Day Fourteen: The Bible and the Formation of the Gospels, Part Two

                “How do you tell someone good news?” My students spend a few moments responding to the question. Every year I ask myself how they will respond. Their context changes. Of course, when I was young, the only people I knew were other kids on my block, so sharing the good news that I got a new Thundercats toy involved mostly me running to my friend Omar’s house, toy in tote, and we proceeded to play for the rest of the day. As I got older, the context changed. As a teenager I had to call my friends to tell them whatever news I had. As I was starting college, e-mail replaced the phone; the novelty of writing a note on the computer and sending it, while probably not as efficient as calling, became the new context. My students now have the benefit of texting or snapchatting or whatever other application is popular this year. I know that next year it will change again. But the heart of all forms of communication is the same: we just want to share news with each other. The Gospel is the “Good News”, and, when it was first shared it was disseminated by word of mouth, then it was written down, and now it is spoken, or filmed, or “messaged” to others. The methods of Gospel promulgation vary and some argue one way or another is superior, but the heart of the Gospel message remains the same: we are called to Love and to be Loved and Jesus is the one who can show us what that means.

St. Augustine Chapel at the Augustine Institute in Greewood Village, Colorado. After his own conversion, St. Augustine used his own writing and oratorical skills to spread the "Good News" of Jesus. He is regarded, to this day, as one of the most influential Christian thinkers of all time. (photo. P. Smith)

Part of my goal as a teacher is, first, to understand the context in which my students understand how “Good News” is shared, and, second, to make sure my students hear that “Good News”. The metacognitive process of the question I am asking them begins to activate their processing skills. If my students are thinking of how they share good news, they may begin to think of the Gospel Tradition within the context of their modern culture. The actual process of synthesizing the two, creating an internal dialogue, if you will, scaffolds the Gospel message for them. At least, that is the theory.

Day Fourteen: The Bible and the Formation of the Gospels, Part One

Much of what I do in this freshman class is what we can call “confessional pedagogy”. Confessional or neo-confessional pedagogy, as it relates to theology, is really just catechesis. It is the level-one learning of basic vocabulary and concepts relates to Catholic-Christian belief. I will admit this is not the best way to develop Catholic identity in the classroom, the school, or even a parish if you are a catechist. Neo-confessionalism reduces theology to just knowledge, for the most part, as if the more we know about God or the Church, the stronger our relationship with God will become. This sounds like it might be logical, from a post-Enlightenment perspective, but the reality is, neo-confessionalism basically argues that we are the ones who are in control of our relationship with God. It places the burden of Faith on us as we learn more and master more about Faith. But Christianity is not so much about what we do or what we know; it is about what Jesus does for us and how He knows us.

The altar in the grotto at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Denver, Colorado. St. Bernadette's context when she saw the apparitions of Mary was not particularly well-formed in terms of catechesis; she did not recognize that the woman appearing to her was Mary. Yet Mary came to her in a way that Bernadette could understand. Maybe if we pay more attention to our own context we will see God encountering us. (photo P. Smith)

So what is the point of teaching this stuff or learning this stuff? What is our role in the development of a relationship with God? Maybe our job is just to be aware of our own context so we can begin to recognize how God is trying to reach us. Maybe what we teach in the classroom, this catechesis, is only necessary to help prepare our students and ourselves to recognize and talk about the encounters we have with God. Maybe this sort of neo-confessional catechesis is all about developing a disposition for recognizing and receiving God’s encounter with us.

That being said, one of the major ways God encounters us is through Scripture. In this class period, I introduce my students to the idea that God not only tells us about Himself through Scripture; the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, are, in some way, a direct encounter with Him. I start the class with a question: “How do you tell someone good news?” I am trying to contextualize the meaning of the neo-confessional catechesis. Hopefully my students are opening their minds and hearts enough to make the connections. This whole lesson is about showing how God is already encountering them; they just need to start making a connection between their context and doctrine or tradition of the Church.

