We are all teachers through example

January 29, 2006 -- Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Bishop Robert Morneau

	Bishop Robert Morneau
	Questions for reflection: 1. What kinds of authority have you been entrusted with? 2. Who are the teachers in your life who have taught with authority? 3. What lessons of life can you pass on with authority?

In Carson McCullers' novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter she writes: "To teach and exhort and explain to his people - and to have them understand. That was the best of all. To speak the truth and be attended."

Jesus taught with authority, the Gospel tells us. "A completely new teaching in a spirit of authority!" And this teaching was supplemented with action. The unclean spirits obeyed Him and He freed the man from his demon. Now there is an authority that is truly impressive: words followed by action. How could the people not attend to such force?

Moses too was a teacher, indeed, a prophet. Apparently the people of his day were intimidated by the voice of God. Such direct teaching was too much for them so they sought some type of mediation. And, of course, that would give the people an excuse for not following the teaching - why attend to something expressed by a "mere" human? But God gave Moses the prophet great responsibility, that is, to speak God's very word. Failure in this matter meant death.

One of the superb teachers in all of Christian literature was St. Paul. His authority has been recognized down through the ages; his instructions have shaped countless lives. His concern and lesson in today's passage has to deal with being attentive to God. So many worries and daily affairs can pull us off center. Our minds and hearts become divided; our conduct, fragmented. Paul would write elsewhere that he lived not his own life, but Christ lived within him. It was from this center that Paul lived. It was from this center that Paul taught with authority.

"She could never enter the classroom, said Miss Tillie Brown, without hearing the admonition to 'put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the spot on which thou standest is holy ground.'" (cf. McCullough's Truman). Jesus was in the classroom of the temple - holy ground; St. Paul was in the classroom of the Mediterranean world - holy ground; Moses was with his people in the classroom of the desert - holy ground. Our planet is one large classroom and all of us are teachers if only by the example of our lives. But authority is only evident in those who not only know the truth but practice it in love.

I once heard the distinction between those who are "in" authority (the policemen, the parent, the golfer) and those who are "an" authority (the lawyer, the professor, the golfing instructor). A policeman has the power to arrest a criminal even though not an expert in legal matters; parents have responsibility and authority over their children even though they have no degree in the art of parenting; the weekend golfer may not know peanuts about the four thousand parts of a golf swing even though he hits his driver (Big Bertha) with some proficiency.

Jesus is both in authority and someone who is an authority. His expertise is in the things of the Kingdom, God's will. It's all about healing and forgiveness, love and compassion. The rest of us seek to understand and practice, inadequate as we are.

One last reflection: "But be careful. You will be teaching something acquired not so much by reading as by the sweat of experience" (John Cassian). Jesus' great lesson was "by the sweat of experience." It is the Cross that is the great lesson of Christianity; it is the Cross that gives Jesus ultimate authority.

(Bp. Morneau is the auxiliary bishop of the Green Bay Diocese and pastor at Resurrection Parish in Allouez.)