Holy Week and Easter Reflection from Jim Dippold, Director of Campus Ministry
A favorite reflection of mine at this time of the year is Sister Thea Bowman’s piece entitled “Let Us Resolve to Make This Week Holy.” It is a litany of ways that we can act in our lives, making this week holy, rather than simply sitting back, and observing the most important days of our Christian faith. She calls us to participation – in the liturgies and spiritual practices of the week and in the sufferings, struggles and joys of our families and neighbors and the global community … the places where God is present today, where God is crucified and where the spirit brings hope and new life. The implication is that it is not really, of course, a holy week, if we choose not to act, to live our faith in concrete, practical ways.
At CRSM, we have heard Sr. Bowman’s reflection throughout this week for morning prayer and we have seen her words along with images of the Stations of the Cross projected on the monitors in the cafeteria:
Let us resolve to make this week holy by claiming Christ’s redemptive grace and by living holy lives …
Let us take time this week to be present to someone who suffers …
Let us sing, “Lord, have mercy,” and “Hosanna” …
Let us praise the Lord with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, uniting the suffering church throughout the world …
Let us break bread together, let us relive the holy and redemptive mystery …
Let us resolve to make this week holy by sharing holy peace and joy within our families … with the needy, the alienated, the lonely, the sick and afflicted, the untouchable …
Let us be practical, reaching out across the boundaries of race and class and status to help somebody, to encourage and affirm somebody, offering to the young an incentive to learn and grow …
During this Holy week, when Jesus gave his life for love, let us truly love one another.
And this is the central mystery of our faith. To love one another. With Jesus. With the God who accompanies us through our sufferings and seeks to bring us to new life. Our world is broken. We see that truth in so many ways around us. The Good News that we celebrate this weekend and, in the weeks, to come is that our world is also, at its core, beautiful and redeemed, and that God’s love and mercy triumph over death and darkness. God is good! In our Easter celebration we have reason for that belief.
Whether we realize it or not, we all live this mystery, day in and day out. And at CRSM, in so many ways, we are blessed to walk with one another and to be a part of Christ’s redemptive grace. This is centered on our students and families and includes our staff, of course, but also extends to all those who make it possible to live the mission – our board and benefactors, business partners and endorsing communities, and beyond. By our actions and choices and participation in the mission of Cristo Rey St. Martin, we make this week holy … along with every other week of the Christian life.
¡Cristo ha resucitado! ¡En Verdad ha resucitado!
Andrea and Robert “Rob” Horcher are both well known to students for their extensive roles in mathematics classes at CRSM and their after-school roles tutoring, running prom, the yearbook and attending Taizé prayer. But students especially love when it’s parent-teacher time and they help babysit for the Horcher’s son Isaac, 5, and daughter, Peyton,1. Since Rob started working at CRSM in 2010 and Andrea joined him 11 years ago in 2011, the same week they got married, Andrea says the CRSM community “has wrapped their arms around us as family.” “When we had Isaac, we were so supported. They held a gender reveal and we could ask any of the other teachers who were also having babies for help from finding a doctor to just about anything. And they still do.” When it came time to pick godparents for their children, the Horchers reached out to their professional and faith mentors, Christina, and Jim Dippold. Christina Dippold also served as sponsor for Andrea when she went through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults to become a Catholic.
One of the things that Angel Pradas and Veronica Lattes’ say makes teaching at CRSM so special is the opportunity to hear about each other’s day, because as Lattes says, “we’re able to learn from each other and talk about different ideas we might have for teaching something differently.” That’s a good thing, considering their commute to Waukegan from their Westchester home can average an hour to an hour-and-a-half each way. During snowstorms it can be significantly higher, like the time it took six hours to get home. “The students feel like family to us, and I think they see us as extended family members too,” says Pradas. “When we walk through the halls they shout out, ‘hey Pradas,’ or ‘hi Lattes.’ We understand their heritage and I think they really appreciate that.”Every day, winter or summer, Angel always pulls up to the front door of the school to drop off Veronica, “as a sign of kindness and delicacy towards me,” she says.
Esme Silva, Class of ’10 and Jose Nunez, Class of ’11 passed each other daily in the crowded calls of what was then called St. Martin de Porres. They never spoke to each other. That was until one day when Esme was having laptop issues. Even though the duo were a year apart, it was widely known that Jose was the go-to tech guru on campus. He agreed to look at her defective device. He couldn’t fix it, but a friendship was formed. Fast forward to today, Esme is now a board member for the Cristo Rey St. Martin Board of Directors and works in Wisconsin as a regional specialist for anti-human trafficking. Jose works for the State of Illinois as a systems analyst in technology. “Being almost three years deep into married life, we continue to learn from each other in every retrospect,” says Esme. “We enjoy traveling, surrounding ourselves with good company of our mutual friends and envisioning growing our family. Our foundation: the values and friendships we made at Cristo Rey and our passion to give back to the community.”