THE
P RTAL
February 2016
Page 6
Spirituality Matters
Instructing
the ignorant
We continue our series on the Works of Mercy with instructing
the ignorant . . . Antonia Lynn takes us to the heart of the matter
If you
look at what Wikipedia has to say about the Spiritual Works of Mercy, you’ll see an interesting
note to the effect that some of them, including that of instructing the ignorant, ‘may require a definitely
superior level of authority or knowledge or an extraordinary amount of tact.’ Those of us who do any kind of
teaching might well take this to heart. It is essential to remember that we are all ignorant.
Any encounter with someone who questions us is
a meeting of two fellow pilgrims, and one we should
approach with a spirit of humility akin to that of
Elizabeth: ‘whence is this to me, that the mother of
my Lord should come to me?’ The Word of God is
coming to birth in the life of this person, though they
may not know it, and if we do not come away changed,
humbled and instructed ourselves we have missed an
opportunity to encounter the Divine.
I once heard a priest describe his three criteria for
any pastoral encounter: ‘I will listen to you; If you ask
me, I will tell you what the Church teaches; I will not
tell you what to do.’ I’ve tried ever since to hold these
in mind, and I find them relevant here.
if we do it well, to find an answer for themselves.
Remember, we can discern God’s will for ourselves,
never for anyone else. ‘It is not much knowledge that
fills and satisfies the soul’, said St Ignatius Loyola, ‘but
the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.’
The person who comes to us will have already met the
Truth; we may be offered the privilege of helping them
understand and relish.
Secondly: if you ask me, I will tell you what the
Church says. If we have listened well, we will know
something of the other person’s deepest desire. They
may have some specific questions, in which case we
must be sure we are well-informed, but never forget
Pope Francis’ warning to preachers: ‘don’t answer a
question that hasn’t been asked’! I was told as a child
that ‘catechism’ had the word ‘echo’ in it, because we
are meant to learn it by heart and repeat it by rote.
Well, the etymology’s right but the inference is utterly
wrong. Any ‘catechetics’ we do must resonate - there’s
the echo - with the lived experience and the actual
needs of the person we’re ‘catechising’. And for that to
work, first we must learn humbly from them.
First, I will listen. Some people are cynical when I say I
teach ‘listening skills’, but we do all need to learn to listen
better - or, often, to unlearn bad habits. And, because I
was one of them myself, I can say that clergy can be the
most challenging students, with their desire to jump in
and fix things, or to preach. Listen, listen, listen to the
person who comes to you with a question: that may be
the greatest gift you can give them. It may in itself be an
Yes, it’s down to listening again. We’ve heard often
‘instruction’ for them about the unconditional love of
enough from the Holy Father that for the sheep to
the God who is always ready to listen.
recognise the voice of the true shepherd he must first
Whatever the story your questioner tells you about have been among them long enough to smell of them.
their life, it is a chapter of sacred history, and we Never try to make the Catholic faith look good by
should treat it with as much reverence as if we were running down someone else’s; don’t prefac