INSIDE america The School of the Teacher The first Christian expression of the desires that move the human heart is the desire for a place, in which to be educated by Jesus. It has to be a human place, an identifiable human place If all we knew about the origins of Christianity came from St. John’s Gospel, we’d have to say that the first Christians were Andrew and John, who had been followers of John the Baptist. As disciples of John, we can assume they were part of that strain of Judaism at the time that vividly expected the promised establishment of the “Kingdom of God” through the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel’s faithful remnant. That is, they lived intensely the drama of human desires that this world cannot fulfill. They lived at the frontier, so to speak, between this world and a new, promised one. One afternoon, they heard John the Baptist point to a man as the one through whom this expected fulfillment of God’s promise was to take place, and they followed behind Him. Jesus turned around to them and asked them a question. John’s Gospel begins with a prologue in which Jesus is proclaimed to be the “Word” of God. What He says to John and Andrew therefore is the first revelation, so to speak, of the Christian belief about what God is like, about what happens when, finally, human beings can hear God speak in a human language. The first revelation of the Christian God is a question. It is not a message, an instruction, a reprimand, or an inspiration; it is a question: “What do you want?” Think about the implications of this. The encounter with Christ as the human presence of God always takes this form. It confronts us with a question about ourselves, “What do you want?” Another way of putting this is, “Where is your heart?” or “What do you live for?” It prompts us to take a critical look at what attracts us because, as Aquinas said, in a certain way we are defined by what delights us. It is on this stage that the encounter with Christ takes place, the encounter with the Mystery at the origin of our existence. In Fr. Giussani’s words, the encounter with Christ always fires up our religious sense, that is, the driving force behind what we think and do. Now consider the reply of John and Andrew. It is the first expression of the Christian faith, the first Creed, the first Christian prayer. It is an amazing answer. First of all, they call Him “teacher.” This is the first expression of the Christian affirmation about Jesus: He is a “teacher.” What does He teach? In the context of the question, we have to say that Jesus is experienced as a teacher of life, that is, a teacher about the origin and meaning of the desires of our heart. Jesus has come to “educate our religious sense,” Father Giussani writes in Why the Church?. The first followers of Christ called Him “teacher” and then they made their request, the first Christian prayer: “Where do you live?” “Where can we remain with you?” Better…“Where will You remain with us? Where can we be with You? Where is Your school?” The first human response to the Incarnation, to God’s Word in human words, the first Christian expression of the desires that define and move and even torment the human heart is the desire for a place, for a place in which to be with Jesus, in which to be educated by Jesus, by His companionship, by being with Him, by “encountering Him” at every moment of life, by remaining where He “remains,” a place from which He will never go away. It has to be a human place, an identifiable human place, because that is why the Incarnation has taken place, so that we can encounter the Mystery through a human encounter, and human encounters always happen in a place! So He told John and Andrew to follow Him, to accompany Him. “They went, and saw where He lived, and remained with Him that entire day” (Jn 1, 39). Many years later, when the Gospel was put together, the memory was still vivid about the precise hour when this happened: “It was around 4 pm.” The next day, they went to tell others about it, and Christianity began. So it was then, so it is today: the desires of the heart are unleashed and strengthened at a precise time in a precise place, a place that is the “school” of the Teacher. The Christian faith is an amazing thing. The answer to the question about the origin, destiny, meaning, and value of human life is not found in a discourse, in a particular philosophy of life, but by being “at the right place at the right time,” by being at the place where Jesus remains. This is the first revelation of the mystery of the Church. The Church is the concrete, identifiable place where Jesus “remains.”