I’m back in first grade. Many years ago, I taught first grade. Now, accompanying my grandson as he attends first grade via computer, I’m in first grade again. Teaching first grade is a very important job, because a child’s attitude toward school and learning is often set by how first grade goes.
When I did my teacher training (back in the 1960s), we were taught the importance of “readiness.” Readiness is a hinge factor in first grade. Readiness means that you already know the building block concepts that are needed to learn something new. Kindergarten is a year of experience to create readiness to learn to read. First grade success creates readiness for success in school through the years.
The year I taught first grade was a hard year for me. I lacked readiness. Bluntly, I learned that God did not create me to be a first grade teacher. I wouldn’t say I failed at it. My students learned to read and behave in school. We had a good learning environment. But first graders need to see a word 35 times before they know it. I did not have the patience with repetition to teach first grade happily and well. After that year, I went back to the later grades that were a better match for me. I learned from my experience.
Paul’s Readiness for Corinth
We have now switched to the Epistles for the first reading each day and to Luke for the Gospel. The first reading today is from I Corinthians. Paul is talking about an important lesson he learned about teaching people about Christ.
Paul had first come to Corinth from Athens. On his second missionary journey, as he preached and taught in Asia Minor, he had a vision calling him to preach to the Greeks—the initial toehold of Christianity in Europe. He went, and, after some time in Macedonia where he established the church in Thessalonica we read about last week, he went to Athens.
Athens was the center of Greek learning, philosophy, and art. Paul tried to match the philosophical culture he found there. Basically, the Athenians told him, “Very interesting. Maybe we’ll talk again another day.” He didn’t even pique people’s interest enough to get into a good argument! (Read this story in Acts 17:16-34)
But his mistake created readiness. When he went to Corinth, where he learned how to found a church made up mostly of Greek Gentiles, he did not come talking philosophy. He came on fire talking about the person of Jesus, who came as a Savior.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with a demonstration of spirit and power,
so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the power of God.
While Corinth was a piece of work for Paul, his readiness to focus on the PERSON of Jesus and the POWER of the Holy Spirit bore much fruit.
Paul also made friends with Aquila and his wife Priscilla as he came to Corinth. This Jewish couple, originally from Rome, appear several times in the Acts narrative. They come across as people who were very good at relationships. They, too, may have helped Paul preach the PERSON of Jesus to the PEOPLE of Corinth.
Jesus in Nazareth
Jesus today also has an experience of the need for readiness. As the Gospel switches from Matthew to Luke now, we have to go back in time to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He is fresh from the Jordan with John the Baptist and the temptations in the desert. He returns to Galilee on fire with the Holy Spirit and begins to preach and teach. The verse right before today’s reading says he was successful, “And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” (Luke 4:15)
Then he goes to his home town and the people are not ready for him. They knew him growing up. He is one of them. Now he comes in, reading from the Scriptures like he has done for years. But today there is a difference—a tone of authority and power. He reads from the 61st chapter of Isaiah, where Isaiah describes the coming Messiah. But the people lack readiness to hear about a Messiah who comes to “Bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
And so they reject Jesus. I wonder what Jesus, 100% human as well as 100% divine, felt and thought after all that. Whatever the thoughts and feelings, it did not dissuade him from continuing to teach, preach, and heal, focusing on the poor and oppressed. Experience created readiness.
Readiness Now
The Church has a new Directory for Catechesis. It was published in English for the US in July. I’m only about 50 pages into it, but I like it very much. It can help make us ready to learn from our evangelization mistakes. Written by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, it joins teaching our faith with encouraging people to live our faith. It speaks of the need for readiness and rests firmly on what our Scriptures tell us today:
There is such a thing as “pre-evangelization.” During pre-evangelization, the PERSON of Jesus and the POWER of the Holy Spirit are proclaimed until there is a conversion—that is, until a person comes to a basic belief in the PERSON of Jesus AS THE CHRIST and the value of living in the Kingdom of God—the value of living by Christian values.
Conversion of heart creates readiness for conversion of mind and life. I believe understanding the necessity of that is essential if we are to succeed at proclaiming Christ in our not-Christian culture and world.
Only AFTER this conversion, be it of an unbaptized person coming into the church, a cultural Catholic discovering the wonder of our faith, or a now grown child baptized Catholic but never converted—only AFTER this conversion can a fuller catechesis happen. (See paragraphs 59-60, 66-68)
Those of us who regularly talk with unconverted Catholics know all too well the value of naming this necessity for readiness clearly. But, oh my, what differences in the way we are, we teach, and we preach this will make if we follow it!
We must learn, as Paul did, to preach and teach from our hearts and from our relationship with Jesus who is the Christ. We must start with the goodness of God and our own joy in living by God’s standards. This IS the GOOD NEWS.
Prayer
Lord, create readiness in me and in our whole church to evangelize by Your directions, from our hearts and experiences of You, in Your Truth and Love, AND matching our proclamation to each person’s readiness to receive You. It is a narrow line You ask us to walk, Lord. Help me to never veer from Your Truth AND also remember to assess readiness. Help me be more patient than when I taught first grade years ago. Lead me, guide me, Lord.
