Lacson, Angelito Gabriel N.

JD-1

LSForm1 Midterm Exam

QUESTIONS:

1. What touches you most from the Life of St. John Baptist De La Salle? Why?
2. What Insights (deep knowledge) did you learn from the life of St. John Baptist
De La Salle? Why?
3. How does the course on the Life of St. John Baptist De La Salle deepen your
being a Lasallian Law Student?

I. There are 3 factors that struck me the most after listening, reading, and
watching the Life of St. John Baptist De La Salle. Those are:

i. Passion towards his craft.

ii. Perseverance.
iii. Undeniable faith in God.

As to his passion towards his craft, St. John Baptist De La Salle and his
Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools had one purpose in mind:
to serve the educational needs of the society, particularly among the poor.
He travelled to different places in France in order to fulfill his noble cause,
and he managed to do it successfully. Even though he went through
numerous obstacles in his journey, he never lost faith in himself and in God.

As to his perseverance, St. John Baptist De La Salle faced multiple

challenges in his life. He left his comfortable life in order to help the poor
children in France. He sold his material possessions in order to establish his
Institute in order to educate the youth. He even had near death experiences
and multiple instances of having a severe sickness. Despite all those
obstacles, he still managed to fulfill his goal in life, and because of his
tremendous effort, his work carried on up to this present day.

In relation to the previous paragraph, despite having multiple challenges

in his life, he never lost his faith in God. Even at those instances where he
almost died, he never doubted God’s plan for him. This factor struck me
the most because my faith in God is not fully established. As I was
growing up, my parents were in constant search for answers to their
questions regarding their belief, so whenever they wanted to try a different
religion, I had no other choice but to follow them, therefore, I never fully
got to establish my faith in God. After listening to the reports of my
classmates and my professor, Brother Jun, and after watching the life of
St. John Baptist De La Salle through the film, it led me to the conclusion
that there must be a higher being that is constantly watching over us. All
we have to do is to have faith in that higher being for miracles can happen
to anyone, regardless of their religious belief.

In relation to the Bible, according to Matthew 17:20 - “And Jesus said

unto them, “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if you
have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,
 remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you”.

II. What I learned from the life of St. John Baptist De La Salle is that, like
him, I should never lose sight of my purpose in life. De La Salle had
experienced tremendous hardships all through his life, but he remained
unfazed. His goal, along with his formidable faith in God, kept him from
straying away from his path. I also learned to be humble and to be of
service to others through the life of St. John Baptist De La Salle. He could
have easily chosen the lavish life that he once had, but he chose to live
differently. He chose to be of service to the people in France back in their
time period, which was difficult at the time because there was a great
divide between the social classes before. By being humble, De La Salle did
not look at himself as a higher form of person that the poor people around
him. Instead, he saw them as human beings in need of help. In relation to
the modern era, the trend of the “millennials” nowadays is to show off their
material possessions to others. Although there is nothing wrong with it, it
seems to me that the virtue of being humble is lacking with today’s society.
By studying the life of De La Salle, I believe that people will realize that
material possessions cannot compare to the feeling of being able to be of
service to the society and keeping oneself humble in this era.

III. I think it’s already obvious that the main factor in St. John Baptist De La
Salle’s life that I could emulated in my career as a Lasallian Law Student
is De La Salle’s ability to persevere. If I could even summarize the life of
St. John Baptist De La Salle in 2 words, it would be “Perseverance” and
“Faith”. Since it is already evident that “Perseverance” is the main factor
that any law student could emulate, I would like to focus on the other trait
that St. John Baptist De La Salle possesses, “Faith”. By definition, faith
means “a complete trust or confidence in someone or something”. In a
religious aspect, however, faith is defined as a “strong belief in God or in
the doctrines of a religion, based upon spiritual apprehension rather than
proof”. I agree with both definitions, but because I grew up having weak
faith in God, I had faith in myself alone. I grew up relying upon my own
skills and abilities, and I took pride on what I do. I relished every
achievement that I acquired, and also took responsibility for every
downfall that I experienced. I purely relied on my own volition when I
come across different challenges in my life. Because of this, I sometimes
come across this feeling that I feel lost. Although I have the power to
choose, I seem to feel lost at times because I never got to see the whole
picture of things.

I believe this is where having faith in God comes in, for God is the Creator
of all things, and therefore, He is also responsible for creating our future.
He must know everything that is in store for us in our future, and by having
faith in Him, I will not get lost in my path, just like St. John Baptist De La
Salle. Though St. John Baptist De La Salle struggled all throughout his
life, he kept his faith in God, and in return, God led him to the right path.
The path that God showed to St. John Baptist De La Salle was perilous,
but because St. John Baptist De La Salle had faith in God, he succeeded.

I believe that we must have faith in our self and in God as well. I believe
that in order to go through a difficult yet rewarding path in life, such as
taking up law or any other profession, would require a person to believe
in himself/herself in order to finish their respective tasks, and also to
believe in God in order to find out which direction to take whilst walking
through our own journey in life.
In analogy, it is like we are all travelers in an unfamiliar land. We have no
idea where to go, what direction to take, or even where to begin our path,
but we are capable of making conscious decisions. This is having faith in
oneself, in where we rely purely on our own instincts and volition. By
having faith in God, we are provided with a map in this journey of ours.
Since we have a map, we are sure that we will never be lost. However, not
all paths are easy, which is why we still need to have faith in ourselves.
We still need to believe in ourselves that we can succeed, no matter what
challenge is ahead of us. This is why we need to have faith in ourselves
and in God, for the two cannot be separated.

In summation, St. John Baptist De La Salle’s perseverance and faith are

the two traits that I must emulate in order to be a better Lasallian Law
Student. Since law school is a difficult career path, a law student must
learn how to persevere. A Lasallian Law Student, however, must learn
how to incorporate the life story of St. John Baptist De La Salle into his/her
life in order to persevere, for he is the best role model that we Lasallian
Law Students must follow. The same goes for faith. In relation to what I
have explained earlier, St. John Baptist De La Salle had faith in himself
and his capabilities, and also, he had a tremendous faith in God. By
imitating these traits, we Lasallian Law Students can succeed in this career
path.