Greetings from St Bede’s College.

A week ago, our world was tipped on its head! We have spent the week monitoring boys and staff who have been effected and endeavoured to support them. We began the week in prayer, and we ended the week in prayerful solidarity with the rest of the nation. 

In both liturgies we prayed the prayer of St Francis of Assisi…

Lord, make us instruments of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master,
grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

At Assembly I gave the following reflection with the boys, that I share with you...

Last week I talked to you about how the Christian season of Lent is a time to examine our hearts, and by that I don’t mean our physical heart pumping blood through our bodies, but rather the part of us deep within, that says what is right and wrong, and the horrendous events of last Friday prompt my thoughts to you this morning.

The heart is the centre of the person and all moral decisions. The good or the bad coming from the heart often continues into good or bad thoughts, which then sometimes follows on into good or wrong actions. The actions on Friday were evil actions. The gunman’s action came originally from his heart. Those were mirrored in his thoughts as outlined in the manifesto he wrote and published, which then tragically was translated into those evil actions and events last week.

The source though is the heart….and in this time of Lent we are reminded of the need to regularly examine before God what lies in our heart. This is very personal, that only you and God know. To all intents and purposes the neighbours of that gunmen had no idea what he was thinking. People next door to where he lived didn’t have a clue of what was going on in his heart, let alone have any sign of the action he undertook.

The influence that social media played was significant also.

Last week I talked about the influence of social media in our dealings with each other, and as I said, no matter what way you look at it, the action of the posting of those messages on social media by some students last week. I said also that all 832 of you in this community must feel included and happy about being here, not pushed away because you are different – we all have a part to play.

The influence of social media was significant in this event last Friday, and highlighted for me that this powerful medium, which is very much a part of the world we live in, can be a source of great evil, but conversely is also a source and catalyst for great good.

It is the medium of young people and you are far more adept at using it than many adults. I witnessed this week that social media outlets were the platform to galvanise, quickly, 2000 students to meet in vigil in Hagley Park on Monday. As a result, the visible outpouring of love and support of the Muslim community was heart-warming. It showed young people cared and social media had a big part to play in getting that together. Social media also was the forum that young varsity students used to organise, quickly, the Student Army in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

The power of social media is its speed, but realise too that if the motivation is evil like last week, then the effects are significant.

At its best, social media can connect us, help us communicate, empathise, bond, make friends and develop important and lasting relationships.

At its worst, the messages are cruel, brutal, hate filled and sometimes deadly.

Social media is quite likely to have helped radicalise that gunmen, and fed his racism and poisoned his mind, as he connected with those who held similar views.

What is scary in moderating what is on your screens is the inability of the tech giants to control the video that I know many of you witnessed, and I am aware also many of you still have those images on your devices. This may affect you in a number of ways.

I encourage you to talk that through with someone if you are feeling at all uneasy about it. That is normal. Remember one of the great things about a community is we have each other. Often a kind word from one of you to someone who is feeling a bit low is just the tonic needed to keep going. Really important though, if you are disturbed by what you saw or you are really concerned about one of your mates who hasn’t come forward looking for help, that you encourage him to do so.

So in summary. What am I saying?

Social media can work for the good, but also work for evil. We saw a graphic example of that on Friday. We see other examples of that in all communities – including our own.

On another level, there are other examples of the misuse of social media in our own community. Respect the power of social media, realising it can be an agent for real good. Appreciate that its misuse is an agent for evil and has lasting effects on the users and anyone targeted. In other words, make good choices how you use it.

Secondly, the source of how we think, write or act is the heart, and I encourage you to continue to use this time of Lent to examine how you relate to others, how you treat them, how you regard minority groups in our country, how we respect differences in others from different cultures and religions, so that, in turn our thoughts and actions are well motivated.

Once again I applaud the whole school community for the manner in which you conducted yourselves last week and for the various ways you have supported those families most effected by your prayers and actions. Good communities look out for each other. Now more than ever is that time.

Until next week.

Justin Boyle