New Babies, God’s Grace, and Why We Exist as a School
Baby Zelie, her sister Robin, and mom Izzy.
Dear Martin Saints community,
Below is a copy of a letter that I sent earlier this afternoon to our parents and teachers. This is a story about Zelie Clark, a baby named for one of our patron saints. This Zelie was born on Tuesday, and this is a story about how her family is responding to some challenges. This is a story that gets to the heart of our Catholic faith, and why Martin Saints exists. It is a beautiful story, and I hope that sharing it will recenter all of us into a better version of our selves. At the very end, you are invited to pray for a miracle.
Pax Christi,
Deacon Roberts
For several weeks here in school, many of us have been earnestly praying for at least four expectant mothers. Baby Fletcher and baby Goldberg are due by the end of the month. Miles Gotcher was born last weekend. Zelie Clark was born just three days ago, on Tuesday.
As I already shared with the students in homeroom this morning, Mr. Clark phoned me last night. He is grateful for all the prayers we’ve been offering for Zelie and his wife Izzy. He has some additional news to share, and, to help spread the word with everyone who has been praying, he asked me if I could announce it to the whole community.
The news is that Zelie has the same genetic condition as her older sister Robin. As the students will remember from a talk that Mr. Clark gave to the school in January, “FEVR” is a disease that manifests first in the retina, but it is also linked with hearing problems and possibly autism.
With respect to sight, Zelie is most likely going to be severely visually impaired. With respect to hearing, the news may be better; so far, Zelie is passing hearing tests that Robin failed at the same stage. With respect to autism, it will take longer to observe Zelie’s behavior. But, as the Clarks pointed out, there was a story on the radio just the other day about a pair of twins with autism; despite having the same genes, one grew up to have very mild Aspergers, while the other had more severe autism. In other words, even knowing the genetics, some questions remain open.
Mr. Clark’s brother and his family live just down the street, and his father is staying with them at the moment. I think Mrs./Dr. Clark’s family are nearby too. For now, they are surrounded by love and support. For now, the best thing Martin Saints can do is continue to be faithful in our prayers for them. Notes and messages expressing our love are always appropriate too.
When I spoke to him last night, Mr. Clark asked me to make sure I reminded the juniors that this year in history class, they have frequently pointed to the crucifix and talked about how “Christianity is not a transactional religion.” In other words, when we pray, we pray “thy will be done.” Prayer is not bargaining with God or making deals with the cosmic butler in the sky. Jesus was good and holy, and yet he still suffered and was crucified. If our goal in life is communion with Jesus, then we should expect to live in similar sacrificial and cruciform ways.
At his talk with our students in January, Mr. Clark talked about all these same themes. He emphasized the many graces of being the father of a severely disabled child, opportunities to give and receive love that he would have missed if Robin wasn’t blind, deaf, and autistic. Everything he said in that talk about Robin is also true about Zelie.
Also in January, Mr. Clark testified that the goal of life is not to do whatever we want whenever we want. Mr. Clark observed that because he is a sinner, if he could write his own script all the time, he would create a hell on earth. He believes that God loves Robin and has reasons for giving Robin to the Clarks. Mr. Clark said that while he cannot understand all of God’s reasons, there are at least a few reasons that he does understand. For example, he perceives that God put Robin in his life in order to bless him and teach him how to love, to be humble, and to serve.
Mr. Clark says that while God offers him so many opportunities to learn how to love, because he is a sinner, he does not always accept God’s offer. But he is convinced that “Robin fulfills God’s purpose for her life, which is the same purpose that God gave to you and me: to be a blessing, to bring others to virtue, to be an active member of the Body of Christ.”
Friends, this is Mr. Clark giving a radiant, beautiful witness to our faith. The world does not teach this kind of love. The world does not respect the dignity of life with disabilities. The world typically resents suffering, stubbornly refusing God’s invitation to learn how to love.
