A Question and the Answer Few Are Willing to Tell

A mej.com feedback of October 4th:

I have a problem with the priest’s statement that education is superfluous. I spend most of my spare time reading what saintly people wrote. If educating yourself in the faith is not important why did the saints write. I agree prayer is important it is our lifeline to heaven, but in my mind prayer and education in the way of life in the Lord must go hand in hand.
 

     In Jesus and Mary,
    G.G.,
Kopavogur, Iceland
 

 Dear G.G.

Many saints did not know how to read or write. While there is no harm in education itself, the harm is what is the education one is learning or is increasing his knowledge in. The tree that Adam and Eve ate from was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This should provoke thought. Rev. Anthony J. Paone, in My Daily Bread wrote:

Knowledge is often the cause of pride and vanity. Some people consider themselves better than others because of their knowledge. They do not realize that knowledge is worth nothing unless it makes one a better man in his daily life.

Knowledge can bring many useless distractions. Many things will make no difference in your life whether you know them or not. Some are so distracted by the pursuit of knowledge that they no longer consider their faults and defects. If they were as diligent in rooting out vices and acquiring virtues as they are eager for knowledge, the world would be a better place.

Some prefer to be honored rather than be humbled, and they are lost in their own self-centered imaginings. They are ruined through vain learning and unprofitable knowledge because they forget God.

The self-wise are rarely able to take orders. They value others only by their knowledge or lack of it, as though man were made up only of intellect.

True education humbles a man by showing him the grandeur of God’s creation, and his own littleness…True education should show me more and more of God’s place in the world and the glorious meaning of everyday life…Unless my learning leads me on to a better life, it is a waste of precious time. (p. 140-141)

He also stated:
 

What men praise in you is worthy of praise only if it pleases God. Not everything that seems good is truly good. What men call right is not always right. You will never be confused by worldly wisdom as long as you keep your eyes on God’s work. Look at God’s Church and you shall possess His truth. (p. 324)
 

Our Lady’s messages are education. Profound in their simplicity, they surpass the writings of all the saints in history, yet below the Bible, yet, a preface to the Bible. It is not necessary to be educated by the standards of the world or the universities to go to Heaven. It is necessary to respond to God’s grace. Our Lady calls us “Dear children, little children, my children.”

Fr. Jozo’s comment about education is formed in his “education” of living Our Lady’s messages, and was in reference to the schooling of the world and its systems. Fr. Jozo was speaking to parents, and instructing them that they hold the first place in the education of their children. CLICK HERE TO GO TO FR. JOZO’S COMMENTS

We stand completely on this principle. Parents have the sole right of what, how or when, and even if they want their children educated. It is not the government’s prerogative or right, or anybody else’s. It is dangerous to hold any other view. How should one respond to the principle, of parents who do not want to give or have their children educated? First, it is their supreme right of the parents to choose. And while we at Caritas would not endorse such an action, but rather encourage parents to educate their children, we would defend this right not to as their God-given authority and far less dangerous than the present system of education which damages and often destroys faith, endangering their eternity. Better “to enter Heaven with no hand” than being a thief with them, losing eternal life. Better to enter Heaven ignorant than with a brain filled with atheistic philosophies and useless knowledge, losing eternal life.

Up to around the middle ages, you were considered educated if you understood the Christian life and were living its virtues. Today’s society puts education first. It is before God. It has become a god.

So, while the writings of the saints, as you point out, are good for our soul, it must be remembered that even Thomas Aquinas said shortly before his death that everything he had written was “as straw.”

We should read the Bible, we should read Our Lady’s messages, we should read the lives of the saints as they are instruction for us to live a Holy life, but, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
 

In Her Peace,

1. Acta Sanctorum 61st Volume, Published 1867

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