Inner Teacher

Telling our story to our students

02/08/2020

Mark 6:30-34 The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Last Monday I began our bible study class on the gospel of Luke with a word of thanks to the 80 participants. I said: “Thank you for letting me get in touch with my inner teacher.” I explained that before I wanted to be a priest, I wanted to be a teacher. Actually, I wanted to be a university professor of philosophy, marry a beautiful Catholic girl, and have 20 children. So, you can see my vocation to be a priest was virtually a “fait accompli” (a done deal in French), because I have yet to find a girl who would agree to those terms for a marriage. Now, however, my inner teacher has found his subject as well as his students in the bible study class, and I am profoundly grateful to those 80 guinea pigs!

I find myself surprisingly in the sandals of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. The ancient seer realized God had destined him to be a prophet before he was born. He writes: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:4). Later when Jeremiah tries to refrain from prophesying, he explains it’s impossible to stay quiet: “I say I will not mention him, I will no longer speak in his name. but then it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in; I cannot!” (Jer. 20:9). In other words, Jeremiah also struggled with his inner teacher, an inner prophet, who would not be silenced, but rather was compelled to speak about the Lord and his love.

In the gospel from Mark 6, Jesus gets in touch with his inner teacher, too. Of course, it is silly to say Jesus “gets in touch with his inner teacher” like we might experience it. Jesus is Teacher not only with is words, but in his actions, in his miracles, in his touch, in his compassion, in his tears, and even in his sighs. Jesus is Teacher with a capital “T” while all the rest of us, even his beloved apostles, are teachers with a small case “t.” Jesus is Teacher par excellence.

But the same dynamic desire to teach burst forth from the lips of our Lord like it did in the great life of Jeremiah, and in the little life of Fr. John. Jesus and his apostles find themselves exhausted from a day of intense evangelization, and seek a little rest, trying to escape the crowds by boat. But what happens? We read: “When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” Like for Fr. John and for the prophet Jeremiah, Jesus inner Teacher couldn’t be confined or bottled up but burst for and “he began to teach them many things.”

My friends, may I suggest to you that we are all blessed with an “inner teacher”? Of course, you may not have any desire to teach philosophy and have 20 children. Still, I am convinced that we must find our subject and share it with our students. Furthermore, I believe that our subject matter is our own life, and ultimately, our relationship with the Lord, whether we are aware of that relationship explicitly or only implicitly. Have you noticed how political candidates these days all write autobiographies? Ronald Reagan wrote An American Life, Barak Obama penned Dreams From My Father, Bill Clinton’s autobiography was simply called “My Life,” and Richard Nixon wrote: “Six Crises.”

Admittedly, these presidents wrote these works for various personal motives: to defend their decisions, to make a little money, to find fame outside of the Oval Office. Nevertheless, they were also getting in touch with their “inner teacher,” and sharing their story, which ultimately is about their relationship with the Lord, whether or not they say a word about Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God that makes every word of man possible, just like we cannot say a word without the air in our lungs to utter it.

Try to find a form in which you, too, can get in touch with your inner teacher and share you story. Tell your children and grandchildren over lunch and dinner, write an autobiography, keep a dairy, record a Youtube video of you, gather pictures and put together a photographic history of your life. Like Jeremiah, God has created each of us in the womb to be a prophet to the nations, to share our story, our relationship with the Lord. If we try to ignore that divine mandate, “It will become like a fire burning in our hearts, imprisoned in our bones; we will grow weary holding it back.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!