A Beautiful Tension


“At the beginning of the year I tell my students that I am not there to convert them or to force them to believe anything in particular. It's True. I am essentially a systematic theologian which means I present everything in a logical and rational manner. I tell students that my goal is for them to leave the class understanding what Catholics believe and why they believe it. If they are a believer, my class bolsters their Faith. If they are not a believer, my class, at least, gives them some knowledge of the reasons and logic behind Catholicism. At the same time, I challenge my students to contemplate what it means to Love and to be Loved, perfectly, and to consider the idea that Jesus Christ is the best way for us to encounter that Love. I listen to their questions and I read their reflections without judgement, but I also guide them to logical conclusions that the Love they seek cannot be found in the material Truth around them. I actually works.”
I wrote this message to a woman in one of my online classes. She was struggling to find the balance between using the classroom to “preach” and being a “moral relativist”. This woman, herself, wanted desperately to share the “Good News” of Jesus Christ with her students. She knows that a relationship with Jesus Christ will help her students to know that they are Loved beyond all human measurement of Love. But she worried that if she was too aggressive with her language, she might “scare” her students off. Her instincts are correct.
The Knock Basilica in Knock, Co. Mayo, Ireland. There is a Beautiful tension between Jesus who is perfect and divine and Jesus who was Crucified. The Sacred Heart of Jesus shows us in that tension we find a God who returns to us, Resurrected and Forgiving. Perhaps we need to embrace tension in our classrooms, as well. (photo P. Smith)

There is Beauty in the tension. There is miracle in the struggle to synthesize Faith with human reason. A good teacher in Catholic schools creates a space where students can test their ideas and perceptions…where the teacher can help the students to enter into dialogue with ideas that are in apparent contrast with their own. We cannot stand in front of our students and say we are justified in shutting students down or quieting opinions or ideas that differ from what we “know” is right. When we do that, we effectively tell students that they do not matter. We may think we are helping students to know “Truth”, but what we are really doing is we are communicating that their worth only comes from agreeing with us. This is NOT the “Good News”.
I told this woman, who, by the way, was not a religion teacher, that when we practice listening to our students and when we practice helping them to listen to the “Good News” of Jesus Christ, they are more likely to actually hear what God is telling them… that they are Loved. I try to remember that every day in the classroom.


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