By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

“Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.” — Nikos Kazantzakis

A teacher of several years in teaching here in the City of Pines was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer. Upon learning of her condition, her co-teachers chipped in according to what they can spare for her medical expenses.

She was told by her doctors to go to Manila for her regular dose of cobalt treatments on Saturdays and Sundays and then back to Baguio from Monday to Friday for her chemotherapy. Their faculty association managed to request for their contingency fund and gave it to their sick colleague. As one of them said, who else will help other than themselves?

Teachers earning the sympathetic title of having the noblest job. They are being called the molders of the future of the society, of the children.

But most of the time, while they are inducing knowledge among the children to help build their future, they also face uncertainties. Most of the teachers in public schools do not yet have a permanent “item” or security of tenure, they are contractual educators or casuals.

They work for years in college to finish their education courses so that when they graduate and will be able to get teaching jobs. Then they have to face the challenge of waiting more years to apply for a job. Its a pity that many of them end up going abroad and applying as domestic helpers and worse, some of them become victims of abusesby their employers.

Some of the teachers employed for many years do not have enough security when they get old, get sick or retire. That is the reality. When they need to undergo general medication, they and their families have to hunt for other resources. From the many years that they are teaching, many of them are still impoverished.

Teachers in private schools face the uncertainty of permanency. As it is private, their method of work are much controlled by the owners of the schools. Even if ever they are being paid higher than those in the public schools, their employers want to hold them by their neck. They are vulnerable to unfair labor practices especially if their employers are from other countries who do not know how to respect the culture of other nationalities.

The employers sometime tend to control and dictate on their employees. Even if they do not have any idea or they do not participate at all in the teaching process. As if they knew of the difficulty their employee is going thru having to understand their lessons and worry about their families as well. In Iloko, they say, “naglaing nga agsao, saan na met a napadasan,” (he talks a lot even if he did not experience it at all).

The teachers do not need high praises, all they need is true recognition by the system, real compensation and a state looking after their welfare. # nordis.net

By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

Jesus answered, “Those who drink this water will get thirsty again, but those who drink the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life.” — John 4:13-14

Water and Christianity

Water is liquid. And as such it is formless. Unlike a stone which is solid, water carries the form of its environment. When it is poured out into a glass, it follows the form of the glass. But water also penetrates its environment; it sips into the soil and gives nourishment to plants. Lime stone, for instance, absorbs water. Even a hard stone can be penetrated by water, and time will come when a hard stone softens and breaks open and water comes in.

Our Seminary Visiting Professor from Malang, Indonesia, the Rev. Dr. Ruseno Bambang, compared Christianity to water. We live in a culturally pluralistic world, he said, and Christianity has to deal with this kind of environment. Like water, Christianity must take the form of her environment. For instance, in the Cordillera, Christianity must be expressed in the form and shape of the Cordillera culture. And like water, Christianity should penetrate and nourish, enhance and develop or even help transform the Cordillera culture.

Jesus and the Samaritan woman

Our Biblical text talks about Jesus and his disciples going to Galilee passing through Samaria, and there Jesus encountered a nameless Samaritan woman who was fetching water from Jacob’s well in Sychar (Jn. 4). Historically, Samaritans and the Jews had bitter conflict dating back to Prophet Ezra’s time, which would sometimes result to violent deaths of innocent people. The conflict was rooted on mutual accusations of impurity. Hence, Jews from Judea in the South would not dare to pass through Samaria in going to Galilee in the North, in vice versa. They would rather follow a circuitous road along the Mediterranean Sea or passing through Jordan than to risk their lives by passing through Samaria.

Jesus’ defiance of this popular notion and attitude seems to be intentional. Clearly, he would like to overcome the human barrier that historically marred the good relations between the Samaritans and the Jews. Also, Jesus defied patriarchal traditions when he talked in public to a woman not his wife, much more a Samaritan. No respectable man at that time would ever talk in public to a woman not his wife or a woman to a man not her husband as the case may be. But Jesus did.

This was the context of Jesus’ statement that “those who drink this water (from Jacob’s Well) will get thirsty again, but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

Life-giving water

Christianity as water must be a life-giving water. She must be something that breaks down the barrier, no matter how hard it is like a stone. She must penetrate the soil which makes plants grow and brings forth abundant harvest that gives and sustains life for the people. In other words, Christianity must seek to transform a sinful situation of conflict and patriarchy that destroys human relations and sanctity of life.

It is really unfortunate that many times Christians live out their Christianity as hard stone of barriers and conflict and patriarchy that leads to death, and not as life-giving water that breaks down barriers, overcomes conflict, and gives life. Genuine Christianity must be life-giving, and not death-causing. # nordis.net