Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76Plough Quarterly • Winter 2015 25 and vice rewarded, if you will then stand fast and firmly stick to God, upon pain of life, though you be but half good, God will allow you for whole good. (Quoted in William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas More) Following More’s example, we must foster in children the desire to pursue the truth with a listening heart, one that applies reason and is guided by a living faith. Our families, our schools, and our churches should all be places where children receive this kind of formation – an education that sets all we learn and do in the light of Christ. Freedom This brings me back to Joseph and Massoud, whose most important lesson on Christian dis- cipleship might all too easily be overlooked. It’s a lesson taught as well by the increasing numbers of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, young and old, who are being told by fellow human beings to renounce their faith or else lose their lives by the sword. In the face of these threats, their answer is, “You can take everything from us, even our lives, but you cannot take away our faith in Jesus Christ.” What Joseph and Massoud knew, and what the heroic Christian martyrs testify to today, is that our true home is in heaven, where a loving Father is waiting for us. This certainty is what gives a disciple of Christ such an inner freedom on his or her earthly journey. Such freedom is ultimately the greatest gift we can give our children. resplendent with the unity of knowledge about which Benedict XVI speaks. This happened through regularly attending church, praying together as a family, reading good literature, playing and listening to classical music, and sitting down together for family meals, which became occasions for conversation about current events. We also learned about chas- tity and the sanctity of marriage, and how self-control and self-giving lead to profound freedom. All this allowed us children to be formed in the good, the beautiful, and the true; it freed us to shape our lives according to what we were meant to be, rather than what either our passions or the latest fashions might push us to be. When in 2012 my wife and I founded a new high school, the Schola Thomas Morus, in our hometown in Austria, the school’s founding principles were clear from the start. It was to be a school with a living faith, with formation in the classical virtues, and with a rigorous cur- riculum that teaches children how to think, how to understand, and thus how to learn. These are the necessary attributes for young men and women entering the world to take their place of responsibility and service for the good of society. They will succeed in this only if they have grasped the reality of the created order and accepted it, rather than wanting to manipulate it according to the ideology of the day. Few saints have understood this better than Sir Thomas More, for whom our school is named. Thomas More lost his life for refusing to give in to the whims of his king and country in violation of God’s order. As he put it in his last words before dying by the axe: “I die as the King’s faithful servant, but God’s first.” His son- in-law reported that on one occasion he gave his children the following encouragement: If you live the time that no man will give you good counsel, nor no man will give you good example, when you shall see virtue punished Tate, London / Art Resource, NY