Day Thirteen: The Incarnation and Names of Jesus, Part Four

“Students will be able to list the “names” of Jesus and explain how each of those names is a sign of God’s desire to have a relationship with us.” I recall the prayer: “Dear Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have Mercy on me, a sinner.” We are not what we should be. As sinners, we literally cannot Love the way we are made to Love. To learn how to Love again, the way we are made to Love, we must have a relationship with one who can Love perfectly. Jesus. These “names” of Jesus are signs to remind us of who He is, and as we know and recognize these signs, we can know and recognize what it means to be “fully human”… what it means to Truly Love.

A reliquary of Pope Saint John Paul II, a great teacher and model of Christ's Love. This is in the Oratory of Our Lady the New Advent in Denver, Colorado. (photo P. Smith)

For the most part, this is a vocabulary lesson. I give the following notes and explain the literal meanings behind these “names”.

• Jesus
• Yehoshua; “God Saves” “God is Salvation”
• Christ
• Cristos; “Messiah” “Anointed One”
• Son of God
• Second Person of the Trinity; God calls Jesus His Son during the Baptism and the Transfiguration
• Lord
• Kyrios; Replacement term in Hebrew Scripture for “Yahweh”. When Jesus is called “Lord” in scripture, they are equating Jesus to God.

The names of Jesus are like ropes so we can begin to understand how a relationship with Jesus will help us develop a relationship with God and learn to Love and to be Loved again.

• Jesus “saves”. This name is a sign that we can be saved from sin and we can Love again.
• Christ is the “promised one” who will get us out of the Pit. This name is a sign that we can have Hope if we develop a relationship with Jesus.
• The Son of God is the one who is “family” of God. This name is a sign that if we grow in relationship with Jesus, we are, in fact, becoming family of God.
• The Lord is one who is God. This name is a sign that Jesus does, in fact, have authority to save us.

This is an easy assignment to memorize, but not an easy concept to live. It requires reflection and contemplation. As a teacher, I have to realize that this is part of a process of growing in relationship with God. To start, I give them this assignment. For some of my students, it could be the beginning of a real relationship with Jesus.

“Review your notes. Pick a ‘name’ of Jesus that we have talked about in class. Explain what that name means or says about the person of Jesus. Explain what that name says about God and God’s desire for a relationship with us.”

Day Thirteen: The Incarnation and Names of Jesus, Part Three

One of the ways I review with my students is with questions. I ask them direct questions related to previous objectives in the class. They use their notes or their memory to respond. It also becomes a chance for them to ask questions of their own. The repetition of these concepts helps them to remember, if not for the sake of their relationship with God and the Church, then for the sake of their own intellectual knowledge. It is up to them and God how to turn that intellectual knowledge into somethings Truly beneficial. These are the two main questions we ask:

• Who is God?
• What does God desire of us?

I further the conversation, asking how God makes His desires for us known. I ask the students to explain the Pit Analogy in terms of what God desires and how He works to fulfill that desire. The natural conclusion when talking about the Pit Analogy is to come to an understanding that in order for us to know God, He must come to us. The theological term for this process is Incarnation.

Big Bend National Park in West Texas. South Rim Trail. It took over a day to drive there from Atlanta, but the sacrifice was worth it. (photo J. Harrington)

“Students will be able to define ‘Incarnation’.” Incarnation literally means: “becomes flesh”. They shudder a bit when I tell them the root of the word is “-carne”, meaning flesh. My students who like tacos now remember the term a little better. But we continue with some basic theology. Through the Incarnation, God becomes human so He can encounter us, physically. God “moves” from “infinite” to “finite.” This is an infinite distance. I spell it out for them, or, rather, I do the math for my students. If God is equal to infinity and if we are a value anywhere on the numberline (finite), when God becomes incarnate, He literally subtracts an infinite value from Himself to be with us. He goes from infinite to finite…out of Love. This is perfect or infinite humility The Incarnation is a sign of “how far” God is willing to go to be with us. In Christianity we teach that Jesus is the Incarnation. Therefore, if we can develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, we can begin to experience the Love that God desire us to have. The next objective will show how the names of Jesus help us to “know” who He is.

