“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.” -Pedro Arrupe S.J.
In my view, Fr. Pedro Arrupe S.J. perfectly captured the meaning of vocation. To accept teaching as our vocation is to fall in love. This love permeates every aspect of our life. It provides us the courage of heart to open up to our students and allow ourselves to be vulnerable. The uplifting power of this love gives us the strength and determination to overcome the many challenges and obstacles a teacher must face. This love inspires our imagination and fuels our creative drive. As we grow in love, we in turn grow in wisdom. Our wisdom reinforces our understanding of the need for continual growth. Through our wisdom, we come to appreciate that there is always more we can learn and it drives us to faithfully evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching style, methods, and environment. If we are to embrace teaching as vocation we must be prepared to give over to it completely, heart, mind, body, and soul.
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6 comments:
Dear Brendan,
I like the way you put it "teaching as our vocation is to fall in love." Because of love, we have no fear to teach courageously. Then the wisdom came as you said it. We want to know, and the more we know, the more we want to know. You surely have your heart, mind, body and soul in your teaching. God bless you for that.
Sr. An Tam
I grow impatient with my Jesuit brothers at times. There is a seeming lack of interest in secondary education these days among Jesuit scholastics (seminarians). To give you an idea of what I am talking about: my province (Missouri) operates seven high schools. I was ordained in 2006 and was missioned to Rockhurst High. The last Jesuit sent to a high school after ordination was in 1999. It took seven years of ordinations to net two newly ordained Jesuit priests for seven schools.
To be fair, the other newly-ordained have chosen noble careers in important works. But, I wonder if we do enough to sell our schools to those who can help maintain our identity.
I completely agree that love is a huge part of our vocation (if not the main part); it leads to wisdom and a deeper understanding of students, curriculum, God, and self. However, I don't necessarily think we 'fall' in love with our vocation. Love lifts us up; it makes us want to be better for ourselves and for others. Love lifts our vocation up to a higher realm; it challenges us to be better for our students and us. I know its semantics, but I struggle with the idea that if I 'fall' into my vocation, I wasn't really meant for it.
In one of the epistles of St. Paul, he wrote: "In everything you do, put on love." I believe that if we put love in teaching, then we can have a sense of fulfillment even in our day to day struggles with our students.Not really easy but rewarding.
One of the key words in Durka’s perspective of an educator’s vocation is “risk taking” as part of being courageous. Many times I have heard this quote from Pedro Arrupe, S.J. I have heard it in meetings, retreats, homilies and community prayers. What I have noticed, from the persons who quote Pedro Arrupe, S.J. or preach about love, is that it doesn’t feel that the “love” they are preaching about really decides and drives everything in their lives. I feel Pedro Arrupe’s words are strong. They speak of an authentic heart and soul who has embraced Jesus call and has left every thing to fulfill his/her vocation to the extent of giving life if it is necessary. That is the “Love” (in capital letter) that both Pedro Arrupe, S.J. and Durka referred when the disciple lives his/her life and a ministry with passion, with no limits, with imagination, and creativity; in a sacramental and spiritual communion with him self, others and with God. This is “risk taking”, a Love which comes from a person who irradiates it. A love that is noticeable by others because it glows from the person. Because that love has become part of whom the disciple has come to be: a fulfill human being! Let us live passionally in “Love” with every thing we do, we believe in and dream of, I am sure that this will truly decide every thing in our lives! Thank you reflexion. God bless.
Ruben
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