Faith Learned, Faith Lived: Christ the Teacher Affirms and Transforms

The Year of Faith is a celebration of our calling to follow Christ and how we can come to know Jesus in our commitment to the ACE community and Catholic schools. Our prayer is that we can learn to find Jesus in the ordinary and routine things of our lives. ACE Teaching Fellows calls men and women to live a simple life as teachers in Catholic Schools.

Let us reflect on John 13: 1 – 15. This is where Jesus is at his best as a teacher because he has come together with his disciples at the Last Supper to share the Paschal Meal. He washes their feet and then says to them:

“You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.”

This passage is read at Mass on Holy Thursday. Jesus, the teacher, teaches a powerful lesson by what he does for the disciples. There are a few words used to get the lesson across, but the most important part is what he does. Jesus shows us love through service.

There are countless stories that teachers can tell about great lessons that they have presented in the classroom and how that is what can keep them motivated to teach well. It is that day when everything goes well and the students respond and are excited about learning. Those are extraordinary days, and a teacher feels good about what has happened. It would be nice if that happened every day, but teaching has its ups and downs because of a variety of things that can be going on in the life of the teacher as well as students.

An ACE teacher finished his first summer of studies and then went to his assignment of teaching third grade. He was excited and so happy to have his class and teach them and help them learn. He felt God was calling him to be a teacher, and he was encouraged by the feedback he had received during the summer. He began teaching and quickly discovered that he had a disruptive student. The disruptions went on day after day, and he began to think it would be a long and discouraging year of teaching. He began to think that teaching was not his calling in life.

I was able to observe this teacher and the troublesome student early in the year, and I tried to help the teacher see that it was not through any flaws in his teaching that the student was out of control. I encouraged him to see that all he could do was be Christ the Teacher and love the student and be patient and kind. The lesson was to be shown by the teacher’s actions rather than strong and harsh words. Hold him accountable, but do it lovingly.

I visited the teacher’s classroom several months later. I saw the same student was cooperative and willing to learn—and even sitting at his desk most of the time. There were moments when he was not great, but the improvement was inspiring. The teacher knew that the student had made great strides, but he did not realize the amazing difference until his mentor and other observers—and the student’s parents—told him how this student was beginning to like school.

The teacher had been encouraged by his principal and faculty, his ACE local community, and the ACE faculty and staff. There were many people who affirmed him as the year progressed. But he was also helped through reading and reflecting on the example of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Jesus teaches us to wash each other’s feet. This may not change the behavior of the students, but it will make a difference in the life of the teacher as he or she becomes Christ the Teacher.