In today's episode we are going to focus upon a scripture insight from Luke 4:18. Jesus is the one who liberates people from darkness and oppression. He is the one who opens prisons and declares release. What if each Catholic teacher is called into this same ministry by virtue of their vocation? What if every Catholic teacher can be used by Jesus to help struggling students find a way out of the prisons that define their own struggles? Listen in and discover just how crucial the ministry of every Catholic teacher can be.

Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.

Once again, welcome back to the Catholic teacher daily podcast.

I'm back in the saddle friends.

Really, uh, trusting the Lord for the grace to get these

out to you more regularly.

They're nice and short.

I hope you do find them.

A blessing.

I've been posting them back on Twitter.

Come and find me on Twitter at J D Catholic at J D Catholic.

I do check in there a couple of times a day, if I can.

So, uh, if you're on Twitter, have you find that.

Uh, it's a good resource in your career.

Your vocation.

As a Catholic educator, then come across and find me at J D Catholic.

Also on Facebook, but, uh, I get lost on Facebook.

I've got a bunch of different things that I do there.

So, uh, but I, um, I think if you do a search for one Catholic teacher,

So on Facebook, if you just look for one Catholic teacher,

O N a you should find us there.

There's the page and the groups they come across and say, hi.

Friends today.

I'm really stoked.

I've, uh, been up early again, come into the studio.

Uh, I cannot confirm or deny exactly how much caffeine I've had, but

uh, really excited to be with you and hoping to bring you an insight

that will be a real blessing for you as you go throughout your day.

I know at the time of recording, there's a real mix.

I know many of my Australian listeners will be of course, in

some form of a lockdown here on the prison island of Australia.

And you will be delivering a remote learning possibly of some form.

I know.

It's a 6 33.

M as I'm recording here in the studio and I start homeschooling at eight.

And I know that my kids check in with a couple of their teachers.

During the day.

So if you're going to be on zoom and, uh, well, look.

You can do so much through that platform.

Is that what we want?

Is that ideal?

No, but you can still be a blessing in the life of a young person.

Whether it's in face-to-face teaching and pastoral care, or whether it's over zoom.

And yesterday I talked about becoming traders in the commodity of hope.

If you haven't heard a yesterday's episode, that would

be the 29th of August, 2021.

Go check that one out because.

I really enjoyed that message.

It was all about becoming traders in the commodity of hope.

I really convinced that this is a time where people urgently need hope.

We need hope that Hebrews chapter 11, hope the certainty in what we hope for and the

trust in things that we have not seen.

So for instance, we're going to talk about a beautiful scripture from the,

my Bible study this morning, Luke.

Chapter four verse 18.

This is the incredible scripture course with Jesus.

Goes back to Nazareth.

He's in the synagogue.

The hometown boy comes home.

They're all expecting.

That, uh, they're going to get all their wishes granted, if you will.

But, uh, before any of that happens, he stands up to read.

From the, uh, the Torah from the scrawl.

And what he's going to do.

Of course, as he reads.

From the, uh, the prophet Isaiah chapter 61 verse one.

So we hear about it in Luke four 18, but of course he's

actually reading from Isaiah 61.

And in Luke 18, he, by Luke four 18, he basically says the spirit of the

Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and

recovery of sight for the blind.

To release the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Now I want to, from a Catholic education perspective, I want to pick

up on a couple of key concepts here.

This idea of proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and a release for the oppressed.

In the original Isaiah 61, there's actually this beautiful image

of freeing people from darkness.

And I did some research on that.

Something that's sort of interested me is that.

You know, often in the new Testament we hear about early the early members of

the church being thrown into prisons.

And he, where I live in Australia, we have a prison here, which

is, I think the world's.

Only a human rights compliant, fully human rights, compliant,

prison, whatever that might mean.

Uh, w it's sort of a bit of a joke here in the town because it's.

There's parts of the prison that, uh, better than the local Hyatt.

Let me tell you that.

Uh, not that it would be pleasant of course, to be, uh,

you know, locked in prison.

But.

Many of us in lockdown.

I kind of, uh, you know, I was thinking this morning, I thought

he, you know, even in prison, you're allowed to have visitors.

In locked down.

We're not anyway, I digress, but the prisons of the first century.

We're very different to the way we understand prisons today.

Uh, they were usually underground.

They were usually a holding cell.

Uh, because, you know, unless you were a Roman citizen justice, uh, you know,

could often take a long time to happen.

So you'd be, uh, you know, prisons, weren't so much a punishment because

the punishment usually was, you know, death or beating or some kind of, you

know, Appropriation of your wealth.

So prison wasn't so much the punishment.

It was the holding place before you were tried.

And of course there was no sort of state sanctioned.

State running of the prisons as such, there was more that the state

provided the building and there would be some guards often like private

contractors who would be prayed to.

To keep people in there.

But all the things like food, clothing, um, you know, sanitation,

all of that stuff was provided of course, by your family members.

And so if you weren't, if.

If you weren't connected, if you didn't have people that

cared about you, these places.

I could be in places of incredible suffering and specifically,

and this is where I started with this idea of darkness.

You know, There's no electric light.

