Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Teach me your ways, O Lord.” Are you teachable or have you learned all you needed to know? Is your capacity for learning full or do you still hunger for what is true and thirst for what is just? Do you want to learn the ways of the Lord? Are you willing to deny yourself, to embrace and take up your cross and follow him? To follow his word, his way, his instruction, his example? Are you satisfied that you have learned all that you needed to know? Have you truly learned all the lessons that God has to offer? If you know it all, are you a good teacher? Are you willing to guide others in your words, your way, your instruction, your example? Do you have the patience to teach like Jesus what you have learned over and over again until we understand it, get it right and can repeat your lesson to others? What can we expect to learn from you? Will it draw us closer to God the Father, fill us with his hope, inspire us to holiness and bring us to eternal consolation? Or will it separate us further away from God the Father, lead us closer to sin and Satan, fill us with his despair, discourage us and lead us eternal damnation? If you are a good teacher, do you know that “the world in its present form is passing away” and that this world and all in it will cease to exist and be no more? Do you know and have you come to believe with all your heart that God the Creator of Heaven and Earth and all that is in it “sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him” so that those who believe in his Son and follow in his ways will not die but will live with God forever? Do you know and have you come to believe with all your mind and soul that Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life” and that no one can go to the Father in Heaven and live forever except through the One who says, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart?” A good teacher prays with total openness, “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. A good teacher learns from God then passes on to others what they have learned.