Day Thirteen: The Incarnation and Names of Jesus, Part Two

“What does your name mean?” I ask my students, rhetorically at first. In the ancient world, a person’s name was part of their identity. It revealed something about who they were or who they were related to. In some parts of the modern world, a name is given to a person in relationship to how they are known. Nicknames in the Western world are a remnant of this. If you know a person’s nickname, chances are you also know, something personal about them their identity. There is a certain intimacy or implied vulnerability between you and the other person if you know each others’ names or nicknames. My student, about whom the day’s prayer centered, is “known” by his friends and fellow cadets not only by his given name, but also by the deeper meaning of that name. In class today, one of the main objectives is to list and describe the names of Jesus. Those names are signs or symbols…they are ropes that help us to understand who Jesus is and how He can help us to develop a relationship with God.

A name can be like an image; they "point" us to a deeper Truth. This image of the Blessed Mother has stood on the front on my home parish my entire life. It is more than "decoration"; it is a sacrament of home...Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Atlanta, Georgia (photo P. Smith)

I ask students if their name has any deeper meaning. Often I have students who are named after a relative who passed away. Some of my students come from cultures where names are deeply spiritual or traditional. Some students are named after a Catholic Saint on whose feast day they were born. Some students have several middle names, all of which are the names of relatives. In the West, parents tend to pick names that may just sound nice to them, but even then, if we ask parents, there is usually something deeper going on. My brothers and sisters, for example, all have Irish names (Sean, Kathleen, Brendan, Eileen, and Anne). When you ask our parents, they will say they liked the sound of those names, but they will also admit that the names say something about who we are and where we come from.

The “Jesus Prayer” contains all the major and common “names” of Jesus. “Dear Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have Mercy on me, a sinner.” To refer to Jesus as “Lord”, “Jesus”, “Christ”, or “Son” is to say or proclaim something specific and powerful about Jesus. At first, these words seem basic and just narrative descriptors of Jesus, but in class today I introduce students to the deeper meaning behind each of these words and how, when we call Jesus any of these “names”, we are actually praying…we are encountering God in how we refer to Jesus.

Day Thirteen: The Incarnation and the Names of Jesus, Part One

The twelfth day was the test. If everything goes right, I have the tests graded quickly, and I can give them back to the students the next class. Of course, there is almost always a student or two who cannot “make-up” the test for a while; I will not give tests back until all of the students have taken it. I guess I’m persnickety that way. (By the way, “persnickety” was not spell-checked for me! It must be a real word!)

The next unit goes deeper into the person of Jesus Christ: Christology. I start the lesson like I start so many others…with a Bellwork.

Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois. As we will discover in class, the very name of Jesus means something. The name itself is a prayer and a claim about who He is.

“What does your name mean? (First and/or last name)”  Sometimes my students have never really thought about or looked up what their name means, so I give them the option to look it up online if they need to. Mostly, we are going to talk about the purpose of names and how a name can provide insight into the history of a person and their family.

After about two minutes of students researching and thinking about this, we transition into prayer. I tell them a story about a student I had several years ago. For purposes on this blog and its public forum, I will not use the name of the student, but I will reveal the meaning behind his name.

This student of mine was a natural leader. Smart, athletic, Faithful, funny… occasionally a pain in the butt in the classroom, as most high school students can be, but overall he was one of the best people I have ever known. I met him his 10^th grade year, but it wasn’t until he was in 11^th grade that he really shone as a genuinely Loving and caring person. That was the year he went on the SEARCH retreat. Where I taught at the time, there was no huge school retreat that lasted more than a day; the entire diocese opened this three day retreat up for any junior or senior who wanted to go; this student of mine went, and it was powerful for him. I’m not going to go into the whole theology behind the retreat, but suffice it to say, for many teenagers, it is the first opportunity they have had where they actually felt Loved by God, by others, and by themselves. He came out of this retreat wanting others to experience that same kind of Love. He knew that everyone deserves to Love and to be Loved. So, the next year, as a senior, he was selected to be a Co-Director. He and another student of mine, whom I also Love very much, would lead a SEARCH retreat together.

