A Teaching Story

Joanne C. Jones is an American who studied nursing. The following story is true and is told by Jack Kornfield in the Art of Forgiveness.  

“During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" 

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired, a woman in her fifties, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your care, even if all you do is smile and say hello." 

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.”

—quoted in The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace by Jack Kornfield 

Isn’t it true that sometimes we need reminders about who we truly are and what our life’s work is really about? In the stress of studies, achieving good marks in tests, the hustle and bustle of student life, and the pressure of passing a degree in nursing, perhaps Joanne may have forgotten the true art of nursing: care for people. Her professor’s teaching moment was a worthy reminder of who Joanne truly was and what her life’s work was really about – meeting many people, knowing that all are significant, all deserve her care even of all she does is smile and says hello. She remembered who she was and what she was about.  

Perhaps we have comparable stories about who we are and what we are truly about when we have travelled off the beaten track. As a parish priest what I am meant to be about is the work of God and the people of God, the administration is secondary to that. The face of a person must always take precedence over the computer screen.  

Stephen Covey offers another example of remembering our core values. He was teaching his teenage son to take responsibility for the garden. Imagine his flare of irritation upon arriving home from a trip and finding that the grass had still not being cut – he just managed to check himself before diminishing his child with verbal abuse by reminding himself – “I am raising a child not a lawn”. 

The Beatitudes are reminders about who the People of God are and what their Life’s work is truly about 

As people of God we also forget who we truly are and what we are truly meant to be about. The reading from Matthew’s Gospel is part of a block of reading known as the Sermon on the Mount. Verses 1-12 are commonly referred to as the Beatitudes. These beatitudes are the reminders about who Israel was meant to be and what who true purpose in life was.  

Many sermons comment that the Beatitudes seem radical, revolutionary, world changing and that the earlier audience would have been blown away at the audacity of Jesus’ teaching. However, a careful and close reading of Scripture will reveal that the Beatitudes are none of these things, they are not unique at all, but a reminder of God’s purpose for Israel since the beginning of creation. All Jesus seems to be doing is reminding the People of God how God had always intended Israel to live. The people of God are being reminded about the abundant, extravagant, lavish grace filled life God has in mind for us if we are true to who we are and what our life’s work is about. Jesus gives us the Beatitudes as a reminder about who we are as people of God and what our life’s work is; namely love lived out in mercy and justice. Let us then for a moment step into the beatitudes and see what Jesus is reminding us about. 

The beatitudes

Jesus sees the crowds and moves onto mountain. This is a provocative stance: the mountain recalls the posture of Moses and the gift of the ten best ways, the commandments given at Mt. Sinai. With the presence of the crowds before him, the stance on the mountain also recalls Mt Zion and the radical inclusivity of God’s empire; remember that Mt Zion is where all the nations will stream into Zion and learn the ways of God by beating the swords into pruning hooks.  

Jesus then sits. Again, this is a provocative stance because kings sit, Jesus is king of God’s Empire, Jesus is the king of the new Creation, the life style taught by the Scriptures from Micah, to the Gospels and in Paul’s letters.  

Jesus then offers the beatitudes. These describe not personal qualities, but situations, often of oppression which are being reversed by God’s reign, God’s Empire. What we must remember is that what is important is not the condition that is blessed but, God’s action in that situation that is being blessed. For example, when Jesus says blessed are the meek which means the crushed, the oppressed, it is not oppression that is blessed, but the promise of liberation that is blessed.  

Thus, fundamental to these beatitudes is the establishment of God’s justice and mercy and the removal of societal relationships that create inadequate distributions of resources.  

As we are reminded of who we are and what are true work is the beatitudes serve as a way for us to realign our lives so that it tracks God’s original intention for us which is abundant blessing, extravagant and lavish enjoyment for all creation.  

When one uses a sander, there is an alignment knob that needs to be adjusted so that the sandpaper tracks accurately. Similarly, these beatitudes are an alignment knob so that we track accurately in terms of God’s purpose and will for our lives.  

Concluding comments 

With this in mind we do well to follow the example of a well-known Hindu and history maker, Gandhi. It has been said that Gandhi meditated on the Beatitudes every day in the final stages of his life. As we follow his example perhaps this could be our discipline too, to learn them off by heart, to let them saturate our minds, to let them descend into our hearts, and as we pray them repeatedly and meditate on them constantly they will take on a life of their own as they beat in our hearts and savour our breath as we go about our day to day work.