High Seas of Junior High School

Embarking on the high adventure of a new school year

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the LORD showed him all the land— Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as Zoar. The LORD then said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants.

            How many of you have ever been to a foreign country (raise your hands please)? Heck, some of you may feel like the United States is a foreign country. Whenever you travel to a new country, you always notice three things are different: the language people speak, the funny food they eat, and third the clothes they wear. I came to the United States when I was seven years old, and I immediately noticed these three things. People spoke differently; they didn’t speak English with the cool Indian accent I had or move their heads from side to side like I did. Secondly, people ate food without adding spicy curry – which is a lot better than Sriracha! And thirdly, people didn’t wear the traditional Indian sari dress, in which my mom always looked so beautiful, but women here wore high heels and miniskirts. Everything was startling and strange in this foreign land.

              I always think of that line from the book, Lord of the Rings, where Gandalf warns Frodo: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to” (The Fellowship of the Ring, 87). Stepping out my front door in New Delhi, India was dangerous business – I was embarking on the high adventure of my life – and I could courageously embrace it or I could cowardly run back home. I’ll give you one guess what I chose: that’s why I’m standing here today. Visiting a foreign country is dangerous business indeed; I wonder if I would have become a priest if I had remained in India.  How different my life would have been if I had stayed safely home.

             In the first reading today, God shows Moses a foreign land that he will give to the people of Israel. We read: “The Lord showed him all the land – Gilead, as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan, and the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as the Zoar.” Deuteronomy continues: “The Lord then said to Moses: ‘This is the land I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that I would give to their descendants.” In other words, Moses led the people out of their familiar home in Egypt to a new land inhabited by people who spoke strange languages, ate funny tasting food, and dressed in different garb. You can almost hear God warning Moses: “It’s a dangerous business stepping out your front door.” But what did Moses do: stay inside where it was safe or embrace this new adventure? We know the answer of course: in fact, the whole rest of the Bible unfolds only because Moses stepped out his front door.  Moses chose adventure over apathy.

               Boys and girls, each of you may feel like me and Moses because you have also stepped out your front door and stepped onto the grounds of Trinity Junior High, and you may feel like you’ve stepped into a foreign country! Who are all these crazy people in junior high!? You may be feeling some fear and nervousness, too, as you face this dangerous business called Junior High, and even the returning 8th and 9th graders will face many new things this year. You may feel like running back home, but instead, I invite you to be courageous and embrace the high adventure of your life. I especially welcome students from public schools this year (there’s quite a few of you guys!), as well as those who are not Catholic. You are all now a part of our Trinity Family, and we love each of you.

At Trinity you will find strange food. We don’t have a lunch program, so some days you’ll order from different restaurants, and some days our Hispanic moms fix delicious Mexican food, almost as good as Indian curry! Almost. You’ll hear and learn new languages. This year at Mass, we will pray the Our Father in Latin. You’ll practice for the first 9 weeks in your classes, and then we’ll start saying it in Mass. It sounds like this: “Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie. Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, seb libera nos a malo. Amen.” By the end of this year, you’ll all be able to say that fluently. That will become our Trinity prayer because no one else will be able to say it! And of course we wear school uniforms. And you’ll see football jerseys, basketball and volleyball and tennis outfits, dance and cheerleading uniforms, that are almost as beautiful as an Indian sari! Almost. Junior high can feel like you’ve traveled to a foreign land.

              Boys and girls, all this feels new and novel, it may seem strange and startling, and you may feel like returning to the safe and familiar. Or, on the other hand, you can be courageous and set sail on the high seas called junior high school, which is another leg on the adventure that is your life. U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper said: “A ship in harbor is safe; but that’s not what ships are built for.” Boys and girls, you were not created by God to stay safe in a harbor but to be out on the high seas of life, like Moses. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” You might even be swept off to Trinity Junior High!

Praised be Jesus Christ!