Commentary on the Gospel of
Educating the Heart
What Jesus tells us today should give us pause and make us think about our system of education. Do we really educate our children in the culture of the heart, in the language of the Spirit? Do we teach them that it is what comes out of them – in terms of their thoughts, words, and actions – that define their true self? Listen to Evelyn Underhill (The Essentials of Mysticism):
“The values at which [our education] aims are too often relative and self-interested… Its intelligent gaze is fixed too steadily on earthly society, earthly happiness. We encourage our young people to do the best things, but not always from the best motives…. We forget that our duties ought to include the awakening of that clear consciousness of eternity which should be normal in every human being, and without which it is impossible for anyone to grasp the true values and true proportion of life.”
