“There is an appointed time for everything,” the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us. Summer is drawing to a close and fall is nearly upon us. For those returning to school, the time has come to trade beach towels and lounge chairs for textbooks and tablets. The first days of the new academic year are at hand, and along with them, all the excitement of what is to come: new subjects, new challenges, new friends and new blessings.
At this time each year, I find myself giving thanks for the wonderful Catholic schools of our diocese. We are blessed with exceptional educators — administrators, teachers, counselors, coaches and staff. Thanks to them, our schools are safe and nurturing places for students to mature spiritually, intellectually and emotionally.
Their presence in our diocese is a reminder of something important: namely, that our Faith and education go together. The connection between faith and education explains why monks copied and preserved manuscripts in the Middle Ages, why Jesuits built universities in the 19th century and why Catholic dioceses around the world operate schools today. In fact, we may be so used to associating our Faith with education that we might never think to ask: Why do they go together? Why does the Church care so deeply about education? The answer lies deep within the grammar of our Faith, and it comes down to this: God is truth. God is the source of all truth, and all truth finds its end in God.
These are lofty words, but their implications are very real. Because God is truth, the truth we find in creation points us back to him. The more deeply we understand the created world, the more we understand the one who created it. From the laws of thermodynamics to the art of Michelangelo; from the process of photosynthesis to the intricacies of the human circulatory system; from the music of Bach to the rules of logic — everything in creation speaks of God’s goodness, beauty and truth. Everything has the potential to bring us to a deeper understanding of him. Learning “means opening one’s mind and heart to reality,” Pope Francis says. Done well, learning is also an opportunity to grow closer to God.
And yet, there is more to it than that. Because some learning is of special importance. Some learning brings our minds right to the source — to God and the story of his loving relationship with creation. You may hear echoes of God’s voice while studying energy conversion or metaphysics, and in Scripture, catechesis, liturgy and the theology of the Church, you will hear his very own words. In this kind of learning — the kind that intellectually engages the Faith itself — faith and reason are perfectly aligned “like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth,” Pope John Paul II writes in “Fides et Ratio.” When we set our sights on deepening our understanding of the Faith, love of God is our reason for pursuing knowledge, and pursuing knowledge the means to deepen our love of God.
Saints and mystics, popes and lay people, theologians, philosophers, intellectuals and Catholics of all kinds have testified to this truth. Through the centuries, Christians have contemplated all the aspects of the Deposit of Faith. The encyclicals of Pope Francis and the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, the works of St. Augustine and the reflections of Dorothy Day, the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and the spiritual memoirs of St. Thérèse all contribute to a vast library of Catholic thinking. Their works — and many others — invite us to become participants in a rich conversation and to experience for ourselves how the gift of faith and the gift of reason work together. With their help, we are drawn more deeply into God’s eternal truth.
This is a valuable lesson to impart to young people as they head off to another year of school. But more importantly, this is a critical lesson to recall for ourselves. Faith is nourished by understanding, and faith and reason together deepen our connection to the truth. We are called to join the saints and popes, theologians and philosophers, mystics, poets and literary greats — all those who have sought to know in order to better love. Alongside them, may we make this a season of cultivating our minds in union with our hearts and of seeking the truth of our Creator on the many paths he has laid out before us.
