By fr. JLucas254🇯🇲

Truth changes everything, but everything is better when you go through life with a community. No one wants to walk alone. Every human being wants to belong somewhere. The real question is not if we belong, but where we belong.

Working with the beautiful young souls at Holy Trinity High School, I have discovered that our young people already belong to many different groups in society—some good, some not so good.

Some of my sons and daughters belong to single-parent homes. Many belong to their grandmothers, who are doing the best they can to raise them. Others belong to extended families where love exists, but sometimes that love is mixed with anger, shouting, and hurt. They are loved, but sometimes they also experience rejection and pain. That pain often comes out in their behaviour at school—attitude, anger, disrespect, or simply not caring.

I have also come to realize that many of our students belong to WhatsApp groups where they share things they should not share. And I can tell you something: those groups are like a safe box—you can never crack their secrets. Loyalty in those groups is strong.

Sadly, some of our students also belong to gangs in their communities. These gangs do not only do bad things; they also provide protection, money, and sometimes even food for families. So for some young people, the gang becomes their family, their protection, their provider, and their identity. But this kind of belonging comes at a very dangerous price—violence, drugs, crime, and choices that will affect their future and our communities for many years.

This reality makes me sad as a chaplain and as a big brother to these boys and girls. Very few of them belong to a church community. Many believe that church or religion is for the soft and the weak. They believe their grandmother’s prayers are enough, and they do not see the need to belong to a Christian community.

As a chaplain, I know I have a lot of work to do. Sometimes I even wonder if I mean anything to them at all. But then there are small moments that keep me going.

Some come and say, “Thanks for the candy, Father.”
Some run after me to tell me they got 100 in their literature exam.
A few share family problems like death or violence at home.
And one day, while I was driving out and not feeling well, one student shouted, “Father, I will pray for you!”

That day I realized something important: maybe I do mean something to them after all.

Belonging is a powerful thing. If young people do not find a good place to belong, they will find a bad one. If they do not belong to a family, they will belong to a gang. If they do not belong to a church, they will belong to the streets. If they do not belong to people who guide them, they will belong to people who use them.

So the mission is simple but not easy:
We must help our young people find a place where they belong, where they are safe, where they are loved, where they are corrected, and where they are not used but guided.

Because belonging can either build a life or destroy one.

And every child, every teenager, every young person is simply looking for one thing:

A place to belong.