Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday Gospel Reflections

Gospel Reflection

CALLED FOR A MISSION

Matt 4: 12 - 23

A lot of things happened this week, but I seem not to be satisfied. Maybe this due to the fact that my health had not been well since last Sunday. My expectations had not been met. Most of my personal time had been eaten by my work, so to say by the school I'm working in and by my students. Not that I regret it, it's just that I was not able to give the time I usualy gave myself. Now that I'm writing about it, it makes me recall a big question that had been left unanswered since I started teaching. That question is: why did I become a teacher? I mean, unlike most individual who are there in the academe, I am a mismatch.

I confess that I am no smarter and a straight forward non-intellectual person.  The Latin proverb that stuck in my mind became my summative philosophy in teaching, in English it literally says "You cannot teach what you do not know," which is universally correct. My big question had been rooted to smaller questions that was formed with that proverb in mind; questions like what do I know? Will they get anything from me? How do I teach? Will I be as effective as my professors? All of these are all left unanswered, that is why I asked myself why the did I become a teacher?

Then this Gospel reminded me about how Jesus called the apostles. He chose them, calling them by their names; the same way He called each of us. Each of us is called for a mission, our role in this world. Not everyone is gifted enough to know his or her role; at times we even call it a dream or goal, other people would call it fate or destiny. In a quick sense, it something we look forward to. On the other hand, it is something totally unexpected, something that is not related to who you think you are. Looking at the apostles, most of them had been working as fishermen, but Jesus called them and showed their real mission: to be fishers of men. I felt the same way too. God has a purpose for me. I did not thought that I would be teaching, but here I am teaching the future generation. I may not know the reason why, just like the apostles; they did not know why they were chosen, all they is that they were invited; I was invited to teach, so here I am teaching. God will provide the rest. As to what I am going to teach, God too will provide it for me, for I know nothing by myself. God has the knowledge, I just let him unfold this knowledge before me and I will echo it to the future generation, to my students.

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