As predictable as the change of seasons is the point in any given semester when students will approach me for the first time and ask for out of class help. Usually itโs after the first exam or paper has been returned. Students with dreams of an โAโ dancing in their heads tend to make an appointment when their first major piece of graded work has a โCโ or โDโ on the top of it. Iโm a user-friendly professor and am more than happy to meet with any student; when first approached, I usually raise the studentโs eyebrows when I direct the student to be sure and bring the appropriate texts along for the appointment.
When Jane comes to my office, conversation begins with her saying something along the lines of โI donโt understand why I did so poorlyโIโve done all of the readings and havenโt missed any classes.โ I know whether the latter claim is true already, and will be checking on the first claim shortly. First, however, I tell Jane that โwhatever I suggest in terms of strategies or help is going to require more time and more work from you. If youโre looking for a way to do better in the class without working harder than you have been already, there is no such way.โ This is undoubtedly a disappointment, since the reason Jane made the appointment was to get the โmagic bulletโ that will slay the dreaded โCโ or โDโ and make room for the โAโ to which she believes she is entitled. Learning that there is no such magic bullet is never good news.
And it gets worse, as I next ask to see her texts. They look as if they had just been taken off the bookstore shelfโno dog-eared pages, no scribbled notes in the margin, no underlined passages, no highlighted textsโand Janeโs name isnโt even in it. Handing my heavily underlined, highlighted and annotated copy of the same text to Jane, I remark that โhereโs problem number one. Your text should look like this.โ I even go so far as to provide her with the key to my quirky markings, according to which I highlight in yellow the first time through, focusing the second time through primarily on the highlighted areas and underlining with a black pen those part that appear most crucial. Then after class I return a third time to write notes and comments from class discussion in the margins. Not only will following something like this procedure lock the material into the studentโs memory by requiring something more than simply looking at words, but it will also condense the material for reviewing purposes when exam time comes.
I lost Janeโs attention as soon as she saw my copy of the text. Even though Jane doesnโt know what the colors and markings mean, she at least knows that they mean a lot of work. You mean I have to read more than once? That I have to read and think critically? That I have to read it again after class? Youโve got to be kidding! Thatโs going to take a lot of time and effort! And indeed it will. Jane has been introduced for the first time to the fine print in the life of learningโitโs hard. It requires building good reading and study habits. True education isnโt for lazy people and it isnโt for sissies. And it certainly isnโt for anyone who wants to cut corners, to get to a desired outcome without taking all of the necessary steps in between. Every one of them.
Markโs gospel from last Sundayย includes a classic โfine printโ experience.ย A young man (called a โcertain rulerโ in the Luke version of the story) approaches Jesus and asks โWhat shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?โ Jesus answers that the young man knows very well what to doโhe should keep the commandments. Jesus lists a few for the guy, just in case he had forgotten them. But the young man replies โTeacher, all these I have done from my youth.โ Heโs not looking for a โgood boyโ pat on the head from Jesus; heโs already past the point of thinking that simply following the rules is good enough, or he wouldnโt have asked in the first place. The young man is looking for more. Heโs thinks that heโs ready for the fine print.
We all know Jesusโ responseโhe reads him the fine print. โGo your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me.โ We also know the end of the storyโโHe was sad at this word, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.โ The fine print demanded the one thing the young man could not do. But what precedes Jesusโ reading of the fine print is even more interesting. Mark says that โJesus, looking at him, loved him.โ This is a man who wants more, Jesus knows it, and Jesus loves him for it. But that damned fine printโthe thing that you cannot do, thatโs the thing that is required. And it will be something different for each of us. This story isnโt about the incompatibility of wealth and following Jesus at all. Itโs about the fact that, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer
wrote, โ when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.โ The God of love is not a cure for anything. The God of love is the greatest of all disturbers of the peace. โI did not come to bring peace but a sword,โ and this is a sword that cuts deepest in those who are the most obsessed with knowing God.
This is a disturbing story because it absolutely runs roughshod over our idea that human dealings with God are transactional. โWhat do I need to do in order for X to happen, in order for Y not to happen, in order for Z not to die?โ is the question we so often want answered, and this sort of question is always wrong when directed toward the transcendent. While on sabbatical I heard the poet Michael Dennis Browneย speak of an insight that unexpectedly came to him as he mourned the tragic death of his younger sister, a woman for whom family and friends had gone hoarseย with their prayers and petitions for healing. And she died anyways. What the hell is going on? Browne said โIt came to me that this is not a God who intervenes, but one who indwells.โ That changes everything, in ways Iโm not sure Iโm fully ready to think about yet. But the following from Rainer Maria Rilke gives me hope:
So many are alive who donโt seem to care.
Casual, easy, they move in the world
As though untouched.
ย
But you take pleasure in the faces
Of those who know they thirst.
You cherish those
Who grip you for survival.
ย
You are not dead yet, itโs not too late
To open your depths by plunging into them
And drink in the life
That reveals itself quietly there.