José Ignacio González Faus, Jesuit, theologian, and man of faith, has walked toward the house of the Father. Ten days earlier, I had the good fortune to visit him in his cell. Nothing indicated the seriousness of his condition. The encounter between the professor and the student was gratifying. I discovered that the person was greater than the character. I didn’t remember many things about the pranks those apprentice theologians had gotten up to. The conversation revolved around trends in theology and the latest articles he was preparing. He was up to date on the latest film releases and series about the Gospels and Jesus. He was more informed and well-informed than a servant regarding international politics, of which he was very critical. Likewise, he lived day-to-day life in the world at ninety-one years of age. But it is not my intention to summarize his legacy, nor even to speak of his evangelical teaching, which has formed thousands of religious and secular students who have passed through his teaching. It is easy to find articles and essays translated into several languages.

I was surprised by the austerity of his room. A small library, an old computer, some armchairs, and a table and chairs from a rickety convent. He would go up to the infirmary for dinner, where he also slept like an old man. Throughout the conversation, despite recalling conflictive periods with the hierarchy, at no point did he hint at even the slightest displeasure or recrimination. He made an anecdote of the fact that he was entrusted with teaching such a discipline, and just when he had the syllabus worked through, for unknown reasons, he was removed from the responsibility.

A man whose main concern was spreading the message of Jesus incarnate.

As I said, the person was greater than the character.

In that sense, at the funeral, in addition to academic and congregational authorities, his only surviving sister, Pilar, the youngest of several siblings, spoke. She warned us that her speech would be different. I was impressed when she told us about the good humor he displayed with his family. In his writings and in classes, he was very critical. He didn’t lavish easy applause. His “testament” expresses concern for the poor and cries out against an unjust system.

His sister emphasized his consistently excellent grades, which, from early childhood in kindergarten until the end of high school, he earned top marks in every subject, every year. There was one exception, in one sixth-grade class, when he earned a five. She didn’t tell us what it was or why.

This excellence in studies culminated in a lifetime of top grades.

With the backdrop of the recently begun Lent and remembering Professor José Ignacio, I am motivated by the idea of ​​treating our lives as the main subject that they are. And thus, working toward the highest grade of ten. It is about looking at the goal, Christ, as the new humanity of which the professor spoke to us.

The desert and the temptations are the pedagogy for walking toward that perfection.

The first temptation, that of the bread, places us in the position of choosing the practical, the material, over the spiritual or less necessary from a human point of view. Students often reduce the syllabus to what will appear on the exam. Studying to pass rather than to know. To obtain the highest grade of ten, you have to study everything. Sometimes we want to put aside topics that we consider unimportant and that, instead, give meaning to life. For example, the topic of being kind and polite to others. Dedicating time to ourselves, cultivating our interiority through prayer. Or something even harder, integrating into our lives the cross of illness, loneliness, or abandonment. Man does not live by bread alone… The word of God covers the entire repertoire of themes of human life, not just the material issue of survival.

The second temptation is to obtain the maximum, or everything, with the minimum effort, simply by making a pact with evil. It is corruption. From cheating on exams to having someone else examine you. It is the reign of falsehood at all costs to obtain a good grade. Succumbing to the most basic principles of honesty, truthfulness, and fidelity entails a struggle for power that leads to crucifying others. Jesus dies on the cross because others kill. The cross of Jesus becomes the expression of the triumph of corruption and evil. It represents the forms of corruption that lead to death. The temptation to repay in kind to obtain our benefit leads to death. With the teacher, it was difficult to cheat, since he complemented the written exams with a personal interview.

The third temptation is to manipulate God himself. To use power to achieve our goals. To be above God himself. Many good teachers have had to leave their professional careers because of the deification of students. From the youngest, who rely on the complicity of their parents to subdue the teacher, to the oldest, who use other techniques to degrade the teacher, whom they consider an enemy to be defeated. In any human relationship, using superior rank to subdue the will of another means destroying dialogue, consensus, and with it, sometimes, the truth.

The three temptations are obstacles to not reaching a ten, the highest qualification of the complete human being who is Christ.

Professor González Faus was an example of excellence. Thank you to the academic and life teachers who help us aim for a ten.