Day Fifteen: The Paschal Mystery, Part Three

“Students will be able to explain how we are made to Love and to be Loved, but our fixation on material Truth breaks up our relationship with God and prevents us from doing so.”

This is the first objective for this lesson. I know, this lesson is on the Paschal Mystery, but like any mystery, one of the first steps in solving the mystery of why God is willing to die for us is to understand His motive. That is, we can easily define the Paschal Mystery as the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, but the why of the Paschal Mystery is found in understanding the condition we, His Beloved, His “Jewel of Creation”, are in.

Mary and the Child Jesus. Mary is considered, after Jesus, to be the most "fully human" in history. Her fiat "pierced her heart" in a way similar to how Jesus' side was pierced. Her humility helps her to "look like" God. St. Theresa Church Discalced Carmelites in Dublin, Ireland (photo P. Smith)

I review a bit. We are made in the Image and Likeness of God. That is, if we understand that God is Love and God is Community (Trinity), to say we are made in the Image and Likeness of God is to say that we are made to Love and to be Loved in the context of Community. The Authentic Self, to be “fully human”, then, is to Love and to be Loved beyond simple material Truths that we can observe. To be “fully human” is to Love and to be Loved in the way that God Loves and is Loved.

The difficulty in this dynamic is that as we are made in His Image and Likeness, we are also given Free Will. Indeed, God “freely” chooses to create us and to Love us, therefore, if we Truly are made in His Image and Likeness, we must also have that Freedom to choose. This Free Will, itself, is neither good nor bad, however. It is how we use Rational Thinking to guide Free Will so we can “look like” God.

Sin, by definition, is irrational as it is a Free Will choice to not “look like” God. It is a Free Will choice to fixate on material Truths of self, others, nature, etc… When we do this, we limit our vision to just what we can comprehend in time and space. This is ego-driven and focused on personal control of Truth. It is the opposite of the Image and Likeness of God, who is self-emptying Love. True Love is vulnerable, humble, and self-emptying. Free Will, rightly oriented, is a choice to be humble, and as God is humble, the choice to be humble is rational. Sin is focused on personal control and is not humble…it is irrational.

The Crucifixion, itself, reveals to humanity what God "looks like", perhaps not as we might observe first. Not as one who is poor, weak, shameful and suffering. Instead, He "looks like" one who is "free" from fixation on wealth, power, honor, or pleasure. St. Mary Pro Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland (photo P. Smith)

The Paschal Mystery (along with all of Salvation History) is God’s gift to us of what it means to be “fully human”. I introduce the idea of the Paschal Mystery to my students: “As sinners, we are irrational and prideful. We need a teacher who will show us how to ‘unlearn’ sin. The Paschal Mystery is God’s ultimate lesson of how to use Free Will so we can start to become our Authentic Self.”

Day Fifteen: The Paschal Mystery, Part Two

“What was the last thing someone did for you that made you feel Loved?” I ask my students once again. This time, I want to hear what they have written. “Cold-calling” students is effective, but only if you know they can answer the question. Teachers do not need to use “cold-calling” like a quiz, assessing whether a student knows this fact or that figure. Of course, it can be used that way, but I tend to avoid putting any undue stress on my students. I “cold-call” them after bellworks because there are no right or wrong answers (usually), and when they respond it gives me a chance to positively affirm their participation. Psychologically, this helps my students know that I am legitimately interested in what they have to say and what their opinions are. This affirmation creates in my students an expectation that if that student wants to participate in class in the future, they will not be ridiculed or shamed. They become more confident. I do this every day. This affirmation practice needs to be a routine for my students, and when we do review exercises where I will “cold-call” students with questions we have already taken notes on, most of my students feel comfortable speaking.

