Caritas Connection - Upper School
The focus of the Caritas Connection is to live out our core values of Truth (Veritas), Unity (Unitas), and Love (Caritas) by helping others, especially those who are in need, following the model that Jesus gave us at the Last Supper. We do this both individually and as a community of Love. Dedicated and continued service is expected of each student.
"(Jesus) rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. … When he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, 'Do you realize what I have done for you? … I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.'" (John 13: 4-5, 12, 15).
"(Jesus) rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. … When he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, 'Do you realize what I have done for you? … I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.'" (John 13: 4-5, 12, 15).
This action of Jesus at the Last Supper in John's Gospel is, significantly, the Gospel reading on Holy Thursday when the Church remembers the institution of the Eucharist. Eucharist means thanksgiving and the Church reminds us that in thanking God we are to serve others. In a homily on this reading, St. Augustine says: "Brothers and sisters, we have learned humility from the One who is on high. Let us humbly do for one another what the One on high did” (Homilies on the Gospel of John, 58). In another homily Augustine says: "Christ is hungry here, thirsty here, he's naked, he's a migrant, he's sick, he's in prison. You see, whatever his body suffers here, he suffers too" (Sermon 137). Together we, those who suffer and those who help ease suffering, are the Body of Christ.
