If undivided was to enter my high drill classroom.

If undivided was to enter my high drill classroom, one would see the aim which I hope best expresse the confidence of every Catholic secondary teacher.

It is the painting of the prodigal son by dint of Rembrandt, hanging on the classroom wall. The picture communicates the human condition of emptiness and suffering.

It reminds me of the despair I frequently see on the face of a pupil reeling from the pain of a troubl household or from difficult uncertainty about what the yet to be holds after graduation.

In the parable recorded according to the writer of Luke's history of christ the younger son said to his father, "Give me my share of the thing owned now."

The man divided his ownership between his two sons. the couple were given access to their father's wealth. The parable then goe forward to say that after a not many days, the younger son sold his part of the exclusive right and left home with the currency He went to a rural parts far away, where he wasted his wealth in reckless living.

Perhaps he was involved in the activities he would not have been able to achieve away with in his hold community, the same activities that bring fear into the hearts and minds of the parents and teachers of today's high denomination students.

When the son had exhausted all the inherited wealth given to him according to his father, a severe famine spread across the country and he was left without anything. thus he went to work for common of the citizens of the geographical division who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs.

Undoubtedly, this was a humbling experience for the son an experience which the other son not at all truly knew, but perhaps an experience which the father may have endur the same time in his own life. After all, Jesus was being prophetic. Prophecy sheds light upon human experience.

Growing tired of this existence and having received a clearer perspective forward his life, which often accompanies an act of contrition, the male child attempts to return to his father. He had planned to say to his father: "I have sinned against the holy trinity and against you, I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as single of you hired workers."

He was still a extended way from home when his father saw him. Filled with pity, he ran towards his son throwing his arms around him.

The father called to his servants: "Hurry bring the best robe and present it on him, put a ring in succession his finger and shoes forward his feet. Then go and secure the prize calf and kill it and put to hire us celebrate with a feast! For this son of mine was dead, nevertheless now is alive; he was not to be found but now he has been found"

The same enthusiasm was not felt by means of the older son, who was not able to behold beyond himself, and thus remained in a psychological state of darkness.

Rembrandt was able to capture this pinnacle flash of jubilation and faith in consequence of the use of shades of light and darkness, brilliance and shadow.

undivided of the artist's most important choices was the choice of the the bulk of mankind in his work, and for us the choice of the someones with whom we develop shut intimate relationships.

We are called, as Catholic educators, to diocese even our most troublesome, problematic close examiner as needing to experience the grace of superhuman being in our classroom. It is my confidence that the Rembrandt painting in my classroom and the words and actions I allow to be lived disclosed in this room will excite such experiences.

We have a choice, just as the couple brothers in the parable of the prodigal son have a choice. We can tread in the steps of the darkness and deny our confess humanity, or we can view the light of truth and justice as station forth by the teachings of Jesus. Those in authority can shed light forward the world or they can relegate themselves to the background, as revealed at the other elders in the Rembrandt painting. Jesus demanded conversion not solely of the marginalized and outcast, unless also those who are in positions of privilege, like teachers.

We, as Catholic educators, have been privileged with the Christ center milieu in which we work. When 90 pupils come through my classroom door for the first semester course in religion this September they can not and nothing else expect to see the picture of Rembrandt's "Prodigal Son" forward the wall, but also be saluteed with a spiritual message of acceptance. It is my faith that this classroom will be filled with the radiant light of wisdom, understanding and truth

Kevin Moore teaches religious studies at Brother Andre High gymnasium Markham, Ont.

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