SEARCH Co-Directors. Memphis, Tennessee (photo G. Call)

I don’t want to give away too many details, but there is a tradition of prayer associated with the retreat, especially with the adults and the students who give talks on these retreats. I have been lucky to pray for and to pray with several of my students as they prepared to speak…to share their lives… with several dozen other teenagers. Before my student was to give his talk late one evening (it was probably about 12:30 AM), I was able to be there with a dozen of his friends to pray with him. This is what I told him during prayer.

“Do you know what your name means?” I asked him. He had never really thought about it. “It’s an older French word that means ‘take the spear’, as in, take the weapon and lead others to victory.” I could see his face light up. He was about to be totally vulnerable in front of so many of his peers, but at that moment he seemed to let go of that anxiety. “I am so proud of you,” I continued, “because you have chosen to ‘take up the spear’ and lead others to Christ. You have chosen to be vulnerable like a warrior…like Jesus… and risk being rejected. But what will happen is you will be Loved and you will help others to experience Love. Your name is perfect for what you are doing now.”

Later that year, he was offered an ROTC scholarship at a nearby university, a goal he had had for several years. And when he suddenly died in his sleep just one semester into college, everyone was shocked. He was apparently healthy and made good decisions and he had a goal…a purpose. They later determined that he had cardiac dysrhythmia, and the day we all found out, we had a prayer service at the parish near the school where I taught him. There was not an empty spot in the pews. It seemed as if everyone who ever knew him was there, including high school classmates and teachers and college friends and ROTC comrades.

“Take the Spear” I said to everyone in that church. “Take the spear and lead. I am so proud of him. Look at how even  when he is not here, he is still leading us to Christ.”

I heard later on that his ROTC buddies all went and got tattoos of spears to remember him. I tell this story to my students now. He still is a leader. It is in his name.

Day Eleven: Reviewing for a Test, Part Two

My main objective as a teacher in Catholic schools is to help my student to develop a relationship with God so they can grow closer to their Authentic Self. I keep that in mind while I am preparing my lessons. I ask myself, “How will this lesson really help my students?” Most of my students will go on to college, and they will be successful at whatever it is they want to do. That vocation to which they are called (I refer to it as a secondary vocation), or the job to which they are called, requires certain skills. As a teacher, I can help them practice study skills that will help them succeed in school, their success in school prepares them for whatever job they will do, and, Hopefully, that job will be fulfilling. It is a small piece to their Faith journey, but actually teaching study skills is a spiritual exercise. The rest of this lesson involves me teaching them how to prepare for a test, using just notes the teacher has provided.

The students divide into three groups. Each group is responsible for one of three jobs: Vocabulary, Daily Objectives, and Possible Questions.

The desk where I write these tests and lesson plans. (photo P. Smith)

One person in each group needs to create a document containing all of the data that is gathered. This document will be emailed to the teacher, and he will combine your notes with the notes of the other two groups and make it available to the entire class.

They can use the whiteboard to brainstorm ideas, but before they email anything to the teacher, students share the Bellwork with each other and see if there is anything that needs to be added to the notes. While they are working on this, I assist students in organizing their information.

Most of my students have been successful in the past, but they often need to be reminded that there will come a day when they are not naturally good at a particular subject. They should practice study skills so they will know what to do when studying for a difficult exam or test. I give them the following tips to be a “Master-Student”:

•       Go back to your written “Assignments”. Make a document with the questions and your responses.

•       If you have good responses to these Assignments, reviewing your own writings will cover roughly 80% of the material that will be on the test.

•       Much of the test is derived from the Assignment questions.

•       Make Quizlets or notecards based on the Vocabulary. (Most of the students know this skill).

•       Review the Daily Objectives and ignore the ones that you feel confident about. Focus on the Objectives that you are worried about. This saves time when studying.

Students are actually learning a lot more St. Augustine of Hippo than they thought. (Stained glass window at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Atlanta, Georgia. photo P. Smith)

The students spend the rest of the class working on this. They are studying for the test. Some of the students figure out that this actual process is making this study guide is one of the best ways that they can study for the test. This is the part of the unit where the teacher has to “let go” and just Trust that the students will use the time effectively. I will be honest…I know many students will not use their time effectively. I make notes of those students and talk to them about why they did poorly on their tests.