Of course, you know, there's like,

And who's paying for candles and I'm pretty sure they weren't too concerned

about windows and ventilation.

So they were very dark, oppressive, vial places.

And I know you're listening.

They're going okay.

And what does this have to do with Catholic education?

Are you saying my classroom is a vial doc.

You.

Empty place.

Of course I'm not.

Here's what I'm going to.

Here's what I want to share with you.

This beautiful scripture in Luke four 18, where Jesus talks about himself as the

one who releases from darkness, the one who breaks the bondages of oppression.

The ones that say he's the one that sets the captive free.

And I want to talk about that in the pastoral context of the work

you do as a Catholic educator.

Now in your classroom, you will have one or two.

Perfect children.

We all, you know, we, we do, we have usually one or two kids that are from,

uh, you know, amazing families and they're just sweet natured and they just.

No trouble.

And they just glowing with holiness and virtue.

But that's not every child in our classrooms.

Isn't.

I want you to think with me for a moment of the one or two students that you

find the most difficult to work with.

Now, usually these young people will be, you know, Hard to say, right.

It could be learning difficulties.

Um, it could be behavioral problems, ADHD, all that sort of stuff.

It could be that they're just selfish, that they haven't, you know, The

church talks about John Paul T used to be big on this, that the, the, the

family is the school of the virtues.

So in a functional family, young people over time with all

its difficulties, learn about.

Patience selflessness care of others, losing some arguments.

All that sort of stuff.

So if there is significant family dysfunction and breakdown, Often our young

people don't learn these kinds of skills.

So we end up with some students who just come into our schooling

system, our community, our Catholic education community.

And they are really struggling and these behaviors manifest.

And of course, you're just trying to teach.

You're trying to do the best you can.

And now you're dealing with this.

So I want us to make a suggestion today.

I want to say that many young people.

For complex reasons can be caught in different forms of darkness, in different

forms of oppression, in different forms of bondage, bondage, to behavior

patterns, or ways of treating people.

I mean, nobody gets up in the morning unless somebody is a

genuine sociopath or psychopath.

Nobody gets up in the morning and says,

How can I make myself deeply unhappy by ruining everybody else's day.

You know, they just fall into these patterns of behaviors.

Right.

And they often, if they, if they're craving attention and recognition, then

they'll often choose negative behaviors.

Won't they just to get validation of some form because they're so starved for love.

That they can just use negative behaviors to get some form of reinforcement.

So I want to keep bringing you back to this idea that Jesus is

the one who releases from darkness.

He's the one who liberates from oppression.

He's the one that sets the captive free.

On my heart.

What I felt for you was that what if through your vocation.

You are deeply partnering with Christ to be his hands and feet in the role.

Of.

The release of captives, the breaker of bondages.

Think about it, right?

Because think of a student that you have, who might be in a really

difficult place and has all sorts of behaviors that are problematic.

Now.

Jesus could supernaturally heal them instantly.

They could just turn up the next morning and be radically different.

Now that's not impossible because he's God and he can do whatever he wants.

But our experience of reality is that doesn't tend to happen.

What tends to happen is that if, if people change and grow, it's usually in

relationship with other people, isn't it.

You know, you even look at the 12 step stuff, right?

I mean, you know, nobody does 12 steps on their own.

They do it in a group.

They do it in the interaction of a group and they have the support

of people who are older and wiser and have been on a journey.

You get my point that often transformational human change takes

place in the context of a series of relationships in a community of people.

So if a Catholic school community.

Becomes a deeply Christological place.

And by that, I mean that the teachers.

Have a deep relationship with Jesus and the holy spirit

is transforming the teacher.

Then the teacher begins to have the heart and mind of Christ for the student.

So, you know, the, our mother Teresa saying, I think, you know

that Jesus has no hands now, but yours, he has no feet, but yours.

I mean, Jesus himself told us.

He said, when you visit somebody in prison,

Whatever you did for the least of these you did for me.

So he's teaching us that.

We undertake in the world, his heart for people.

I hope I'm making this come together for you.

See what I mean?

That if there's a student in your classroom today, or a student it's,

you're speaking to on zoom that, you know,

A single word of encouragement, a single moment of patience, a single

moment of just journeying with them.

Can be truly transformative.

What an amazing thing that you get to actually be the person

of Jesus, to somebody who may be trapped in real darkness.

And again, we don't do this in our own strength.

We do this through a gradual process in our own hearts and

minds of more deeply entering into relationship with Christ ourselves.

All right.

That's all I want to say.

There's a bit there.

Maybe you want to listen to this a second time.

But, uh, let's be the hands and feet of Christ.

Let's be the voice and the heart of Jesus to those who are trapped in darkness and

oppression and bondage and imprisoned.

Okay.

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But God bless you.

My, uh, Jesus and his mother walk with you this day, evening, night,

wherever you're listening in the world.

But, uh, Thank you so much for what you're doing, it's really important.

And, uh, you haven't, you.

Never overlooked.

The transformation you can bring about in a young person's life on any given day.

God bless you everybody my name's jonathan doyle this has been the

catholic teacher daily podcast and i'll have another message for you tomorrow