To learn to love, to serve, and to live the faith gets to the heart of why we have Martin Saints. That is another reason why I am sharing this letter with you: to take this opportunity to re-center on why we do what we do. All the other activities in school - classes, extracurriculars, all that we do when we gather - is in order to raise young men and women who can live like the Clark family, people who know God and who can honor the image of God when they encounter it. We need a counter-cultural community like Martin Saints because learning to live like this is difficult and requires commitment and support. We don’t need this school if the purpose of education is to acquire a few academic skills, get into a good college, and eventually earn a living. But we choose to build this school because while those things matter, there aren’t many schools that also embody, teach, and prioritize this Catholic vision of life.
Two other big things happened in school today, teaching and testifying to this same faith.
Today at lunch, the students planned and held a surprise farewell party for Mrs. Fletcher, who will be staying home once her baby comes. The students wanted to thank her for all of her years in the classroom, for being such a beautiful and radiant witness to the faith herself. Our students’ love for Mrs. Fletcher, the Clark’s love for Robin and Zelie, the love that all of our teachers model in the classroom, the love that binds us together in the common work of growing and protecting this little school: it is all a piece of the same love, flowing from the same source.
Also today at school, we hosted a presentation from the Christ in the City missionaries. These young people take a year or two after either high school or college to live in community, based in either Denver or Philadelphia. They study, pray, and have fun together, but the heart of their mission are daily hours walking the city streets, taking the same routes in order to regularly encounter and befriend the same homeless people. They have learned that the root of homelessness is typically loneliness and alienation from family and friends, and so they engage the homeless not as problems to be solved, but as bearers of the image of God, as people to be noticed and seen. Christ in the City is not an economic or addiction recovery program; it is training in friendship, in slowing down and being present.
In other words, Christ in the City witnesses to that same love: the same image of God shines in the homeless, in Robin and Zelie, in Mr. Clark, in Mrs Fletcher, in Miles Gotcher, and in the Fletcher and Goldberg babies. We give thanks to God for being in a community with such beautiful people, and for the opportunity to learn to love like He does. The Christ in the City missionaries said that learning to love this way starts by noticing the people sitting next to us in our daily lives. As I said to the students in homeroom this morning, let’s not forget to see the image of God in each other, and to make the virtue of kindness a feature of everyday life at Martin Saints. Let’s look out for each other, let’s outgrow any desire to be cool and aloof, let’s be creative and proactive about ways to include each other in conversations and friend groups at lunch time and after school. Let’s pray for the grace to forgive slights, to transcend jealousies, to show respect and kindness. Let us earnestly pray for one another in all things, to treasure, nurture, and protect this life together.
Pax Christi,
Deacon Christopher Roberts
President
P.S. The Venerable Jérôme Lejeune was a twentieth century French pediatrician known for, among many other things, being part of the team who discovered the genetic origins of Down Syndrome. Lejeune was a devout Catholic, who gravely objected when his work was used for prenatal diagnosis with the intention of aborting disabled children. He is known for promoting the dignity of children with Downs and other disabilities. In 1994, Saint John Paul II named him the first president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Dr. Lejeune died that same year. In 2021, Pope Francis noted his heroic virtues and his status as “Venerable,” advancing his cause for canonization. The next step would be beatification, which requires a miracle attributed to Dr. Lejeune’s intercession.
The Clarks are asking for the Venerable Jérôme Lejeune to intercede on behalf of Zelie’s eyes. If God wills such a miracle, they would rejoice if it could also add to the recognition of Dr. Lejeune’s holiness. Mr. Clark texted me this afternoon and invited us all to join his family in this prayer: “God, who created man in Your image and intended him to share Your Glory, we thank You for having granted to Your Church the gift of Professor Jérôme Lejeune, a distinguished Servant of Life. He knew how to place his immense intelligence and deep faith at the service of the defense of human life, especially unborn life, always seeking to treat and to cure. A passionate witness to truth and charity, he knew how to reconcile faith and reason in the sight of today’s world. By his intercession, and according to Your will, we ask You to grant us the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon become one of Your saints. Amen."
