Faith and Gratitude

We have multiple ten's today. It is the tenth day of the tenth month in the year 2010. Moreover, in the Gospel reading, we hear the story of ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). Coincident?

Fr. Milanese brought our attention to the theme of "faith" which runs through the gospel readings of these two weeks. Last week, the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. Then Jesus told them the teaching of "worthy servants". We are stewards of God. We should put our faith in Him and be humble when we have done our duties.
This week, Jesus healed 10 lepers and only one, who was a Samaritan, returned to glorify God. The rest perhaps followed the customs to be examined by priests, cleansed and offered the sacrifices demanded (Leviticus 14:1-32). They performed the rituals required but they did not return to thank God. Of course, we cannot conclude with certainty that they were not grateful to God.
And Jesus said to the Samaritan leper, "Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well." (Luke 17:19).
Fr. Milanese explained that lepers were regarded as sinners in ancient time. When lepers were cleansed, their sins were forgiven. He extended Jesus' teaching. Not only does the forgiveness of sins require repentance, but it also requires faith and gratitude. Faith had healed the leper and it was gratitude that gave him (and us) new life.
In the gospel of Luke, the formula "your faith has saved you / made you well" appears four times: the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears (Luke 7:36-50), the bleeding woman (Luke 8:43-48), this Samaritan leper (Luke 17:11-19) and the blind man of Jericho (Luke 18:35-43). In each case, the person involved was a representation of sinners directly or indirectly. In each case, we may detect a sense of gratitude in the person involved and in each case, the person started a new life. Therefore, these stories are about the sacrament of repentance.

These few days, I ran into trouble again with my boss. He is incredibly inflexible though he always tells students to "Strive for excellence, Think out of the box, Christ as model". He is not able to practise what he preaches. He really thinks out of (from) the box! The story is a long one.

When I first arrived at Shung Tak, I was honoured to be able to participate in the team to appeal for the EMI status of Shung Tak. After winning the appeal, the RS department came into a dilemma. As an EMI school, all our subjects, except for the Chinese subjects, must use English as the MOI, unless that subject had obtained the approval from the SMC to use Chinese.
The panel head, Ms. Rose Lee, was an ex-nun majoring in the teaching of Chinese Language. Two years later, our students would sit for the new 2000 RS syllabus. In previous years, Shung Tak students only had to study one Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. They had done it well in English. However, the new syllabus consisted of a section on Personal and Social Issues. Fearing that our students would not be able to compete with candidates from elite schools, Rose succeeded in persuading the Principal and the SMC to use Chinese as the MOI. Moreover, the Diocese had always been advocating switching to the use of mother tongue in teaching, despite the fact that many Diocesan schools had already plunged in their banding as a result. These two reasons sealed the fate of the RS HKCEE results for the next ten years. We have never scored the average passing rate of the territory! There are many factors contributing to such a poor performance. It may not prove the failure of the Diocesan mother tongue policy. However, if people insist on burying their heads in the sand to look for the benefit of using the mother tongue for the evangelization in a Band One English school, they had better ask the boss to submit the number of students baptized/confirmed in the last ten years, or do an opinion poll on the religious atmosphere of the school.

It is natural for the school to ask Catholic teachers to teach RS. However, the situation in Shung Tak is special in her own way. Most of the Catholics are English teachers (six), except for Agnes (Chinese). Adrian (RS) and Dennis (Chinese) joined us last year. This year, Joe Cheung (Maths & Science) joins. If we look at the number of Catholics qualified to teach RS, there are only five. Brenda, Donna and me are English teachers. Adrian can teach in English and Agnes not.
Another factor to consider is the language proficiency of the students. They are Band One students and should have no problem in taking RS, examination or non-examination syllabii, in English. Why should we deprive them of the opportunity? Were Shung Tak a Band Three school, I have no qualms about using Chinese in RS lessons.

I see the NSS syllabus as an opportunity for Shung Tak to switch back to the use of English in the teaching of Ethics and Religious Studies. In a briefing session for S3 parents, I explained the benefits of choosing English as the MOI for the NSS ERS syllabus. In the same session, the school told the parents that LS would be done in Chinese. Some parents objected. The boss yielded to the requests of the LS teachers to use Chinese and to fend off the complaints from the parents, the boss gained the approval from the SMC to approve the use of Chinese in LS, bundling ERS and ERE with it, quoting again the same reason for using Chinese in RS ten years ago. Enough is enough. My students and I had suffered for more than 10 years my teaching RS in Chinese. (10 again?) Therefore, I refused to teach the NSS ERS elective. The school employs Adrian to take it up.
This year, I am assigned to teach Ethics and Religious Education from S5 to S7. Of course, I do it in English. At the end of September, my boss discovered that I was not doing it in Chinese. He put pressure on Adrian. I would not yield. He patiently tried to persuade me to follow the policy approved by the SMC. I shall not.
My boss will talk to the Supervisor tomorrow. I would like to see how Sr. Michelle would handle it. Cannot there be flexibility in this MOI policy? After all, we teach ERE in Chinese from S1 to S4. Who can complain that we are not following the MOI policy? Only my boss!

Dear Lord, Your compassion and flexibility towards sinners had landed You on the cross. In this MOI issue, if I have defied the Diocesan mother tongue policy, You know that I follow my conscience. I pray for Adrian that he would not get caught in our cross fire. Amen.