Teaching and Learning by Being in Christ

Let the message of Christ dwell among you in all its richness, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God; and whatever you say or do, let it be in the name of the Lord Jesus, in thanksgiving to God the Father through him. Col 3: 16, 17

On quite a few occasions, we may have commended on an instruction given to us whether it be in our own home, office, school or in the Church: “it was very abstract, I could not understand; it was very interesting but there was no substance; it was great but I don’t know what could be done in my life with it; it was a waste of time, …” How would a religious instruction from the Church be taken? 

fr. Timothy Radcliffe, former Master General of the Dominicans, mentions that religion should direct us to God, and this should make a difference to how we live. He emphasises that it is not a moral superiority, but a quality of lives that are marked by some form of hope, freedom, happiness, and courage. If they are not then why should anyone believe a word they say? (Radcliffe, What is the Point of being a Christian?) Francis Schaeffer viewed that “Christians have not always presented a pretty picture to the world. Too often they have failed to show the beauty of love, the beauty of Christ, the holiness of God. And the world has turned away.” Today, why should the world listen to us as individual or as a community being in the teaching function of Christ?

In order to understand the vitality and function of the Church, we first focus our eyes on the spirit of Christ whose body the Church makes up. This reflection is from a perspective that we exercise both teaching and learning by being in Christ – both in spirit and in the image of the body St Paul presented. I request you to imagine of a baby bird inside its nest trying to stretch itself outward, and secondly of being inside the body of Christ. This is suggested not as an analogous figure, but to evoke an imaginative feeling. 

Christ went around doing good works, and his touch gave life to many who were in gracelessness and bondage (Acts 10 38). Whether it was by his actions or words it was to make the presence of God really sensible, and also to make the people to experience that they are visible to God (Jn 10: 38; Col 2/9). Thus being with him and being part of him they learn the message of peace, the mind of God (Is 54 13). This meeting would create such a consolation and confidence so that they begin to live and come to its fullness (Jn 10: 10). What they learned from him was not a content of information, but a life to live. It is the power of grace, a new confidence of living, being enabled to participate in that message and mystery of the anointed even to offer their lives in self-emptying in completion of what he had initiated in his body (Phil 2: 5-8). This sacrificial and priestly function is also motherly because the grace works for the generation of the children of God (Jn 1: 12). 

It is a process of being in a caring womb, also at the same time remaining open for the newness of life. The church holds the world in an embrace of love, that it finds in her their own completeness in a higher order of living, and their ultimate salvation (Mater et Magistra § 1). In tender protection and mature correction, the teaching is motherly, providential, caring, and enabling. It is from self-emptying and life-giving motherly nature church instructs in an enabling manner. 

The first learning a child comes to have is to be aware – of the mother, and of the nourishment received (though not consciously). Faith similarly is realised as a living factor, a liveable meaning to live as human and as a child of God. Growing in a relationship is not taught by answers or definitions, rather it is becoming aware of the possibility to live with Christ, and like Christ. Thus, what one learns being in the womb of the mother church is to be moulded to the pattern of Christ (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Jn 3:2). 

The possibility of being in contact with God, being blessed by God, and being the blessing, however poorly spirited in our daily situations we are, is the primary lesson we integrate from Christ the teacher (Mt 5: 3-12). In this blessedness we receive a sense of gratitude and praise, encouraging ourselves to self-surrender and sacrifice. Whatever we have imbibed of the blessedness makes us humble bearers of that mystery, and begin to initiate others into it, making them confident to search for the Word of God dearly spoken in their own heart. 

It is a need that one be enabled to be instructed from within by the power of the spirit. The Law was given through Moses to guide the Israelites to walk in the path of God and to know God, but the law gradually became a power to judge. At times the teaching becomes cause for stumbling not because the teaching was bad or wrong, but because it did not have the enabling power (Mt 23: 1-5). They did not teach anything wrong intentionally, rather they taught what was thought to be right, neglecting mercy and justice.

The learners and interpreters of the law became the custodians of its meaning. The levitical command (obey the Law) was slowly turning towards a deuteronomical invitation (love the Lord your God…) to enter into a loving relationship with God. Unfortunately the sense of command was made preferable to the sense of belonging. Though it was intended to grow into the fidelity to the mind of God, the whole aspect of the law was reduced to performance of rightful duties. 

When the whole sense of religious affiliation is limited to what to do and what not to do, the word and the message are on to the lawyer, and life and meaning may be found absent. The rightness was defined by lawyers often in the way how it would suit their interests. It also could keep the interpreters in command, teaching and instructing the people, and interpreting the law for the little ones. They corrupted the word with their additional customs and traditions, mostly in their own favour. Faith became a language of control, letters of the scripture became a demand to be obeyed, but the Word of the Lord was not heard. The teachers of the law may have had the fidelity to their responsibility (towards social, moral, religious renewal), but the same intention would overpower the intention of God. They do cause stumbling because they are not the words come out of the mouth of God, but the words given to the mouth of God. They are the clearest definitions, but they only function for an uncertainty reduction mechanism.

Today’s world is world that does not have time to wonder at the miracle of nature, even to be conscious of the profound sacredness of life itself, and of the needy human spirit in the midst of its busy-ness. How does the church become a facilitator to rediscover the world’s lost time? It could be in the humble process of becoming. Whenever we claim to have become, or known completely there is no significance of becoming. Perhaps we have made this claim with Scripture, doctrines, liturgy, sacraments, and moral teaching. Against their sacramental possibility of making Christ visible, did they become devoid of Christ because of our stubborn customisations? (Ref. Evengelium Gaudium § 95)

So it is always enlivening to introspect into the multidimensionality of what we believe, what have contributed to our belief system, and what implication our faith-stands make, because faith may not be necessarily right faith. When belief is solidified into single unit there may be a misguided sense of duty of defending it being stubborn and intolerant towards any different opinion. There our opinions become the sole truth arrogantly asserted. Though calling our stand as faithfulness to traditional beliefs, we must recognise its disastrous nature of judging or analysing the righteousness of the other. Unfortunately the demand/command is to focus on ‘we’ – what we say or how we interpret, not Christ nor the church. Letters become idols, and teaching judgemental. Zeal for religion is not necessarily the fidelity to God especially when it encourages to isolate its community to reinforce the minute elements of religious identity. 

The world is also consumerist and utilitarian where immediate results and usefulness are valued. When we see within ourselves ‘selling-[spiritual]-items,’ and promote superstitious faith-objects and faith-ideas offering immediate and magical results we do teach the world to seek salvation in superstition. In such practices even the real worth of rosaries and scapulars may be mistaken and produce a crowd of orphans.

In this regard, in an interview in Krakow during his visit for the World Youth Day in 2016, Pope Francis said: “Today’s religious illiteracy has to be countered with three languages, with three tongues: the language of the mind, the language of the heart and the language of the hands. All three together, harmoniously.”

If we have the attitude that we have nothing to learn we may respond judgementaly (Jn 9: 34). How much more do we need to learn the depth of Christ! What we require is humility to learn and search. Thus the learning and teaching is through being in and becoming Christ. In the church and through the church the world has the presence of God and possibility of encounter with God the comforter, of God the redeemer, of God the continual inspirer of faith and works. Such a person feels himself free in the very depth of his being, and freely raised up to God. And thus he affirms and develops that side of his nature which is noblest and best (Mater et Magistra § 180).

“By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion. With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding, understanding with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion, devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love” (2 Pet 1: 3-6).