The Teacher

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 85 (84):9 The Lord speaks of peace to his people and his holy ones and to those who turn to him.

Collect Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and

reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Apocalypse 20:1-4.11-21:2; Psalm 83; Luke 21:29-33

Jesus told them this parable: Look at the fig-tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Luke 21: 29-33)

The Teacher Take the greatest of philosophers — say, the iconic philosophers for the West, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. However great their teaching in this or that respect — as in, say, the logic or ethics or metaphysics of Aristotle — none of them would claim eternal authority. None would have said, my words that you are noting down and recording have greater endurance than anything else in all the world. None would have presumed to insist that in his words all persons have a much greater foundation for security than anything else. Such claims, they would have thought, would be preposterous. Or again, take the Hebrew prophets. They uttered the word of God and the authority they claimed was based on their being transmitters of that word. They did not say, it is my word that you must rely upon, my word that is utterly reliable. They were simply messengers. It was the word of Another that they asked the people to obey. Or again, take Mahomet — founder of a religion that looked very much to the Judaeo-Christian revelation, while departing from it in serious respects — he never said to his numerous followers, you must base your lives on my word. No, he saw himself purely as a Messenger, a prophet of Allah. He understood himself to be in the line of the prophets of historical revelation, and indeed as being the definitive prophet, but no more than a Messenger nevertheless. It was God’s word that he understood himself to be proclaiming, not just his own. He was a reporter, and his great book, the Koran, is presented as and taken to be the word of Allah, delivered to him from heaven. There have been plenty of teachers who have, for very good reasons or for very bad ones, been very sure of the truth of what they have said. But I cannot think of any who have presumed to claim the personal authority that Jesus Christ claimed. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Luke 21:29-33). He possessed an unclouded awareness of his supreme authority. “You have heard it said to those of old... But I say unto you!” (Matt 5:33).

When thinking of the supreme authority of this Man of the ages, who lived, nevertheless, at a particular time and in a particular place, our minds go to other authorities in the history of the world — not at all his equals, but authorities nevertheless. Let us imagine a scenario, simply as a device to help us form an attitude to those other, lesser authorities. Let us imagine Jesus Christ actually meeting such persons. In the Gospel of St John, not long before Christ’s Passion, we read that “some Greeks” who were in Jerusalem for the Festival, said to Philip, “we would like to see Jesus” — and Philip brought them to him. Those “Greeks” were of the Hebrew faith, but let us imagine a different group of “Greeks,” a pagan group that included, say, Aristotle, or Plato. Let us imagine an eminent Roman among them — say, Cicero. Let us imagine the conversation between them and Jesus — and I am sure our Lord was tri-lingual, speaking Greek and Latin, apart from Aramaic and probably Hebrew. He came from cosmopolitan Galilee, and conversed easily with Pilate when the time came. What would our Lord’s attitude have been towards them? I believe it would have been one of genial, welcoming respect. They would have seen in him a quintessential Hebrew, of the most profound religion and the highest intelligence. Our Lord would have instantly plumbed the state of their hearts, yet he would have spoken to them with courtesy and respect. For instance, he spoke courteously to Pilate. He spoke respectfully about Caesar: Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, he told his enemies among the Jewish leaders. He accorded the highest praise to the Roman centurion who asked the favour of a cure for his servant. No-where in Israel have I found faith like this, he told the Jews. He told the Canaanite woman, Great is your faith! He would have been told by his mother of the veneration accorded him by the Zoroastrian wise men from the East in his early infancy. My point here is that our Lord, the greatest of teachers, would have accorded respect where it was due for teachers of merit, beyond the pale of the faith.

The Christian fully accepts the word of Jesus Christ as being the divine word because he is both man and God. Heaven and earth will pass away — as it were — but his word will never pass away. Nevertheless, the Christian is always open to and interested in any other word of truth. Indeed, the Christian knows that the Spirit of Christ moves among the peoples, working to guide them to the truth, and preparing them for the reception of the word of the supreme Teacher, Jesus Christ. Let us be open and genial to all truth wherever it may be, knowing withal that we have the Blessing of union with the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

(E.J.Tyler)

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