As clergy, religious and lay persons who hold teaching positions in church, we hold a great responsibility. When we teach, we are teaching what the church teaches, not what we think and not our opinion. Sometimes we come across people who begin to divert from what the church teaches because they value what they think more than what is taught by the church for centuries. When we have this kind of attitude, we could be responsible for causing schism, where people begin to break away from the church to form their own, because they think their opinion is the correct one and all others are wrong.
That is why, St. Paul in today's reading cautions us: "Take great care about what you do and what you teach; always do this, and in this way you will save both yourself and those who listen to you." Having an opinion about something is fine, it is not wrong. But it becomes a problem when that opinion you have begins to cloud your mind and causes you to become convinced that the opinion is truth, even though it is merely your opinion and has not been verified and accepted by the church. Thus, let us be responsible in what we teach, and teach the truth, for no servant can be greater than the Master. If we teach our own stuff, are we trying to usurp our role and become the master instead?
No comments:
Post a Comment