To Those who Teach

Gospel Reflection for Wednesday June 12th, 2024

Icon of Christ the Teacher

I previously wrote on this same Gospel passage back on March 6^th. It can be found here. In that one, I concentrated on the first part of this Gospel which speaks about Christ not abolishing the law but being the fulfillment of it. That is certainly an important part of today’s Gospel. However, the repetition in the Lectionary allows me to reflect on the second half of this reading. I specifically want to reflect on verse 19:

“Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:19

Our Lord gives a stark warning here to those who not only break the commandments but also teach others to break the commandments. St. Thomas writes in his commentary on this passage:

“He does badly who acts badly, but he does worse who teaches others to act badly…”¹

It is one thing to commit sin of our own volition. We are responsible for our own souls, and we make the decision to reject the law of God in favor of the disordered love of the created good. But many of us are also given the care of other souls. Whether they be children, students, readers, those we sponsor in the sacraments, or people merely inquiring about the faith, we not only have the care of our soul, but we have the care of their souls as well. This warning stretches to these others as well. We have a moral duty to teach the faith accurately and to its fullest.

In his encyclical Ut Unum Sint, Pope St. John Paul II speaks on the importance of adhering to the doctrinal and moral teachings of the church. While he is speaking specifically about ecumenical dialogue, the principles here are universal in any teaching capacity. We are to adhere to the teachings of the church without compromise. He says:

“Taking up an idea expressed by Pope John XXIII at the opening of the Council, the Decree on Ecumenism mentions the way of formulating doctrine as one of the elements of a continuing reform. Here it is not a question of altering the deposit of faith, changing the meaning of dogmas, eliminating essential words from them, accommodating truth to the preferences of a particular age, or suppressing certain articles of the Creed under the false pretext that they are no longer understood today. The unity willed by God can be attained only by the adherence of all to the content of revealed faith in its entirety. In matters of faith, compromise is in contradiction with God who is Truth.”²

We do no one any good by compromising or softening the truths of the faith to suit personal preferences. If we are teaching the faith, we need to pass it on adhering to what has been taught by Christ and handed on to the Apostles.

This is reflected not just in what we teach but in how we live as well. Those who are entrusted to us not only listen to our words but even more, watch and imitate our actions. Because of this, our moral lives must be in order as well. We must be doing everything we can to intentionally follow the moral teachings of the church. Purposeful failure to do so teaches others to act badly through the scandal of our sin.

At the core, the one who is teaching the faith must remember the words of the Gospel of John:

“My teaching is not my own, but it comes from the one who sent me.” John 7:16

The teachings of the church are not ours to mold and change the way we see fit. They are not there to conform to the world or to popular opinion. They are there for the salvation of souls. The teachings of the Church do not originate in man, instead, they originate in God and so man has no authority to change them. For those of us in positions of teaching, that teaching does not belong to us. It comes from God and He has invited us into a communion of life and allowed us to pass it on. We are charged to pass it on to our children and our students. We are called to pass it on to those outside of the church. But what we give to them must not be compromised.

1. St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew, C.5, L.6, 475.

2. Pope St. John Paul II, Ut Unam Sint, 18.