Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ
Some philosopher was asked by students: "Master, why don't you, yourself do as you teach others?" He answered: "Has anyone ever seen a signpost go along with those to whom it shows the way?" I think, there is more cynicism than joke in this answer.
The teacher of faith shows others the way to eternal life. It is scary to think that someone is teaching others how to go to eternal life and not come to everlasting life himself. The apostle Paul once experienced such anxiety. Then he wrote: "Woe to me if, when I preach to others, I myself were to be rejected." And this question: "Do I myself fulfill what I teach to others?" - every teacher of faith should challenge himself - a priest or a catechist, a parent who puts his own children into the faith, and in general all those who share their faith with others.
Today's Gospel has a wonderful answer to the question of how to behave when someone truly teaches the faith but does not apply it tohimself. The Lord Jesus says: " Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example" A teacher of faith who teaches well and does terrible things himself will give an account in God's judgment. But we too will be accounted for in God's judgment if we did not listen to the teacher's good teaching.
There are many teachers of faith in the Church - because they are not only bishops and priests, not only catechists and parents, but teachers of faith are also all Catholics who do not have their faith to keep it private. In this connection, it is worth noting the extraordinary importance of another teaching of the Lord Jesus in today's Gospel: " Do not be called ‘Master;’ you have but one master, the Christ"
Let us remember that the Lord Jesus Himself did not come to us in His name and He did not teach anything from Himself. He came to us from his Eternal Father and from him he brought his teaching: "The teaching that I preach to you is not mine, but the Fathers who sent me." We are teachers of faith only when we preach the teaching of this One Teacher. If someone preaches a teaching of his own or that of a human sage only, such is not a teacher of faith, and if he wants to be seen as such, he is rather a faith debunker. There is only one teacher of faith, Christ. Only in union with his teaching can the faith be truly taught.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george