Where Faith, Reason, and the Heart Meet
Living Tradition of Catholic Education
Faith and reason stand as two key pillars of Catholic education. Yet, Pope Leo XIV points out the importance of the heart as well when reflecting on education in his Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope, which he published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis.
He places education within a living tradition and reminds us that:
Christian education is a collective endeavor: no one educates alone (Pope Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 3.1).
Education always implies community. How do you foster Catholic community within your own educational efforts? Often, students might look at education as merely a gargantuan task without reflecting on how it is also a huge networking event. The Pope challenges administrators to move beyond the familiar and established, allowing God to continue working through their educational mission.
St. John Henry Newman commented that “religious truth is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge.” Pope Leo XIV declares him co-patron the Church’s educational mission along with St. Thomas Aquinas. Our commitment to knowledge must be “as intellectually responsible and rigorous as it is deeply human” (Pope Leo XIV).
It is part of the very concept of the university that “questions are not silenced, and doubt is not banished, but accompanied” (Pope Leo XIV).
I love how he talks about doubt in this manner. So often, I get the feeling that people think the Catholic Church demands blind submission, whereas it really wants our mind involved in the assent we give to truths of the faith. This is part of what it means to be human and to believe.
Pope Leo’s insights remind me of how education takes flesh in real encounters – the teachers who shaped me. A good teacher or professor can make such a difference in a person’s life.
When I think of good professors, my mind takes me back to High School and to my two Social Studies teachers during senior year. First semester, I took American Government. My professor was brash and opinionated, but somehow his desire to communicate American values stuck with me and helped me throughout my life. Somehow, I felt a connection, an important aspect of education that the Pope underlines.
Beyond dispelling doubt and opening up the mind to truth, the heart cannot be ignored. St. Francis de Sales noted that:
Sincerity of heart, not abundance of words, touches the hearts of men (St. Francis de Sales, quoted by Pope Leo XIV).
One pitfall I notice among some students is a desire to share the faith, without taking into account the importance of the heart. They might proclaim the truth, but merely at an intellectual level, without regard for what is going on in the other person’s heart. Hopefully, we can all learn to speak to the person and not merely at the person.
Just like I connected with my American Government teacher, I was impressed by how my Economics professor transmitted a deep love for teaching and communicating the truths of economic systems. He had some creative ways of presenting the dynamics of the free market and I still remember him every time I think about supply and demand. This sense of hope in the teacher-student relationship echoes what Pope Leo emphasizes:
Educating is an act of hope and a passion that is renewed because it manifests the promise we see in the future of humanity (Pope Leo XIV).
It can feel almost trite to say that “young people are the future” but it comes off more authentically in this document.
The specificity, depth, and breadth of educational action is the work – as mysterious as it is real – of “making the being flourish… is taking care of the soul” (Pope Leo XIV).
He returns to Plato’s Apology of Socrates, reflecting on one of the greatest teachers of all time. Reflecting on one of history’s greatest teachers, Socrates, he leads us ultimately to Christ – the greatest Teacher, who unites truth with mercy. In the end, Catholic education unites faith and reason not merely in theory, but in a Person – Jesus Christ. In Him, the intellect and the heart meet, and through Him, the work of education becomes a true work of hope.