Teaching the truth

And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (Matthew 21: 23-27)

St. Thomas Aquinas stated that truth is revealed by intelligence applied to reality. And who more than Jesus, true God and true man, is able to understand and teach the truth? The authoritativeness of His teaching is given by the fact that He is also God, certainly independent of whether people accept Him or not. The same thing happens with people called to teach as school instructors, priests, parents, etc. A piece of paper is not enough, (i.e. official certification from the State) to be a good teacher: a person is good teacher only if they teach the truth. Let us, therefore, ask the Lord that we may discover His truth in such a way that when we are called to teach someone, we may be His humble instruments of truth, rather than poisoning our lectures with our shortcomings.