Faith Learned, Faith Lived: Teachers, This Good Question Has a Great Answer

Every teacher hopes for bright and alert students who are excited to participate in the day's lesson plans. It's a special challenge to deal with students who seem uninterested, bored, and unwilling to participate.

Here are two questions that you can ask your students. The first is likely to prompt excitement, while the other will bring blank stares—but it's still worth asking.

The first question: When is your birthday? Everyone will respond and talk about how they celebrate this important day.

The second question: When were you baptized? Most people don't know.

Although your students may not know the answer—and you may not know the answer for yourself—I want to suggest that it is important to know. Asking this question is a way we can connect our lives to Christ and the Church in this Year of Faith.

This Sunday, January 13, we will celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We will hear the Gospel of Luke 3:15-16, 21-22. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus and then hears a voice say, "You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased."

Think about those words and the power they have. They are the inspiration that called Jesus to begin his public ministry. Jesus begins to invite others to follow him, to teach and heal people and forgive sins. These powerful words and this ministry are at the very foundation and beginning of the Church.

We need to hear these words, as well. Listen and receive them in your heart: You are my beloved son or daughter; with you I am well pleased.

We encountered Jesus in the same way in our own Baptism. This is what calls us to be the Church and to be walking into a classroom to teach. If we have reflected on our own blessedness, we can give this same love to the students, and they can pass it along to others.

So go ahead: Ask the Baptism question. Since most students won't know, ask them to find out—and then celebrate your blessedness together.