Aristotle rightly taught that things should be evaluated in relationship to their purpose or end, their telos. For Aristotle, a good knife is one that cuts, because the purpose of a knife is to cut. If a knife no longer cuts well, we either sharpen it or we dispose of it and buy a new one. Likewise, a good physician is one who restores people to health, and we judge which physician is better by evaluating which physician has greater success at restoring people to health. This is because a physician is trained to restore people to health. Even if we don’t recognize it, we also live our lives this way. Think about it, when we want to buy something of value, don’t we often search out reviews to figure out which brand does what we want it to do best. When we want to buy a car, I don’t think any of us just go to the car lot and pick the first car that looks good. No, we look to see which car holds the number of people we need it to hold, which car gets the best gas mileage or has other desirable traits based off of our needs. When we are sick, don’t we do some research to see which doctor is best able to cure our illness? Today people with very serious life-threatening illnesses have no qualms about receiving treatment several states away if they believe that the medical team has the best chance of restoring them to health.
Evaluating things in relationship to their telos is not just something natural. Jesus, also taught this principle in His sayings on discipleship; “which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Likewise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘this one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.”[1] It is easy to say that we want to be disciples of Christ, but it is not until we truly know what it means to follow Christ that we can follow the charge of Christ to daily pick up our cross and follow Him.[2] Likewise we can say we want to be the best teachers possible, but unless we know what it means to be a teacher, we cannot even begin the journey towards becoming an excellent teacher.
Today, then, as we prayerfully prepare for the school year to come and lest onlookers laugh at us because we are unprepared, it seems important for us to step back and ask what our purpose as teachers is. Of course, the most obvious answer to this fundamental question about the purpose of a teacher is truth. After all if we as teachers do not hand on to our students a richer understanding of the truth along with the skills and habits that will make them better able to discover truth, then what are we doing teaching? If the art of teaching is not about truth, then teaching is reduced to either some sort of propaganda job or some sort of babysitting.
Sadly, education in some places has lost track of the truth and all we have to do is look around our world to see the problems it brings. Never in the history of the world have we had easier access to more information—some of it true, some of it false, and much of it partially true, and it seems that our world is falling apart quicker than ever. Today, studies show that depression and anxiety are on the rise worldwide.[3] How sad, the more access to each other and to information technology affords our students the more we seem to find them depressed and unfulfilled and I believe this is because we have lost the focus on truth. After all, Jesus teaches us, “the truth will set you free.”[4] Friends, this is where a school filled with teachers dedicated to the truth can stand as a beacon of hope to the world and if teachers stay focused on pursuing the truth, their school will naturally be attractive to the rest of the world. For truth makes joy and joy makes beauty. Thus if you want to evaluate your success in teaching the truth, step back for a moment in the classroom and evaluate if there is joy in the room. If we are truly teaching the truth, students should joyfully engage the class and find the freedom that comes from the truth.
If our goal as teachers is to hand on truth, then this requires us to ask a secondary question, the famous question of Pontious Pilate, “what is truth.”[5] Sometime before Pilate asked this question of Jesus at his trial, Jesus had already answered it, teaching us “I am the way and the truth and the life.”[6] At the heart of truth, we find Truth Himself, Jesus Christ. This is why our patron, Pope St. John Paul II, taught us that “at the heart of catechesis we find in essence, a Person, the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, ‘the only Son from the Father … full of grace and truth’, who suffered and died for us and who now, after rising, is living with us forever. It is Jesus who is the ‘way, and the truth, and the life,’ and Christian living consists in following Christ.”[7] Thus, our purpose as teachers is to lead our students to Christ. It follows then that at the end of each and every class, we should be able to answer the question. Where in today’s lesson did, I invite my students to encounter the person of Jesus Christ?
Of course, as teachers, we know the ancient maxim, nemo dat non quod habit (one cannot give what one does not have) holds true. Just as someone who does not know biology cannot teach biology or one who does not know algebra cannot teach algebra so too one who does not know Jesus, cannot lead their students to Christ. Likewise, the studies clearly show that the best teachers are those who love their subject. If we want to hand on Truth, then we must come to love the Truth and since, as St. Augustine taught us, “you cannot love what you do not know,”[8] if we want to love the Truth, we must come to know and love Christ. At the end of each lesson we should be able to identify where the day’s lesson helped our students come to know and love Jesus Christ?
So then, how do we come to know Christ? Well, there are two different ways of coming to know someone. First, and I think we would all agree, the best way is to get to know someone personally, as we have come to know our close friends. Secondly, we can come to know about someone, perhaps an historical figure or some modern-day celebrity. Perhaps it is worth asking at the outset, in which way do you know Christ? Do you have a personal relationship with Him or do you just know about Him?
If you want to get to know someone on a personal level, you must spend time with them. The most perfect way to spend time with Christ is to receive Him frequently in the Blessed Sacrament, where Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity, comes into our very bodies. Likewise, Jesus Christ, in the Blessed Sacrament, waits for us in the tabernacle of every Church to spend time with Him in person and even more deeply in Eucharistic adoration where we spend time face to face with Him. Part of getting to know someone personally also requires us to admit our mistakes and seek forgiveness, so if we want to know Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, we need to frequent the sacrament of confession. In short, if we want to get to know and love Christ we must live the sacramental life.