St. Joseph and the Child Jesus at St. Therese's Church Discalced Carmelites in Dublin, Ireland. St. Joseph serves as an example of Love in how he risks shame, ridicule, and rejection of his own community. (photo P. Smith) 

“My mom made me breakfast.” “My friends threw me a surprise party.” “My brother gave me a ride to school today.” It does not matter if these acts of Love are monumental or small, I explain to my students. What matters is that they are done. No act of Love is too small, I refer to St. Therese of Lisieux. I ask as many students to share. Usually, after I “cold-call” a few of them, they see that I am not judging anyone, so more volunteer their responses. After I run out of volunteers, I push them further. “What do these acts of Love have in common?” They ponder this for a few moments. I ask them to think back to the prayer. “The one who is doing the Loving is not afraid to Love,” one student might say. “What would they be afraid of?” I ask. They think about this more. “Maybe they could be afraid that they might not be Loved back by us.” I interpret: “So Love involves risk? Love involves losing something? Losing total control over a situation?” Sometimes this question sparks conversation and I can see the wheels in my students heads turning. “Folks, True Love involves admitting you are not in control of others. True Love is a risk. It is opening yourself up to rejection. When your mom makes you breakfast, she is Hoping that you will smile and say ‘thanks’, but she is risking that you will not. When your brother gives you a ride to school, he may be thinking of it as a chore…a sacrifice of his own… but imagine what that chore would be if you just said ‘thank you’. Love is an invitation, then, to Love in response.”

                I use this concept of authentic Love as being the opposite of fear to teach the Paschal Mystery. The Paschal mystery, I will show them, is the story of Jesus becoming totally vulnerable and risking everything, all so we can know how much He Loves us. The Paschal Mystery, then, is an invitation for us to Love God back.

Day Fifteen: The Paschal Mystery, Part One

“What is the last thing someone did that showed you they Loved you?” Hidden in this starting question is the goal of rethinking what Love is and what it looks like. I give students a minute to respond to this question.

I ask students to open up to 1 John 4: 18-19 in Bibles or on their devices. To be honest, I do not go around and make sure my students have actually opened their iPads or computers to the verse at hand. I don’t police their actions in my classroom. I invite them to try. I invite them to be open to ideas that may be new to them. I have observed teachers whose strategy is to create habits in their students and they do this with negative reinforcement… a tongue-lashing, a finger-wagging or a detention if they are not on the right website or right page in the Bible. This may work, I suppose, but in my classroom, it seems to have worked just as well to simply ask my students to respond to this simple request, especially if this simple request is part of the routine of the class whenever we read Scripture. They may not respond to my invitation the first nine times, but the tenth time is when they choose freely to respond; and they get it. My goal is for them to at least know they have an invitation to encounter God in Scripture.

I call on a student to read the passage:

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.”

St. Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. The Paschal Mystery, we will see in this lesson, is the ultimate act of Love as it is an act of fearless, self-emptying. (photo P. Smith)

“What is Love?” I ask my students. Prayer, here, is conversation…it is dialogue where we seek to understand what Love looks like, or, in this case, what Love does not look like. Some students automatically respond by saying “Love is not hate”. Sure. Basic. Others, if they have been trained in their literature classes say “Love is not apathy”. That’s deep. But I am looking for that student who can read this passage and see that “Love is not fear”. Love is action done without fear of looking powerless or weak. Love is action done without fear of pain or suffering. Love is action taken without fear of poverty, whatever poverty means. Love is action without ego. I ask students to think about their Bellwork for a moment and consider the last thing someone did for them that was “Love” and to relate that act of Love to fearlessness of losing what we will list as wealth, pleasure, power, or honor. “What was that person not afraid of losing?” I ask my students: “Wealth? Pleasure? Power? Honor?” Love is greater than fear. Even if you have to sacrifice a great deal for another, Love will give you courage and power to do so. But we have to learn how to Love first. That takes a relationship with God. We end the prayer and then answer the question.

