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Sr. Ruth Graf, RSM, has been on the theology faculty at Xavier University in Cincinnati since 1973, guiding students through the Old Testament. |
"I'm more of an idealist than my students are, and that surprises them." |
So says Sr. Ruth Graf, a Sister of Mercy and a professor of Old Testament at Xavier University in Cincinnati. This fall she begins her 24th year of surprising Xavier students with her lively personality, enthusiasm for teaching, and knowledge of Scripture. "My basic call in life," she says "is to be a teacher. I've taught everything from first grade through grad school. I enjoy the interaction; I grow when I see other people grow." Sr. Graf's passion for teaching is only deepened by her love of Scripture. And she uses the classroom to help students make a very important connection: "When you read Scripture, you're not reading a story of ancient people--you're reading your own story."
Making connections between ancient Scripture and contemporary life requires creativity and work. "I never teach courses the same way twice. My preparation time is just as great now as it was when I first started teaching. If I don't have something new, I won't be able to interest students," says Sr. Graf. "My class is not a requirement per se. Students at Xavier must take Introduction to Theology and at least one other course in historical theology or Scripture, either Old or New Testament. My class applies to that second requirement."
Never mind those requirements and "musts"; Sr. Graf's classes quickly reach their maximum capacity of 40 each semester. Students want to study with her; they know she is a demanding teacher and a good guide.
Sr. Graf, who became a Mercy sister 49 years ago, earned an MA in Scripture from St. Louis University and a PhD in biblical studies from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. She specializes in interfaith dialogue between the Jewish and Christian traditions. "I got interested in this field," she reflects, "because I realized my ignorance regarding the New Testament was based on my ignorance of the Hebrew roots of it. The more I understood that Christianity grew out of something that became Bible and continues to be Bible, the more I saw how important the Old Testament is." Now she works hard to equip students with an understanding of Christianity's origins so they can explore the tradition on their own.
When Sr. Graf first started teaching, students knew the basics of the faith. Today it is much different. Most students walk into her class with little if any knowledge of the Old Testament. "There's been a real shift in what the parochial elementary schools focus on. They don't use words like transubstantiation anymore. Kids today can't even name the seven sacraments. All they know is that God is love and that no matter what they do, God loves them.
"There's something wrong with religious education that says anything goes, for example, ÔGod could never send anybody to hell.' However, I don't think that the opposite--the fire-and-brimstone approach--is good, either," she explains. "I simply think that it's important to live within limits. If you drink too much, you have a hangover. If you eat too much, you gain weight. There are consequences to all of our actions. The rules of the Church are not ends in themselves; they are the parameters within which we function."
For Sr. Graf, Christianity is about being challenged to explore who we are, how we act, and where we are going in light of our faith in God. She says that today's picture of an all-loving God who does not require obedience or responsibility is "unappealing" and that she is not attracted to a God who is so sweet he has "honey dripping off his beard." She wants to help students establish a mature relationship with their faith tradition and ultimately with God.
By using the Old Testament to help students better understand the tenets of the faith, Sr. Graf proves that Scripture stories are anything but old. "Students realize what I realize: Scripture is alive. We're not reading about an exodus out of Egypt--we're reading about our own journey. Students make connections on their own. They really are touched by God's promise of ÔWherever you are I will be in the midst of you.' "
At a time when America's fascination with the sacred is very high, Sr. Graf tries to Êtap into a spiritual hunger she sees in students. More than anything, she encourages them to be serious seekers--responsible women and men who pursue their interests and wonderings with vigor.
"As seekers," she says, "we are searching for something beyond ourselves. I don't care what you call that beyond, I just care that you explore your connection to it." The Bible is an obvious means of exploring what lies beyond.
"Before we can truly understand the organized religions that grow out of the Scriptures, we must understand the Scriptures themselves," Sr. Graf explains. "When my students work with the Old Testament and are able to say things like, ÔLast Sunday I didn't hear where the reading was from, but I knew right away,' it just thrills me."
And it also thrills her to see students place greater importance on the messages of the Scriptures than on the validity of the stories themselves. "Whether the sea parted," she says, "is not as important to me, and I think not as important to the students, as is the fact that God has an active role in the world and is with us on this journey, and that there are many natural occurrences that manifest God's presence. Again, it ties into the students' thirst and hunger to know that they are not alone on this journey."
Students delight in forging those links between Scripture stories and their own lives. As Sr. Graf elaborates, "Invariably, the things that I'm pretty sure are going to turn them off--like burning bushes or some of my own experiences that I share--are the very things that make them stop and say, ÔI'm so glad you said that; you know, this is what happened to me.' And they stop and talk about their experiences, and they know those were prize moments. They don't lack revelatory experiences; they lack the community that will help them tell the story of those experiences."
The role of organized religion, in Sr. Graf's estimation, is to provide that community; it is a way for believers and seekers to share themselves. "If belonging to the Church means saying yes to everything, then I don't want to belong. But if belonging means I have a place where I can find other people on a search, no matter what level, then I belong."
Sr. Graf communicates her insights into belonging to the Church in this way: "To me, organized religion began with an experience of God and developed as a response to that experience. Consequently, religion helps me encounter God in a real way, and that is what's important. The other things like the laws and regulations are meant to ensure that we can get to this. So, religion for me is that which leads me to those two things--experience of God and response to it. If I do all these things--take the Bible seriously, the laws seriously, the rituals seriously--I move closer to God. But if I do just these other things, these external things, then all I've got is an idolatrous system, and I think some people see religion as an idolatrous system, an end in itself, rather than the search for God."
Through Scripture, Sr. Graf teaches students to see the human connection with the divine. She emphasizes that Scripture stories mirror our own stories. "I try to show students that what matters most about religion is that it arose out of the experience of God. How religion has shaped the experience to help us remember and understand it is secondary."
Sr. Graf's creative presentations help students see the Old Testament in new ways. For example, "I tell students that the Garden of Eden isn't the beginning but the end, that toward which we are going rather than that from which we came. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, which was there in the beginning, but that's what we're heading toward, a relationship with God." With teachers like Ruth Graf, Scripture comes alive and seekers find a home amidst the riches of the Bible.
Jeremy Langford, the managing and acquisitions editor at Loyola Press in Chicago, is a contributing author to Happy Are They: Americans Finding the Key to Joy (Triumph, forthcoming).
Page maintained by R VandeVelde, vande@math.luc.edu. Updated: Fri., January 17 1997