Taking things for granted

Among all the teachers in Shung Tak, I work most closely with Brenda and John. Yet, insufficient communication causes misunderstanding even among comrades fighting for the same good cause. We are too busy and our hands are too full. We take things for granted and easily forget to lubricate our communication. We follow the famous Newton's first law of motion:
Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it (The Law of Inertia).
However, in our daily life, there are a lot of frictions which work against our actions and movements. Therefore, we need to put in effort to overcome these frictions, these noises within any communication channel.
Over a casual conversation, both Brenda and I felt that it was a good idea to hold the Staff Development Day out of campus. The school hall is too familiar a place for us to work with. It might be a good idea to put away all our daily routines and go far away, say to a retreat house, to do a more fruitful Staff Development Day. In the end, we booked the Honeyville Canossian Retreat House in Mount Davis Road. Consequently but unknown to both of us, Brenda and I have different conceptions of this Staff Development Day. She thought of it as a sort of religious retreat, conducted by a priest to help teachers reflect on their present situation in life. I still thought of it as a Staff Development Day, a chance to do some team building and wounds healing after a traumatic 2007 in Shung Tak. Things only came to light when Ms. Lau, the principal-designate inquired about this upcoming Staff Development Day.
Ms. Lau is working to know the running of Shung Tak and the people. Today, I was working with Sham Bun, the acting Computer panel head, on the Teachers' Handbook. He helped to draw up the new Organization Chart sketched by Ms. Lau. After the first draft was drawn, Mr. Sham discovered some discrepancies. Probably, we had misunderstood her handwritten sketches. It so happened that Ms. Lau was in school but she was discussing things with Dr. Wong. It had already passed noon, so Mr. Sham went out for lunch. When Ms. Lau was free, she gave me a private audience and we had a good sharing.
First of all, she clarified her ideas on the new chart. It proved that we had misread parts of the sketch. Then she turned to the running of religious activities in Shung Tak. She assured me that for the newly created Religious and Moral Education Committee, we only needed to continue to do whatever we had been doing. She needed time to understand the inner working of Shung Tak and was not too anxious to make drastic changes. We could count her in and she would throw in her full support simply because she is a Catholic. I then explained to her the running of morning assemblies, the use of prayer books, hymn singing and the subscription of Kung Kao Pao etc. She expressed her interest in meeting S1 students during lunch time and regular meetings with Catholic students in school. Two thumbs up! She is willing and is able to reach out to people. Mr. Long and Mrs. Poon, our ex-principals, did so.
Then I confided to her a bit of my past, my years in La Salle and Shung Tak. In return, she was generous in telling me the secondary school she had studied in. What is more, she used to be a Legionary! Of course, I need to be 'cautiously optimistic'. Winnie was also a Legionary for more than ten years. I don't know whether she share my pains of the 'Prisoner of Shung Tak'. I still have to wait and pray. Our Lady, all generations will call you blessed. You don't deserve such humiliation for so long here in Shung Tak. May God's will be done.

Today, we read the story of king Ahaz in Isaiah 7. It was the time of Syro-Ephraimic War. Syria and Israel wanted to force Judah to join them in rebellion against Assyria. Our of fear, Ahaz was thinking of seeking help from Assyria, instead of turning to God.
We humans are animals of habits. We take a lot of things for granted and react routinely. Worldly power and might are more tangible than the invisible God. Naturally enough, Ahaz would turn to the stronger power for help. Thus, God sent Isaiah to Ahaz and announced the famous Emmanuel Oracle.
For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
(Within sixty-five years E'phraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be a people.)
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you will not believe,
surely you shall not be established (Isaiah 7:8-9).
If we do not communicate with God, surely we will not believe in Him. If we do not believe in Him, surely we will never understand Him. Ahaz needed to believe in God in order to keep his kingdom. In the same way, we need to communicate with God so that we may believe in Him and lead a truly Christian life.

My dear Advocate, I pray for the principals, teachers, parents and students of Shung Tak. May we continue to walk Your path of justice and peace. May we overcome obstacles to build up a strong team to offer quality Catholic education for our students. Amen.