Teachers with a father's heart
A TRUE TEACHER FROM THE PAST TEACHES US
We take as our starting point a reflection that appears in the Letters of Saint John Bosco, a great educator and master of educators: "If we truly seek the true happiness of our students and want to lead them to fulfill their obligations, it is important, above all, that you never forget that you act as parents to our beloved young people, for whom I have always worked with love..."
We emphasize three points:
Seek happiness
Induce the fulfillment of obligations
Be parents who love their students as "children"
Seek happiness = subjective aspect; obligations = objective aspect; being "parents" = link between the hearts of students and the objective good that means making them good men and women.
Regarding the quality of this love, Saint John Bosco continues:
I recommend that you imitate the charity that Paul used with the neophytes, a charity that often led him to shed tears and supplication when he found them indocile and rebellious toward his love.
Beware that no one may think that you are being carried away by the impulses of your spirit. It is difficult, when punishing, to maintain due moderation, which is necessary so that no one may suspect that we are acting only to assert our authority or to vent our bad mood.
Let us look upon those over whom we must exercise authority as children. Let us place ourselves at their service, in imitation of Jesus, who came to obey and not to command, and let us be ashamed of everything that might have even the appearance of dominion; if we exercise any dominion over them, it must be to serve them better.
Let us keep our spirits serene, let us avoid contemptuous glances and hurtful words; let us have understanding in the present and hope for the future, as befits true parents, who sincerely care for the correction and amendment of their children.
In the most serious cases, it is better to pray to God with humility than to hurl a torrent of words, since these offend those who hear them, without serving any benefit to the guilty.
THE INSPIRATION OF SAINT JOSEPH
— #1: Saint Joseph as a father loved by the Christian people
From Saint Teresa to the Pope himself. He tells us that he himself recites every day, after Lauds, a prayer to Saint Joseph that he took from a 19th-century French devotional book of the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary.
— #2: The tenderness of a father in the land of Our Lord
We often think that God relies only on the good and victorious part of us, when in reality, most of his designs are carried out through and despite our weakness. It relates to the sacrament of penance, to mercy, and to our own weakness as creatures.
— #3: His character as an obedient father
This obedience was manifested through the four dreams through which God transmitted his commands, which were quickly fulfilled. Joseph, in his role as head of the family, taught Jesus to be submissive to his parents, according to God's commandment.
— #4: A father in acceptance
This is the fourth of the characteristics of fatherhood. It refers to Christian resignation, which leads us, with Saint Joseph, to "embrace" the difficulties that come our way, not through "disappointment," but through "reconciliation" with our own history. Acceptance is opposed to "exclusions" and requires a heart free of prejudice.
— #5: Creative Courage
It consists of transforming a problem into an opportunity, always placing trust in Providence first. To achieve this, God has granted us the faculties of "planning, inventing, and finding," with the virtues of boldness and persistence.
— #6: Hardworking Father
For he was a carpenter who worked honestly to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, dignity, and joy of eating the bread that is the fruit of one's own labor.
— #7: Shadowy Father
The paternal cast of the saint of Nazareth concludes with his character as a shadowy father. Being a father means introducing a child to the experience of life, to reality. Not to hold him back, not to imprison him, not to possess him, but to make him capable of choosing, of being free, of going forth.
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