In this week's article by a Catholic teacher, Mike reflects on moments of transformation that shifted his previously 'tribal' outlook as a young Catholic teacher to embrace an inclusive evangelisation. (Image: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay)

Satori 悟り is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, comprehension; understanding. It is derived from the Japanese verb satoru. The concept of awakening that is derived from this simple word is beautiful. I see it as a resurrection concept. To be awakening to a new truth is too often, yet not exclusively, to see the death of an idea previously held, and one considered true.

For me it was quite clear: I wanted to teach in a Catholic school. In this I was steadfast. The Lord was calling me, my vocation was to teach Catholic children. From the second I stepped foot inside Christ & Notre Dame College Liverpool, now Liverpool Hope University; I devoted myself mind, body and soul to the end that I wished to achieve – to teach Catholic children.

When completing the annual census of Catholic pupils and the Section 48 census I would think with pride: we have nearly 100% Catholic children. To my shame, when I taught in a school on the outskirts of Liverpool, which was once considered the 'most Catholic' town in the UK, I would often think that the poor conduct of individual pupils must be down to the fact that they had come to us from one of the non-Catholic schools in the area!

I look back know and think 'how/why was I so tribal'? Why did I view those particular children in my care with less love than the other children? I was blindly walking through my early days as a teacher looking at children through eyes that were not filled with love.

And then it happened: two experiences collided.

The first I began to read Genesis through a different lens: 'Then God said, "And now we will make human beings; they will be like us and resemble us." '

Upon reading and re-reading, and reflecting on this simple passage, I experienced my first real Satori – quite simply ALL humanity is created in the image and likeness of God. How simple, how true, how far from where I had been. Until this point I had not really understood the term Catholic!

Saint Ignatius of Antioch first used the term "Catholic", literally meaning universal church in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans around 107 AD. Catholic means universal! Not tribal! I have come to see ranking children in priority of the religious tradition chosen for them by their parents as a tribal expression which denies the inherent dignity of all children by the singular truth that all humans are made in the image of God. Not seeing this is un-Catholic.

The second experience was joining Savio Salesian College Bootle as Head of RE. In Savio, I found an inclusiveness for children that touched me deeply. Children of all faiths and none were welcomed, accepted and loved by all. That it not to say I had not experienced such love in the other Catholic school I had served in, but in Savio, the ineffable yet ever-so-tangible ethos of evangelical inclusion was so evident that it seemed to pour and ooze out of every fibre of the school. This was replicated in the Parish St. James, where the door was never shut. A Hindu child was invited to her friend's First Holy Communion and attended in her traditional dress. The school celebrated Diwali and Eid in solidarity with our Hindu, Sikh and Muslim brothers and sisters. It seemed that the loving hands of the creator in whose image we are made were embracing the entire community.

And now I serve in De La Salle Academy, Croxteth: a community of great socio-economic disadvantage. In a school with 40% Catholic pupils; school that has served the community built by the faithful service of the De La Salle Brothers for over fifty years. The children I serve are 'full' of God. The Lord radiates from them. Their witty banter, their lovely 'slang', the way they call me 'Bennett' to each other; not 'Mr Bennett'! The way one of my Year 10 boys bought me shampoo for Christmas – I am completely bald! These things and so much more reveal God to me. Some might say with a certain tone, "40% Catholic pupils? That's not a Catholic school!'' How misguided, for this would be to truly misunderstand the very word on which we hang our hat! To be Catholic is to see through the eyes of the universal Lord who does not limit Himself to a tribal mentality. To be conscious of the divinity of all human beings by virtue of their divine DNA, as beings created in the image of God, was my greatest Satori.

The Congregation for Catholic Education sums up my post-Satori vision of Catholic education beautifully:

In today's complex society, schools are called to provide young generations with the elements necessary for developing an intercultural vision. Consecrated persons involved in education, who often belong to institutes that are spread throughout the world, are an expression of multi-cultural and International communities, called to 'witness to the sense of communion among peoples, races and cultures' . . . where mutual knowledge, respect, esteem and enrichment are being experienced."

It goes on to say:

The Church does, in fact mean to offer its educational service in the first place to those who are poor in the goods of this world . . . or who are strangers to the gift of faith.

The Congregation for Catholic Education, 'Consecrated Persons and their Mission in School: Reflections and Guidelines (2002)

It is true that in my current school there are 40% Catholic pupils. Yet there are 100% humans made in the image of their Father and Creator. Thus, whilst strangers to the Catholic faith, they are personally stamped with the mark of the one true and living God at the very centre of their being. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, satori refers to the experience of kenshō, "seeing into one's true nature". The true nature of us all is that we are made in the image of God.

Michael Bennett