other clubs and activities through which they’ve discovered talents they never knew they had.
God alone knows the fullness of who we’re called to be. But if we’re in the right place and listen to the right people, sometimes we’re able to hear Jesus explain a bit of it to us while we’re still on the road. I thank God for the way the people and place of Prep have done that for me and for so many students who pass in and out of Prep’s doors.
Mr. Erin Kast, SJ
Creighton Prep