Students

Last week I spoke about teachers and what should be expected of those that teach the people of God. This week I will continue by speaking about how students should be. First I will begin with the words of the Gospel, “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 8:2-4).

These verses highlight how we should be as Christians and apply excellently for us as students because humility is the virtue where we are fully aware of God. First point is that young children are teachable because of their humility. Last week at church after most people left, there were two young children standing outside the doors of the church, and one of them was trying to tie the others’ shoes and she wasn’t able to, so I asked her if her brother needed his shoes tied, she answered yes. I then showed her how to tie it, and both stood there and learned. Their humility is what allowed them to learn. Today for so many reasons people like to magnify themselves, many times in this generation, if a younger person tries to teach an older person about anything at all (especially school teachers) they will get offended and go “Aw, what, are you trying to teach me? Are you saying that you know and I don’t?” And such comments like that. Sometimes this leads to the Satanic, burning pride, which destroys people. This pride separates people from God more than any other sin can, because in the words of C.S. Lewis, “Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind,” and, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” And God is infinitely above us, and the only ways we can get close to Him are through humility, virtues, and prayer. As St. Paul the Apostle says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1).

The second point about the willingness to learn of younger children is that younger children are quiet when they WANT to learn something. These two just stood there, listened, and watched quietly until I was finished tying the shoes. They didn’t talk or ask questions every single step of the way, but watched and when they watched and paid careful attention, they learned it completely. I didn’t even have to go over it again. We should follow the example of the children and be quiet while the priest or the youth leader is teaching. Especially in the case of the priest, because these priests weren’t just ordained for any reason, they were closely monitored by the Bishops to see if they were adequate to teach and also important to give good advice during Confession. We shouldn’t turn to our friends in church and start talking to them when the priest or the youth leader is giving a lesson, we should listen intently and think about what they are saying.

We are old enough to understand that there is nothing more important that our salvation and Salvation is our Lord Jesus Christ (that’s the meaning of His Name) who loved us to the very end. We should spend as much time as we have available to learn about Him. We, the Church, are betrothed to the Lord Jesus Christ, and during a REAL engagement, one doesn’t just find a person ask them to get married in a couple of days, but the two spend a long time together, getting to know each other, so that they can understand each other better. That’s the case in any relationship, and the same is true with our Lord Jesus Christ. Unless we know more about Him, and His will for us, and what he wants us to do, we cannot pray effectively because then we won’t know what to pray for, in fact some of the prayers might be evil but we won’t be aware of it.

So being a student isn’t just something abstract but it has practical effects when we apply it. There are too many stories about people who heard the words of the Bible and applied it dynamically and from the heart, as it says in the Bible, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17) and also, “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13). So by being students we receive faith, and faith produces works, which is the sign that that faith is alive.

Also we should be students to everything that happens to us, to learn from every experience and let it increase our wisdom. If we can’t take something good from the experiences that we go through and learn from it, then we are letting it go to waste and through this way we waste our time and fall into sin, because some of these events cause complaining, cussing, swearing, hurting other people’s feelings and so on, but we should be pure because, “to the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled” (Titus 1:15).

So let us start looking at the good instead of the bad, and learning from the experiences we go through and glory be to God forever. Amen.