Brother Armand Alcazar Explores Core Principle of inclusive Community With Students

On Monday, April 23, Brother Armand Alcazar FSC, a longtime Christian Brother and retired faculty member of Lewis University, spoke at Saint Mary’s on the Lasallian core principle of inclusive community.

“Every De La Salle Week, we try to take a little bit of time to think about heritage and our core principles,” said Nick van Santen, assistant director of student formation and immersions for the Mission and Ministry Center (MMC), which invited Brother Armand to speak.

“Why should inclusion be a priority for me my entire life?” Brother Armand asked in opening his lecture, which was structured with breaks for attendees to reflect on his comments in small groups. He went on to say that he grew up in a family that didn’t quite fit into the surrounding community. “Back in the 1950s, to be raised by a single parent was quite rare. Not only that, but we attended an Irish parish, and whereas I smell like garlic, they smelled like whiskey,” he joked. “So maybe that’s why I’ve always been interested in the topic of inclusion, because, to be frank, I wasn’t always included.”

As the five Lasallian core principles—respect for all persons, inclusive community, faith in the presence of God, concern for the poor and social justice, and quality education—are all founded on Biblical principles, Brother Armand referenced Bible passages to convey his thoughts.

“We’re told in Genesis 18:2 that ‘When [Abraham] lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite of him and when he saw them he ran to the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the Earth,’” he said. “Had Abraham not invited three men into his tent, not knowing they were Yahweh and two angels, it makes me think that Judaism might never have existed,” he continued.

Moving to the New Testament, Brother Armand pointed out that Jesus doesn’t exclude the outsider, either. As an example, he cited Jesus’s acceptance of a Roman centurion, or army officer. “The Romans were hated occupiers of Israel, extracting what little money the Jews would have had for taxes,” he said. “Yet when a Roman soldier requests help for his servant, Jesus tells him that he hasn’t experienced faith like this in all of Israel. When Jesus tells him that he will go and heal his servant, the centurion tells Jesus, ‘Lord, I’m not worthy that you should come under my roof, just say but the word, and my servant shall be healed.’”

“We take that line by that pagan Roman centurion and we put it at the apex of our Mass before we receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ,” Brother Armand said. “The ruthless centurian should have been excluded according to custom, and even the law, but was not.”

Van Santen then invited the attendees to reflect on Brother Armand’s words, asking: “How can an inclusive community be healing to you and to those who may be considered outsiders?”

After several minutes of small-group discussion, the floor was opened for sharing with the whole group.

“[Our group] talked about how difficult it is to be inclusive to those who’ve caused you pain, and how that inclusion can’t be exclusive of those people,” reported Monica Daggett ’18. “We were reflecting about how when we try to extend [inclusion] to those people, it might hurt over and over again, but also how it might be worth it,” she said, noting the difficulty of striking a “balance between inclusion and self-respect.”

“So honest,” Brother Armand responded. “Trust is something that takes years to build, and seconds to lose.” As the lecture concluded, Brother Armand emphasized the importance of the Lasallian commitment to community inclusiveness. “Young people, old people, all people can always use more inclusion and community,” he said. “Every one of us here are all suckers for attention; we love to have someone to pay attention to us. And all of us have the ability to invite and include.”

“If you’re Lasallian,” he said, “you’ll do just that.”