The First Reading at Mass today was from Saint Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy. It started out this way: Beloved: I am writing you. I decided that I should write too. It’s been more difficult with all of my “running around” – the end of summer, the start of school, etc. I thought that I would share some good news; some unusual news. It concerns something brand new. It concerns what may seem a whole new concept, but really is not. It is simply a concept that needs reintroduction in our world today – a world filled sadly with so much bad news and negative news; news that is grating and degrading. Last night, I attended the dedication and blessing of the new Business Institute at Pope John Paul II High School. It is a refurbished room that looks like a real office setting with conference area, rows of Bloomberg computer terminals, a stock ticker on the wall (NVDA was down, but AAPL was up), and of course, numerous HD 4K flat screens on the walls. It is high-tech indeed – a little Wall Street right off of 422! In my role as chaplain, I simply wanted to be present. It was Bishop Keith Chylinski, the Regional Bishop for Montgomery County that led the blessing assisted by Deacon Joseph Hosack who is on faculty at the school. My own business prowess is rather limited. I did have a finance course in college. I didn’t exactly get a spectacular grade in that course. Originally, I had thoughts of pursuing the field of International Business. However, I discovered that I wasn’t overly interested in the “business” aspect so much as the “international” aspect of that field: language, cultures, and peoples. I would ultimately wind-up pursuing a business venture of a different sort. One in which, I wouldn’t have the title of CEO, but REV. Our Faith is a “business venture” of a different sort. That occurred to me anew with the Business Institute blessing at PJP. The business world with its economy and the Church world with Her theology are not opposed. They need go hand-in-hand. The document Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council touches upon this. This is the point that the bishop made last night and that needs to be emphasized once again from Washington to Harrisburg and from Wall Street to Main Street. PJP’s Business Institute with Bloomberg terminals is the first in our state. The goal is not just to educate well future business leaders, but to educate well future Catholic business leaders such that the values of the Catholic Church are brought to fruition in all of their enterprises and endeavors throughout their lives. Bishop Chylinski certainly got it right as he noted the large statue of Mary outside the door with the stock ticker on the wall just behind her. He was hoping that from her pedestal in Royersford, she would make it, one day, all the way to Wall Street itself! Here’s hoping and praying that through our young future business leaders of today – that tomorrow she will…as together all of us engage in our most important business – that of our Faith!
Peace!
Fr. Wilson