The goal of
education
By
Fr. ROY CIMAGALA,
roycimagala@gmail.com
May 31, 2017
THIS is none other than for
us to be another Christ. After all, he is the very pattern of our
humanity in the beginning and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. If
education is for us to achieve the fullness of our humanity, we should
not look at anything, no matter how lofty and useful, other than at
Christ.
St. Paul, in his Letter to
the Ephesians, describes it this way: “His (Christ’s) gifts were that
some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of
the faith and of the knowledge of God, to mature manhood, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ...” (4,11-13)
Yes, education is not simply
about acquiring some worldly knowledge and skills. It’s about
achieving this “mature manhood” St. Paul was talking about, a mature
manhood that is “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ.”
Obviously, knowledge and
skills are important and are, in fact, indispensable. But they have to
be oriented toward the ultimate goal of education which is the pursuit
for the fullness of Christ in us.
We have to be wary of the
strong, almost irresistible temptation to downgrade the purpose of
education to simply achieving some worldly values like wealth, honor,
popularity, efficiency, etc.
These worldly goals, if not
related to the ultimate goal, can very well be sweet poisons that can
corrupt the process of education.
Some sectors may claim that
putting Christ as the main goal of education undermines the technical
rigor that should accompany the task of learning the sciences and the
arts. They claim that that approach would be too other-worldly as to
restrain us to go to the last consequences of our studies.
We should not be deceived by
such claim, because the opposite is, in fact, the case. When we put
Christ on top of everything else in our education, we would be most
motivated and pressured to be thoroughly exacting in our studies.
Christ himself would require nothing less than that.
Thus, the ultimate goal of
education is when we learn to deal in an abiding way with the Holy
Spirit, who is the spirit of God, who will remind us of everything
Christ taught us, who will lead us to the complete truth and would
tell us of things to come.
At this time of the world’s
life, we should do much better than the early Christians who, when
asked by St. Paul whether they have received the Holy Spirit, answered
that “we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19,2)
All the technical things
involved in our education should somehow tend to the learning of how
to deal with the Holy Spirit. For this, it might be useful also to
know the gifts of the Holy Spirit which enable us to know things the
way the Holy Spirit knows them.
We should never marginalize,
much less, ignore, the Holy Spirit in our education.