That is why I want to celebrate this Mass in thanksgiving to God for the enormous work, sacrifice and love that you put into your profession and vocation on behalf of our young people, our schools and our Church. Only God Himself can reward you adequately but I hope you know my own deep personal appreciation for your outstandin labours. As the Angel prophesied to Daniel in his vision of the Resurrection and the end: Teachers and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the Heavens, and those who lead many to goodness and virtue shall shine like the stars forever and ever. How true!
Today’s Gospel, where little children are being brought to Jesus, allows us a deep spiritual reflection on your vocation as teachers. In short your personal calling from God, that resounds in your hearts, is to bring the young ones to Jesus in our own times. Teachers more than anyone see into the souls of the young and you understand what Jesus means when He says they belong to Him. The natural place of our primary children, you know, is close by Jesus and we often find the presence of Jesus palpable in our primary schools. This is what we mean by the Catholic ethos there. It is nothing other than the daily, living presence of Jesus in and around the school building. The natural values of our secondary school pupils, for their part, are the values of the Kingdom of God. Despite the pressures and temptations of the modern world they are sensitive to Gospel values of justice, love and truth and they have already begun to hear the call of God in their souls to a life of grace and the challenge to some kind of holiness. This is what Catholic ethos means in our secondary schools. It is the serious and sincere pursuit of life according to the values and vision of the Kingdom of God.
And, in carrying out this task in our primary and secondary schools, there is no teacher who has not experienced the unsurpassable joy of seeing a young person emerging from a long darkness into the light and, in some sense, standing under the grace of God who lays His hands on them, blesses them and prays for them.
Your task as teachers, I know, has never been harder. Every day you struggle with the reality of obstacles in your way to brining little ones to grace and to Jesus. In the Gospel it was the apostles themselves who were the obstacles. They thought there were more important matters for Jesus’ mission than the young and, in a rare display of anger, Jesus rebuked them and taught them that the youth will always have a special place in His heart. Perhaps our Church has to ask if we have given proper priority at the heart and centre of our life to our ministry with young people, who must always be the apple of our eye as a diocese. As teachers you are also saddened by other darker forces in the world today which, like contemporary King Herods, seem to want to destroy our young people’s souls, especially in their time of natural innocence and closeness to God in case, when they grow up, they present too strong a challenge to the culture of power and vested interes. Pope Francis spoke of this at length at World Youth Day. So you have a lot of your plate as educators.
In all these circumstances, dear brothers and sisters, your daily task is to bear the trials of opposition resolutely and so bring these little ones out into light. As Blessed Paul VI reminded us, the young look to their teachers to be living witnesses of the values they teach. He said: Young people listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.
So, if the Gospel lays before us your personal vocation as teachers, Saint Paul’s words to the Philippians provide you with the spiritual tools you need for the task. You should try to be joyful in all you do, in the assurance that God is on your side as teachers, very near you in our schools and close at hand to help you in your care of His young ones. So you should worry less and pray more and aim to be gentle in your dealings, first with each other as colleagues and then with the young in your care. In this way, Saint Paul says, peace will reign in our schools.
Our Catholic ethos is summed up in the final thoughts Saint Paul offers the Philippians. He even calls it a curriculum for excellence. It is about setting your sights and working every day in our schools for: whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, remembering the great tradition of Catholic education of which you are now heirs and custodians. But you know all this. You know it is not easy but you know you would not change it for the world and I cannot tell you how precious you are to me as your bishop, how blessed our diocese is to have you and how dearly we want to make every effort to support you in your divine mission on our behalf.
The first reading was taken from the Feast of Saint John Bosco who, as you know, was an outstanding educator of the young in nineteenth century industrial Turin. I want to leave you with his Spiritual Testament as a teacher, which he summed up in the words: I have always laboured out of love. I hope it is a good encouragement to you as we bless your year ahead. He says:
First of all, if you are concerned about the true happiness of our pupils and if you would move them to fulfil their duties, never forget that you are taking the place of the parents of these beloved young people. We must be firm but kind, and be patient with them. I give you as a model the charity of Saint Paul which he showed to his new converts. They often reduced him to tears when he found them opposing his loving efforts. This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalised, and still others to hope for God’s mercy. And so he bade us to be gentle and humble of heart. As educators we use mercy for the present and have hope for the future, as is fitting for true parents who are eager for real improvement.
With these words may God bless you abundantly in the year ahead and reward you as only He can.