We’re approaching that time of the year again: Back to school. I remember the mixed emotions of wanting summer to continue and not having homework to do so I could play more, but also the opportunity to be back with classmates and the opportunity to keep learning about God and the subjects I most enjoyed.
As your bishop, I would like to share a little bit about the importance of education, not only in the way most of us experience it for 13 or more years when we are young, but also in the way we are called to experience it throughout our lives.
The Catholic Church has long placed great importance on the role and place of education, not only for the sake of the person being educated, but for the sake of the whole of society as well. Although formal schools existed prior to Christianity, it was the Catholic Church that established the university system in the Middle Ages, and in our country (including, of course, our own diocese), the Catholic Church has long sought to ensure that a solid education is available to everyone.
But why is that? Why does the Church place such a high value on education? Certainly, a part of it is the value education has in terms of teaching skills and “know-how.” But for Catholics, education is much more than learning techniques; it’s about fostering wonder and awe at the world around us and cultivating a hunger to understand that world, as well as how to make that world a better place.
In the Gospels, we read that we are to love God with all of our minds. Contrary to popular opinion, faith is neither blind nor mindless. In fact, for us as Catholic Christians, we are called to engage our intellects fully when it comes to matters of faith. Indeed, it is entirely rational to be a Catholic, as the great history of our faith makes clear: Scores of highly intelligent men and women have found their home in the Church, not by putting their brilliance aside, but precisely by engaging it.
Our diocesan vision calls us to Lifelong Catholic Missionary Discipleship Through God’s Love, and as I have often shared, it is my deep desire that every man, woman and child in eastern South Dakota might come to know the depths of God’s love for them. But in order for us to know God’s love, we need to know God, and it is with our minds that we do so. As the saying goes, we cannot love what we do not know, and in fact, knowing God allows us to love him more.
But it’s not just with regard to matters of faith that we are called to use our minds: God desires that we come to know the world he created in an ever deeper way. As scientists and scholars have demonstrated, the universe is a place of amazing and incredible intricacy and order, and God delights when we use our minds to investigate the universe and discover the natural and supernatural.
For us as Catholics, then, learning and education is meant to be a lifelong endeavor, not as a chore, but as an invitation from our heavenly Father. The truth is, he has created this world for us, and out of love for us, and he wants us to explore this world and then ponder with wonder and awe God as the creator of the universe. That doesn’t mean we’re all called to become scientists or scholars in a formal sense, of course, but rather, that we are all called to live our lives with a sense of wonder and awe, and a readiness to be surprised and delighted by the world we live in and the truth, beauty and goodness of God.
So as the new school year begins and children—young and old—return to the classroom, let’s all take some time to rekindle our love for learning and delight not only in coming to know the world around us, but also the One who created it.
