Why I Teach

The very first time I attended Mass at Holy Family Parish, the first Sunday of Advent 2005, there was a ceremony for the young people who were entering the three-year program leading to Confirmation.  For some reason, as I looked at the faces of these 10 or 12 young people, I knew I wanted to teach them; there was a great desire in me to teach them.  In fact, I knew at that moment that was my mission. 

I would not move to Mississippi permanently until 2007, until I had retired from the Community College and had restored my house in Long Beach to a liveable condition.  But that year, I volunteered to teach the 11th-grade Confirmation class, and I have been doing it ever since. 

John the Baptist said that the One Who would come after him would baptize us with "the Holy Spirit and with fire."  Jesus said, "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled."  And, indeed, on Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit did arrive with tongues of fire that rested over the heads of Mary and the disciples (120) gathered in prayer.  Immediately, Peter stood up and began speaking bolding of the Scriptures that foretold this event.

That 'fire' still burns today in the hearts of those who have a God-given mission.  It certainly today burns in my heart.  When the fire dies out, I will stop teaching, because I will know that the flame will have been kindled in someone else whose mission is to teach this class as I leave.

For me, teaching is a gift that constantly renews me.  Proverbs 2 and 3 are chapters that should be read over and over again until they take root in our hearts.  Those chapters are probably too long to copy here, but the short version is that the person who daily searches for wisdom and understanding will be given it.  And along with wisdom and understanding will come protection ( a shield), long life, prosperity, and peace:  She [Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.

Because I teach, I must "stand daily at the door of wisdom," listening to the Spirit of Truth, seeking the Wisdom of God for them.  I have no choice but to do so if I am to have something worth teaching.  I cannot fall back into my own laziness and indifference -- there is a group of young people depending on me to teach them what maybe no one else will ever teach them.  I cannot let them down.  Jesus said, "For them I sanctify myself."  (To 'sanctify' means to 'set apart, to consecrate.' )  If I do not 'set myself apart, consecrate myself' to teach these young people, it may be that they will never hear what God wants to say to them. 

But as I seek the Wisdom that God wants to speak into their hearts, I myself am richly rewarded with wisdom and understanding -- almost beyond my capacity to hold it.  In fact, one reason I write each morning is to try to capture what God is showing me before I lose it and forget it.  I know people who know me well -- my own children and husband and friends -- will wonder how I can write what I do not always live.  I am writing what I need to learn myself.  As Padre Pio once said, "God frequently makes use of His lowest instruments to carry out His will and divine plan."  That was certainly true of Israel, the "smallest and most ignorant of all nations."  It was certainly true of the Apostles, the lowest of classes in the nation of Israel.  And it is still true today of the people God chooses:  Where is the wise man?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  .... think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things---the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.

I teach because Jesus Christ Himself lit some kind of fire within me that has not yet gone out -- a fire of love for these young people, a fire that wants to light within them the same kind of fire that is in me, a desire and a hunger to stand daily at the door of Wisdom to learn what She has to teach, and a knowledge that what I teach comes not from me but from God Himself.  I am blessed daily by my mission to teach, and I am grateful that God chooses the lowly things of this world to do His work.