Jesus went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.   

Glenn Holland, the new teacher at the newly named Kennedy High School was about the same age of Jesus when he started teaching. Since teaching was not Glenn Holland's first profession, he was even a little older than most beginning teachers. But, from the very beginning, the movie "Mr. Holland’s Opus" portrays him to be a good teacher. Even though he was young in the profession, inexperienced as a teacher, and taken up with his own young dreams, he had a gift for teaching. It was a gift that every teacher must have in order to be called "good," namely, he wanted to help others. 

Jesus Christ was a teacher. Everything he did while he was here on this earth was done as a teacher. Desiring to bring about a true understanding of the kingdom that he was proclaiming, he wanted everyone—that is, his “students”—to see clearly what he was saying and doing. As a teacher, he realized that imparting knowledge was only part of his “job description.” The people had to be prepared to listen to him as well, and so he helped them as much as he could even as he tried to tell them how to live.

Even though we may not be formal classroom teachers, we all teach in some way. Parents teach their children. Children teach their parents. Employees teach their superiors. Students teach other students. Everyone teaches. We teach about our lives, as we understand them; we teach about how we look at that life. What makes good teachers is the desire to help others. If we have such a desire, we will be good teachers for others, no matter what our profession.                       

THOUGHT
 
PRAYER

Good and gracious God, your Son was an excellent teacher on earth. For him, teaching was more than imparting knowledge; he first of all loved the people he taught. As each of us teaches others in our own way, may we learn to truly care about the people around us. Be with us, we pray.

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©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America