St Bernards School - Crusader Yearbook (Gladstone, NJ)

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THE REVEREND ROBERT L. CLAYTON Ellie 3Rertnr'5 glitlesz-sage St. Bernard in one of his most understanding letters gives this command- Arise, soldier of Christ arise shake off the dust, return to the battle whence thou hast fled, and more bravely shalt thou fight and more gloriously triumph . . . I ask not why thou hast gone away. I complain only that thou dost not return. Fifty years is not much of a span of time in the history of man. Yet the fifty years which have passed since the founding of our School have seen the transformation of a world of drudgery into a world characterized in many ways by increasing comfort and E41

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616 l LL56L EI' THE STAFF Editor-in-Chief ALLAN WHATLEY, JR. Managing Editor Business Manager ROGER HARRY CONDUIT JOHN CHADSEY TURNER IV Literary Editor Advertising Manager WALTER CARL MAHN ALAN F. BLOCK Activities Treasurer JACK TAYLOR SCHULER RICHARD LUNT CLARVOE Athletics Art THOMAS THEODORE TINGLE PETER NICHOLAS BASILION Historian Circulation WILLIAM JOHNSON HORNER DONALD SCOTT VAN ETTEN Photography Secretary RALPH LIEN ANTHONY JOSEPH D'APOLITO Faculty Adviser MR. JOHN C. GUNZELMAN Published by the Sixth Form ST. BERNARD'S SCHOOL GLADSTONE, NEW JERSEY 1950 THE REVEREND ROBERT L. CLAYTON Rector E31

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ease. This period, encompassing innumerable scientific advances and two world wars, has been short. However, to call any period short which has moved with great rapidity from the tabling of the elements to the unfolding of the secrets of the atom would be foolish. Time has gone by so quickly that man has had few moments to meditate on what really has been taking place. He has not seen too clearly in his interest to be master of the machine, he was losing more and more the firm conviction that he has dignity and value which comes only from a sustaining relationship with the Creator of the universe. So man now raises his voice in complaint to the heavens that the communist, the fascist and the moterialist are all trying to steal from him those things which he values so highly. He realizes suddenly that his own significance can be influenced drastically by the powers in this world. He was nourished, particularly, in these past fifty years on the idea that to be alive is to be free. Now he is frustrated and grievously puzzled to find out that to be alive may mean having that freedom seriously curtailed at home and abroad. What he thought was his basic freedom is fast disappearing, and he becomes anxious, fearful, timid and narrow-minded. He knows that he is no longer free in any real sense of the word. lt cannot be said, however, that he has not had the opportunity to strive for his own goals. It is his very independent use of his energy, his mind and his initiative that has brought him to the present situation. Confused and uncertain, modern man now asks what am I really doing here on earth, where am I headed, what end shall I meet. It is to this man that St. Bernard speaks for the problem that men now face is so obviously a religious one. To those who feel that life is so wearying that they cannot go on, St. Bernard says, Arise, shake off the dust , but he speaks to them confidently in the light of their truest profession- Arise, soldier of Christ. It is not the puzzled and bewildered, it is not the skeptical and confused, it is not the cynical and bewildered who can help the people of the world now, it is the man who is willing to go all out for Him who is the way, the truth and the life. The fight is not so much against communism and materialism as it is for Christ. For half a century we have regarded the figure of Christ with increasing indifference. Many laid Him away gently. St. Bernard says, Shake off the dust, return to the battle -the battle which He himself described in these words- that they might have life and have it more abundantly. No wonder we shall more gloriously triumph. The Christian today is not interested in blaming people for deserting Christ. He takes his cue from St. Bernard. I ask not why thou hast gone away, I complain only that thou dost not return . Fifty years of feverish activity have gone by. Outside a small village a little school has grown and expanded. lt is dedicated to this man of great influence, Bernard of Clairvaux. The world shaken by discoveries and revolutions has not heard much from it. But always in that span of time, it has held even when faith seemed ridiculous to the wise men of the world-that it is only the soldier of Christ who can know the greatest and deepest and finest joys in life, for it is only he who is fed deeply enough by the overwhelming love of God. And so today, we of the School still say with our patron saint- Come and there shall be peace, return, and all shall be made good. l5J