#LasallianLife
There are No Coincidence By Todd Benware
October 6, 2023
In 2019, our faculty and staff completed a project entitled, “Let Us Remember.” Brother Joseph Jozwiak provided the following introduction:
“Let Us Remember” is a collection of thoughts and reflections written by faculty, staff and students at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, New York. These reflections come from the hearts and experiences of teachers who have engaged themselves in the Lasallian mission of educating young students and who, by their classroom presence, have “touched the hearts” of countless numbers of students at CBA.
I hope that you will enjoy reading these various stories as they will provide you with a glimpse of why our faculty and staff have committed themselves to the Lasallian mission as it is lived each and every day at CBA.”
Today, I would like to share one particular reflection from "Let us Remember" by English teacher Mr. Todd Benware. Mr. Benware is currently in his 29th year at Christian Brothers Academy. Like so many of our faculty members, he is magical in the classroom and has been a blessing to his students and colleagues. I hope that you enjoy his reflection for this week's LasallianLife!
There are No Coincidences
Todd Benware
At a recent September mass for faculty, Br. Joe Jozwiak quoted Pope John Paul II. “In light of God’s providence,” he said, “there is no coincidence.” I felt those words shoot through me; finally, what I felt for so long was articulated in a way that I could communicate and understand. God definitely directed my journey to Christian Brothers Academy and a Lasallian life, and I am convinced that He led me here because He saw in me something that I could not or would not see in myself.
I often tell my story at the New Teacher’s Orientation session that I lead each August. I was twenty-five years old, fresh out of graduate school with an M.A in English, and engaged. I was also unemployed. The latter fact did not sit well with my fiancée, Robin. “You need a job,” she said. Sadly, I agreed. Like many milestones that have defined our marriage, she took control. “There’s a school in Syracuse looking for an English teacher,” she said with the want ads in her hand. “You should apply.”
“Teaching? I don’t want to teach.” “Let me rephrase that,” she said. “You’re going to apply.”
That school was CBA. Robin had been teaching for four years. She prepped me as much as she could, anticipating the questions that the interview committee would ask. “They’ll ask some questions on pedagogy,” she warned.
“What’s pedagogy?” I responded. Oh, boy.
The interview was on a hot morning the day after we attended a concertin Rochester. I brought a suit on the trip, listened to some final tips on the drive to Syracuse, and hoped for the best. After the interview with the Brother Principal, Roy Dado, and Brenda Bigelow, I climbed back into the car where Robin waited for me. “How’d it go?” she asked.
“Okay,” I said. She asked for the answers I gave to the committee’s questions, and after I recounted the interview she shrugged her shoulders and told me I didn’t do too badly. I didn’t believe her.
I prepared for the worst and resolved to live the first married year of my life on the unemployment line. The next day, however, the phone rang and it was the Principal offering me the job. I accepted on the spot and hung up the phone. Instead of excitement I immediately felt anxiety overwhelm me. There’s no way I should have been hired. I possessed no classroom experience, I had never taken an Education class, and I had faked my way through the pedagogical questions in the interview. “What are you doing!?” I thought. “You’ll get eaten alive.”
But there was this God’s-providence thing going on, for sure. Robin used to tell me that she thought I would make a good teacher. I scoffed at her and told her that would never happen, but she kept saying it. Then she practically threw me into the interview room. Left to my own choices, I would not be a teacher today. I say that with full conviction. I am also convinced that God somehow got into the minds of that interview committee and convinced them to take a chance on this desperate charlatan mindlessly spouting the words “mentor” and “vocation” (because Robin told me to). I don’t know how, but they saw something in me that said teacher despite all evidence to the contrary. That’s God’s work.
A few days after accepting the position I was offered a job at a book and magazine distributorship owned by a friend’s father. It came with a company car. In the days that followed I agonized over what to do. Take the easy route and settle in at a job close to home with people I knew, or venture into completely foreign territory and become a teacher. Despite what my head and most of my heart was saying, I told my friend’s father no.
I continued to have doubts and fears right up through new teacher orientation. On the last day I was walking down the back stairwell on the way to lunch with Marilyn Goulet. She turned and looked me straight in the face with the widest and most enthusiastic smile (trademark Marilyn, I soon learned; she could smell someone in need from two floors away). “I’m so excited!” she beamed. “Aren’t you!?” “Yes,” I lied.
That night I was lying in bed mentally preparing myself for standing in front of students for the first time in my life when I felt something I will never forget. A sudden peace washed over me and all anxiety and worry simply disappeared. An inner voice said very plainly, “You’re where you need to be.” And that was it. I’ve experienced that voice two other times in my life, and it spoke the truth in those instances as well. Some people might consider that voice an imagined concoction of a frazzled mind. I don’t. I think God was letting me know that everything was in His hands, at least in that moment. He’s put the work into my hands since then, for sure, but not without assuring me that I’m on His path.
“In light of God’s providence, there is no coincidence.” That quote is posted at the front of my room and I read it every day. I have experienced it in the classrooms and hallways of CBA too many times to recount here. I have experienced it with humble privilege as I watched my own children receive a Lasallian education. I will continue to experience it for the rest of my life. And that job with the comfortable surroundings and the company car that I turned down? The company dissolved with the advent of the internet. Chalk another one up to God’s providence.
Note: If you would like to reach out to Mr. Benware, his contact information is [email protected]