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

Several years ago I was sponsoring a student of mine for RCIA at a local parish in Memphis. The pastor of that parish played a huge role in that process. I suppose as the Vicar General of the diocese he was about as close to the Bishop as one could be, so it made sense for him to be as hands-on as possible in the teaching of catechumens and candidates. He was hilarious! Many of the folks there were converting from a more evangelical or Baptist community, that is, they were more used to a Scripture-centered tradition. The pastor was explaining the origin of the Gospel as being rooted in Sacred Tradition. I could tell some of the folks there were a bit concerned about this teaching. The pastor could read the consternation and stopped the lesson for a moment. “What do you think happened? Where do you think the Bible came from? Jesus didn’t just throw a copy of the New Testament at His disciples as He ascended to Heaven….” He had a gift for lifting the tension and reason.

Mary Immaculate Refuge of Sinners Catholic Church in Dublin, Ireland. Originally it was the Bishop who instructed catechumens and candidates in doctrine, but as the Church grew, the local parish became the place for catechesis and encounter. (photo P. Smith)

When I teach this to my students I want to give them some technical terms and concepts and little bit of the history to the first seventy years after Jesus. For my students, just having a bit of a timeline helps a lot. There are three main stages in the Formation of the Gospel: Historical Jesus, Oral Tradition, and the actual writing of the New Testament books. I give them the following notes, again, using a timeline to organize these thoughts. Ultimately, I want my students to understand that there was a process by which the New Testament developed, and, perhaps more importantly, that there was something strange happening that seemed to be guiding the development of the New Testament.  I will reveal to them later that it was the Holy Spirit guiding the Tradition of the Church early on and throughout time.

• Historical Jesus (4/6 BC-AD 30/33) Jesus life and ministry.
• Oral Tradition (AD 30/33-50) Stories spread the Good News about Jesus orally.
• Kerygma: Excited to share the news!
• Didache: Start to study the message more!
• Liturgy: Begin living the message!
• Diakonia: Teach others the message!
• The New Testament Writings (AD 50-120?)
• The actual writing down of the 27 books of the New Testament.

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

                “Predictable and Consistent”. I learned a long time ago that the best thing a teacher can do for their students is just to be predictable and consistent with their routine. There is already too much going on in my students’ lives that they cannot control and that give them anxiety. Why should I add any more to their stress? As best I can, I want to give them a sense of ownership and control in my classroom. One of the ways I do this is strict routine. Predictable and consistent.

                When students come into my classroom, they will always find the daily objectives written on the board: “Students will be able to...”. Some students have their own routine and they write or type these objectives in their notes before the bell rings. Before the class even begins, my students have an idea of what we will be doing that day. Of course, this doesn’t prevent them from trying to negotiate with me sometimes: “Can we have a free day, today, Mr. Smith?” I do a quick calculation of how much their education actually costs them, their parents, or taxpayers; they usually go back to their desks.

Church of Mary Immaculate, Refuge of Sinners in Dublin, Ireland. Churches like this were intentionally impressive and inspiring, as if to tell the congregation that something important was going to be said (in Scripture) and done (in the Eucharist). (photo P. Smith)

“Students will be able to describe the format of the Bible.” It is a basic “nice-to-know” kind of thing. Basic knowledge of the structure of the Bible allows them an ability to potentially read the Bible on their own. It gives them access to the single most quoted and referenced book in the Western Hemisphere; it helps them to understand allusions and metaphors they will come across in their history, art, and literature classes. And, if they are lucky, it will help them to know a God who Loves them perfectly. Knowing the format of the Bible is a precursor to encountering God in the Bible.

