I taught for years and was known as a tough teacher. However, students signed up for my classes as word got around that one actually learned something in these. and that the classes, though hard and demanding, were interesting.
Challenging students made them realize their own potential and raised their own expectations. If one expects a certain standard, one will get it.
Most teachers asked for five papers per semester. I asked a minimum of seven up to twelve, depending on the group.
Most teachers did not demand original source material. I did. And I taught students to discriminate between good and bad sources, honorable and dishonorable sources, realizable and unreliable sources, scholarly and popular sources, and so on.
No matter what subject I taught, be it Composition, Argumentation and Debate, Logic, Religion, Comparative Religions, Humanities, Philosophy and so on, I had one main goal besides teaching the subject-teaching my students how to think.
In all my classes, I taught critical thinking. I led students to learn how to discover Truth.
Those who just wanted an easy A for their transcripts did not stay in my class. Those who were interested and finally, enamored at learning to learn and learning to think, stayed in my classes.
Tough love is real love. If one cannot be honest, with one's self and others, the soul dies.
A few, very few, comments, which do not get published as they are not helpful, have attacked me for being critical of priests. A few, very few, people do not understand that I love those very people I have criticized. And, have spoken to directly. Real love is Truth, not merely being nice. One can be respectful and be truthful, as my students had to learn in formal debate. No ad hominems, no ad populums, etc., but facts. The Church has everything one needs and most information is on line. There is no excuse for ignorance, either among the laity or in the clergy.
But, the relativist mind cannot abide Truth and does not want to explore Truth. The relativist is actually terrified that there may be an objective Truth.
There is, and He has a Name, the most holy of names. God is Truth.
If one is truly sincere about loving God and desiring His Love, one must be open to Truth.
One's particular judgement can start now. Live in Truth. The Church needs truthful, honest people. The Bride of Christ is not wooed or loved without truth.
Know thyself and know God.
Bernard of Clairvuax, my favorite saint among the blessed, after Mary, Our Mother, writes a commentary on this passage from the Song of Songs, Chapter One. I cannot give the entire set of sermons on these pericopes, but can share that one of his points is that one must know one's self. The Bridegroom addresses the Bride on this point. She must leave him and follow the shepherds to find Truth before she is worthy to be the Bride. Such is one's duty and one's quest--one must be holy and one must pursue self-knowledge in order for the Bridegroom to come. One may have to go out into the desert to find Truth. This is called purification. God is Just and Love is connected to Justice as well as Mercy.
7 If thou know not thyself, O fairest among women, go forth, and follow after the steps of the flocks, and feed thy kids beside the tents of the shepherds.
8 To my company of horsemen, in Pharao's chariots, have I likened thee, O my love.