I was preparing for a faculty meeting and found some notes from an in-service that occurred years ago. Scribbled in my hurried handwriting was a description of a few students along with a scripture notation that read, "These are the things upon which angels long to look."
For the life of me, I couldn't remember why I had written that.
I began to recall the faces of the boys I had mentioned in that meeting. Slowly, a reminder about finding grandeur in unexpected forms materialized within those notes.
You see, there are moments in this world that cause even the busiest among us to pause, to wish for more. In those instances, we find ourselves awed by the formation of something pure.
As I reviewed those notes, I saw one boy's eyes, big brown saucers set deep in the olive skin of his face. A mop of jet-black hair cascaded over his eyebrows at times, masking the depth of his gaze. It was obvious he saw the world with more maturity than the other students his age.
Wisdom is the gift of challenge, and this boy had seen his portion of difficult times. He was mature. His father suffered as a terrible alcoholic, losing job after job only to rally for a few weeks, then spiral into the isolation of a bottle once again. The boy held his head up at school as he parked his clunker near nicer cars. He was an athlete and a good student in the classroom. He held down a job.
On weekends, the boy took his paycheck to the grocery store to pick up food for his father and himself, paying for groceries on his own. In fact, the boy did all the shopping as he tried to keep his father healthy, cajoling him to give up the booze and get on the right track. It never worked.
The boy kept at it anyway. He kept buying groceries and he kept feeding his father while taking care of their small house.
My notes reminded me of another boy sent to live with his grandparents when his mother gave herself fully to a drug addiction. His grandparents were stable and provided comfort and safety during the storms of his mother's compulsions. This boy was short and fair-skinned, his eyes deep pools of blue. His mother came back from yet another stint in jail, followed by yet another stint in rehab, to live with him and his grandparents.
The boy took on the role of adult in their relationship. He helped her scour want ads for jobs. He reminded her to shower and encouraged her to dress up for interviews. Before bed, he'd ask if she had remembered to brush her teeth.
It would be easy to brood and to give in to the disorientation of a childhood lost. These boys never even thought of it, tired though they were. They allowed characteristics of strength to form within their souls and manifest in the holy mixture of hope and integrity, compassion and courage, as they moved forward day to day.
Possessing one of those virtues is noteworthy. Possessing all in one body is salvation.
And I remembered: These are the things upon which angels long to look.
"The things upon which angels long to look." Of the many lines in scripture rooted in beauty and awe, this must be among the best. The image of angels leaning forward, shading their eyes in the hope of gazing at something that has caught their attention--something wholesome and pure in an existence where being wholesome and pure is the norm--is compelling. For what could angels possibly long?
Every solution to every ill in our society rests on the idea that things will improve, that there are better days to come. The strong belief that pain is temporary allows one the fuel to press on, to seek answers instead of wallowing, to seek peace instead of embracing the storm.
This is hope. This is the most necessary ingredient in a life focused on the horizon.
But having hope is not enough. Like these boys, one must possess the important twins of courage and compassion. These characteristics are not competing; rather, they are complementary to such a degree that one cannot be fulfilled without the other. The courage to move forward combined with the compassion to take along others provide the seed of integrity and the propulsion for true living.
When we find instances that these characteristics come to bear in one fragile existence, we can better understand the forces that move humankind. Though this world is broken and bruised and spends far too much time wallowing in nonsense, there is good within it. We can find that evidence in simple lives such as these boys, now graduates, who do what is right because it is right.
Though difficult, these acts of glorious defiance come together in the eye of optimism, in a ray of sunlight that will not dim no matter how far the Earth's axis tilts. These acts are still found in this world askew, and they are found in even the simplest among us. The month of May, the month of graduations, is the time to remember this.
These are the things upon which angels long to look.
Steve Straessle, whose column appears every other Saturday, is the principal of Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys. You can reach him at [email protected]. Find him on Twitter @steve_straessle.