“The meaning of life is simple, folks,” I tell my students.
“Figure out what the Truth of who you are is, live that Truth, and be Truly
happy.” They instinctively are dubious of this meaning. It is trite and
simplistic. They have heard it a dozen times before in a dozen movies and
songs. They may have even believed this ridiculous formula at some point in
their young life. “Yeah, Mr. Smith, that’s stupid.” I run a pretty casual
class, and they are welcome to be critical, as long as they can be logical
about it. I wait to hear the rest of their thought. “It just doesn’t seem like
anyone is really happy.” I challenge them to think about how Christian theology
might explain it. This is where my students start to do theology: when I ask
them how a Christian mindset would understand a given problem.
Capuchin Priest, Basilica of St. Fidelis, Victoria KS (P. Smith) |
I always have two
or three students who really Love their Christian identity, and this is the
kind of class they have been waiting for. They already learned all the details
and facts about Catholic belief and practice, and they may have even done
apologetics in another class or in their youth group, but they have never been
given a chance to learn how to think rationally and critically about their
Faith. “Mr. Smith, Christian theology would say that True happiness is
something that happens outside of time and space, and when we say we know the
Truth about who we are, that Truth cannot be real because we cannot know the
full Truth. So, what you said can be True as long as we don’t pretend to be
able to know the Truth of who we are in this world”. It is a little rough, but
that is what I like to see in my classes; I like to see my students try to use
the concepts and vocabulary that I teach them. This is doing theology. I
actually find myself encouraging students to use the vocabulary and concepts
from the class. I tell them, “Look, I know you don’t hang out with your friends
on Saturday nights, sipping tea and talking about Agape or Eudaimonia
or Beatific Vision or Objective and Subjective Truths…so practice here with me;
it will prepare you for the test.” Of course, the next Monday I have some smart
aleck come to me to say “Guess what we talked about on Saturday night, Mr.
Smith!! Look! It’s in my text message history!” I’m convinced they all have the
same deep and important thoughts; I just want to give them the words so they
can articulate those thoughts.
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