I give them some basic notes:

The Christian Bible is divided into two parts:

• Old Testament/Old Covenant/Hebrew Scriptures/Israel’s Scriptures. “Old Testament” or “Old Covenant” are antiquated terms. They make it seem as if the entire history of the Jewish people means nothing in regard to our Salvation History. Even calling it “Hebrew Scriptures” is misleading as not all of the books in this part of the Bible were written in Hebrew. I stress that the Israel’s Scriptures are necessary and completentary to the story of Jesus in the Gospels/
• New Testament/New Covenant. Christian Scriptures tells the story of Salvation History, Jesus’ life and the early Church. The Israel’s Scriptures describe Salvation History and how God continually invites us into relationship with Him and how we regularly and poorly respond to that invitation. The New Testament details Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. It is the final chapter in God’s invitation to us. The New Testament explains how the Holy Spirit helps the Church to start, flourish, and grow in the first century, despite major obstacles.
• The twenty-seven books of the New Testament, in particular, focus on Jesus Christ and developing a relationship with Jesus so we can begin to know True, Authentic Love. Indeed, the Bible is a Rope that God gives us so we can know Him better.

The last part of this class describes the formation of the Gospels, in particular, and how the story of Jesus necessarily includes us as story-tellers or witnesses.

Day Fourteen: The Bible and the Formation of the Gospels, Day Four

I ask students to get up after prayer and write their Bellwork on the whiteboard. They know the routine. Kinesthetic learning. I have side conversations with students as they make their way to the board to write their response. I tell them that studies have shown there is a positive correlation between memory retention and adrenaline levels. Just getting up and moving around can help raise adrenaline levels and, as a result, they may be more inclined to learn something that day. I do not tell them that the study I am referring to used rats to prove this correlation.

The Main Building at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. When I was accepted into the Notre Dame graduate school to study theology, the first thing I did was thank God! The second thing I did was call my parents! (photo P. Smith)

Normally, when you want to share good news you do so orally or in person. In the modern world, “Snapchatting” seems to be the popular method. Maybe Instagram is pretty common, too, although there are fewer words involved. Next year it will be something different. Ten years ago “Tweeting” was common, and five years before that, Facebook was the mode of choice. But my students admit that if it is really good news, chances are, they will want to share it in person. At the very least, they will want to hear the voice of the other as good news is shared. Anthropologically, this is “good news” for us! It seems, at the end of the day, we desire direct, personal contact with each other…at least for the really important things. I explain this to my students. Someone might “Snapchat” a picture of them with a bored face as they endure another hour with me in school; this is pretty low-stakes. But if they found out that they got into Princeton or Notre Dame or whatever their top choice school is, they will wait until class is over to tell their best friend, face to face. I use this concept in the next section of class when I teach them about how the first Christians literally “ran” to share the news with their best friends…it helps to teach my students why Christianity cannot just be a personal Faith or a personal choice…it must be a community of people praying together. If it is really “Good News”, then we should want to share it with as many people as possible.

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

                It sounds lame and cheesy, but students do, in fact, learn a lot by putting information into song. It is basic mnemonic device. But there is more going on than just memorizing the facts or the level-one information that a song can help us know. I used to have my students memorize the books of the Bible. There are dozens of different ways I could have shown them, mostly songs, and it is probably still something that they could use if they wanted to memorize this particular bit on knowledge. I am not sure if it is necessary anymore. All my students can literally ask their phone to tell them this information; does it matter anymore? Probably. But not for why we think.

St. Augustine Chapel at the Augustine Institute in Greenwood Village, Colorado. For the longest time and still in some places, the Catholic Mass was sung. Eastern Rites still sing the Mass, regularly. There is something mysterious and sacred about music. (photo P. Smith)

                What I do know is that as teenagers and kids, music is part of their language. It is part of their cultural context. So, using music in class to at least introduce ideas or concepts to my students can be vital. For example, I play any number of “Bible Songs” that are out there. They know that music is important. It is part of human culture; their culture is no different. So just listening to a song, even if it is about the Bible, psychologically and pedagogically brackets or connects that knowledge to a category of relative importance. As my students are listening to the song, I am not that interested in them memorizing the song or even being able to tell me what the song was all about; that would be nice. But I am more interested in just introducing the topics of which we will soon speak within the context of something important to their culture…their language. I want to start the conversation about Scripture by associating it to music. Combined with the previous part of the class where we discussed how we tell someone good news, my students are almost ready to begin discussing the purpose of Sacred Scripture and how it was formed.