My close friend and colleague, Fr. John P. Foley, SJ, retired last week. What “retirement” actually means for a guy like John is something that both he and we will discover over time. The biggest initial change is that he moved from his rooms in Chicago to the Jesuit retirement community in Clarkston, MI. What was a 45-minute drive is now a 4 ½ hour trip. So, spontaneously grabbing a beer or meeting for lunch is out of the question. Of course, he is still just a phone or Zoom call away for touching base.
We hatched a plot to see John off in style: 1) As he left Chicago, the person driving him to Michigan would casually suggest they drive by the original Cristo Rey school in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago on the way out of town for “old time’s sake.” 2) Meanwhile, we secretly invited friends, family, alumni, and old co-workers to be on-hand to cheer him on. 3) Cristo Rey Jesuit High School administrators adjusted class schedules for the day so that hundreds of current students could join the crowd. 4) We collected noisemakers, made posters, and ordered giant photos of John to distribute among the throng. 5) Through clandestine text messages and tracking applications, we monitored when John’s car would arrive in Pilsen. 6) As John passed Cristo Rey, the car stopped, and he was greeted by a throng of well-wishers giving thanks and sending him on his way to retirement feeling truly loved!
If you say to John that he is THE Founder of the Cristo Rey movement, he will invariably decline the moniker and point out that he was merely part of its Founding Team. His humility is certainly part of the reason there are now 38 Cristo Rey schools around the country and more coming. John has always said, “This thing (meaning the Cristo Rey movement) is bigger than all of us!” In a way, I think that was John reminding us all (especially those of us in leadership roles) that our schools are not about us. He led and leads by example.
We need to check our egos at the door and remember that the mission of Cristo Rey is about empowering our students to become agents of positive change in the world. We are not here for us; we are here for them. We are called to be persons for others and they, too, are called to pay-forward the opportunities Cristo Rey opens for them by making the most of those opportunities and using their new-found upward mobility and influence to improve the lives of others. As one of John’s fellow “founders,” I cannot overstate how important his passion and compassion were to the success of Cristo Rey. The funny part about working toward selflessness is that it is the most personally rewarding experience you can have.
As we gathered old photos and made posters for John’s drive-by, I found an old picture of a billboard we rented in Pilsen to recruit students before the original Cristo Rey school opened for the first time. John came up with a great byline: “Cristo Rey Jesuit High School – ¡Una nueva pasión en Pilsen!” Really brilliant. The school was a cause for passion – enthusiasm and excitement – in the ‘hood, but the phrase also invoked a deeper concept of the passion of Christ the King, walking with our savior in good times and bad – the lynchpin of our faith, accompanying the ultimate “person for others.”
Passion is Cristo Rey’s secret weapon. How many people will tell you that the reason they joined Cristo Rey locally or nationally was because of how passionate people are about our shared mission? Who doesn’t want to be part of helping improve lives and make the world a better place? Not our world but the world we bequeath to successive generations.
Isn’t that love? Giving your all, giving yourself so the world is just a little more just? So that the playing field of life is just a little more level, not just for me and you but for all?
In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius talks about the “Call of Christ the King.” It’s an imaginative, immersive prayer where you fantasize about some charismatic world leader. What if Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates showed up at your doorstep saying they had an idea that would feed the planet, or alleviate human suffering on a global scale, or cure cancer but that he or she needed YOU to make it happen? Would you turn them down or would you get excited about the possibility of being part of something profoundly transformative? Then, take the meditation to the next step: what if instead of one of those prominent influencers, what if the person inviting you was Jesus?
John Foley is a messenger. His entire vocation has been (and is) about inviting us to join in a truly wonderful undertaking – a movement that is not about him but about something bigger than all of us. It’s about a deep and abiding, passionate and compassionate, love. In the bible (1 John 4) it says, “God is love.” And more, “No one has ever seen God but if we love one another then God lives in us and his love is made perfect in us.” That is the Call of Christ the King, that is the invitation of John Foley, and that is the heart of the Cristo Rey movement.
¡VIVA CRISTO REY!