"I Hate Everybody"...Except When I Remember God Loves Them

    

            

    We cannot give what we do not have. The ancient saying applies to nearly everything, but it is especially True in Catholic education. If the purpose of Catholic education is really to help our students to become their Authentic Self and to encounter the True and Authentic Love of God, then we, too, must be in pursuit of that Authentic Self, that Truth, and that Love. Some enter into Catholic education already prepared for this mission; others do not know the depth of their Vocation in Catholic education until later. Regardless of where one is in their beliefs about God, to contemplate or to reflect upon the teachings Jesus and His Church give us to encounter Him will always aid us in our Faith Journey. When I work with teachers, I ask them to really think about those teachings.

                What is Faith and how does it work? I’m not going to pretend to answer this question in one post. For much of this blog, I want to share and comment on some of the responses I have given to Catholic school teachers as they contemplated Faith and how it works. For example:

“I like how you explain Faith as a gift, primarily, from the Spirit and with that gift, if we choose to do so, that Faith can deepen our encounter with God. To be technical, Thomas Aquinas argues that God first gives us Faith as an Operative Grace, and we have the freedom to act on that Faith through things like Prudence and Temperance, etc... which he calls Cooperative Grace. Receiving Faith is the gift and acting on Faith is our responsibility.”

The question, to be precise, asks how Faith is both a gift and an action. For teachers, especially those of us who are more devout in our Faith, we have to remember that our students, while having been given the gift of Faith, have not necessarily developed ways to act on that Faith. One of the main jobs we have a teachers is first recognize the gift of Faith that we have, in whatever form that takes, and to determine how we can use that gift. We have to practice using that gift of Faith. It takes time; it takes a long time. It helps us to know where our students are in their own Faith Journey and to be patient.

                Every morning before school I have the same routine. I get to school and I go straight to the chapel. I pray. Not for my students, at first. For myself. I need to practice my Faith so I can better use it for my students. But then I pray for my students in front of the Blessed Sacrament…by name. Every one of my students gets a short prayer. I have to be honest; I do it more for myself. I have to remind myself that God Loves these kids; they are His kids. So no matter what ridiculous nonsense they bring to me on any given day, I have to still Love them. One of my current students said it best. She came in my room during some free time, visibly frustrated, and proceeded to write on my whiteboard: “I hate everybody!” (It’s prom season; I totally get it.) But she paused and came clean; she works with middle school kids at her Church so she knows that she can’t permanently hate everybody. She, my colleagues, and I are called to use our Faith to Love our students better every day. How could I teach my students to have Faith and to act on that Faith unless I do the same? Maybe the primary job of all Catholic school faculty and staff must be to develop our Faith, especially in prayer, and then to act on that Faith. It is only through that Faith that we can really Love our students and help them to be prepared when God encounters them.