As we get to know someone on a personal level, we also want to come to know their family and friends. I have now served in 4 different churches and without fail, every time parishioners begin to come to know me, they are interested in coming to know my parents, siblings, etc. This means that if we want to come to know Jesus Christ, we need to foster a devotion to our Blessed Mother, especially by praying the Rosary, and to other saints. I’m sure you have heard that maxim “show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.” Well if we are friends with the saints, the friends of Christ, then we should be confident that we will be truly handing on the Truth of Jesus Christ.
In short, if we want to come to know the Truth, the person of Jesus Christ, in a personal way we must frequently receive the Holy Eucharist, make use of the sacrament of confession, spend ample time in adoration and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and foster a devotion to our blessed mother and patron saints. Additionally, the more you come to know about someone, the greater the capacity you have to come to know them. Think about it, as we come to learn about a friend’s interests and maybe even those things that make them upset, does this not then grow our capacity to know them on a deeper level and thus love them on a deeper level. Since Jesus is the fullness of the revelation of Truth, we need to come to know more about Jesus and the way that we come to know more about Jesus is to open our hearts to hear His word as we prayerfully read the Bible and to faithfully study the Truths of our faith.
As teachers you know well that learning is hard work. Truly coming to discover the truth requires dedication, perseverance, and the investment of a significant amount of time. If we truly want to be successful at our telos of leading our students to the truth, we must first stop and evaluate how we are coming to know the Truth. So then, what is your plan this school year to come to know Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life?
In short, if you are struggling with the question of how I succeed in the primary goal of leading my students to Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life, then I think we need to first start by investigating our own relationship with Christ. I think all of us will have to agree that we end up talking about what we like. In fact, if you have ever been around someone who has recently fallen in love, you find that they spend all their time talking about their beloved. Perhaps then today as we prayerfully begin for the start of a new school year, it is worth evaluating our own life to see what we spend our time talking about. For, if we have fallen in love with Christ, we will naturally find ourselves wanting to talk about Him. This is perhaps what the Jesuit priest, Fr. Joseph When SJ meant in his poem Fall in Love:[9]
Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
Of course, falling in love with the Truth is only the first step and we must remember the teaching of the author of the Acts of the Apostles who taught that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”[10] Anyone who has taught certainly realizes the truth of that teaching. For it doesn’t take long as a teacher to experience the reality that the more we teach the more we learn. In fact, I can say in my own educational experience, I really did not begin to seriously master my fields of study until I was forced to teach. There is something, after all, about teaching that requires not only a mastery of the material, but a mastery in such a way that we can share it with others. It is my prayer that as we teach the Truth, as we lead our students closer to Christ, we come to know Him more deeply and thus are able to love Him more deeply and in return are able to serve Him more deeply.
The teaching of Jesus Christ is very clear, “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,”[11] and this in return should challenge each of us to step back and prayerfully consider how we view our students. Yes, it is true our students are there to learn from us, but we can never forget that they also teach us. Just as we are called to lead our students to Truth Himself, Jesus Christ, so too, if we are open, our students will also lead us to Truth Himself, Jesus Christ. As we gather this morning to prayerfully prepare for the start of a new year, perhaps each of us should step back and prayerfully consider how we view our students and if we are truly open to allowing them to lead us to Christ.
When I have had the privilege of interviewing teachers for a Catholic education job, I begin by asking the obvious question; why do you want to teach here? So, let’s start there this morning. All of us are busy, all of us have plenty of things to do in our life, why have you agreed to teach this year?
Well, if we stop to evaluate our response in relationship to our telos, as we are today, we should quickly come to realize that the only acceptable answer is because I believe it will assist me on the path to heaven. After all the Old Baltimore Catechism beautifully summarizes the telos of our life by teaching “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.”[12] Since the path to heaven is the path of love and to love, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas is “to will the good of the other,”[13] if we want to achieve our end of sainthood we need to undertake our responsibilities as teachers seriously and lead our students in love to Jesus Christ, the way the truth and the life and ultimately as Jesus teaches us in the 8thchapter of St. John’s Gospel, “if you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”[14]
So, let’s start back at the beginning by focusing on the end. Ultimately, our success as teachers can be judged on how successful we were in leading others to become saints. As we begin the school year then, it should be our prayer that through our service we may merit to be coheirs to eternal life[15] and when, God willing, we arrive at the heavenly kingdom, we will be gathered together again with our students who will greet us saying “you helped form me into a saint.”
Perhaps then in closing I can leave you with three questions to ponder today and three questions that you can ponder each day of the school year.
Questions to consider today:
- Why am I teaching?
- Do I really know Jesus or do I just know about Jesus?
- What is your plan this school year to come to know Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
Questions to ask each day:
- Where in today’s lesson did, I invite my students to encounter the person of Jesus Christ?
- How did today’s lesson help my students come to know, love, and serve Jesus?
- How did my students help me to discover Jesus Christ in today’s class?
[1] Luke 14: 28-20
[2] Luke 9:23
[3] “Depression and Anxiety Are on the Rise Globally,” Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/use-your-brain/202111/depression-and-anxiety-are-the-rise-globally.
[4] John 8:32
[5] John 18:38
[6] John 14:6
[7] Pope St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Catechesis Tradendae. Paragraph 5. Accessible at https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_16101979_catechesi-tradendae.html
[8] Augustine, On the Trinity. Book V
[9] From Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book © 2009 Marquette University
[10] Acts 20:35
[11] Matthew 25:40
[12] Baltimore Catechism Question 6. Accessible at https://sacred-texts.com/chr/balt/balt1.htm
[13] St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I-II,26 4, corp. art.
[14] John 8:31-32
[15] As found in the intercession section of Eucharistic Prayer II
Through The Cross To Light 