Father Becker April 5

[Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,

   “Is he not the one they are trying to kill?

And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.

Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?

But we know where he is from.

When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”] (Jn. 7:25-27)

Once again Jesus surprises the Jews by His actions.  First, He’s in Jerusalem where the authorities are trying to kill Him.  Second, He is the Christ long awaited by the Jews.  However He is not recognized because the Jews think they know where He is from. They and really no one could have imagined that God would take on flesh in Jesus.  God surprised the Jews as He does us. 

St. Augustine exclaims in his Confessions, “Oh Beauty ever ancient, ever new.” God is wholly active in our lives. He existed from all eternity and will continue to exist for all eternity.  God is ever ancient and ever new simultaneously.  He never changes.  Yet, He  transforms the world.  God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Yet, He always catches us by surprise. 

God never acts as we expect.  We can’t “box Him in”.  He is full of surprises.  He has plans for you that you haven’t even imagined. Allow God to surprise you today. We abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent so that we can draw closer to Jesus.  Today, allow Jesus to draw closer to you.  Let Him surprise you. 

Father Becker April 4

[“Moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.“] (Jn. 5: 42)

Ugh... well that’s quite an indictment.  In our Gospel today Jesus differentiates between human and divine testimony.  He doesn’t accept human testimony, but God’s.  Seemingly out of the blue this verse appears on the lips of Jesus amidst His discussion. 

“Moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.“

This verse catches us off guard, and it convicts us. (well it convicts me at least).  God is always speaking, desperately trying to get our attention. He seeks us out, and we many times are oblivious. Yet, there are times in which He breaks through like the sun peaking through the clouds. This can happen at anytime, anywhere, and through anything or anyone.  Jesus’s words remind me of something St. John says in his first letter:

Do  not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1Jn. 2:15) 

When we become aware of God convicting us of our sins or bad habits we must remember that He convicts us not to make us feel awful about ourselves. God convicts us so that we may grow in holiness.  Loving the world and the things of the world is not bad in and of itself, since God created the world and all it contains.  However loving them above and before God is.  

Jesus prompts us to reflect on and honestly ask purselves, “Is God the first priority in my life?  Do I love other things more than Him?  What must be readjusted in my life so that God truly is the center of my life?”

Father Becker April 3

[“I cannot do anything on my own;

   I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will

   but the will of the one who sent me.”]

(Jn. 5:30)

Whose will do I seek? God’s or my own?  Jesus claims to be not only a son of God, but the Son of God and consequently God Himself.  He slowly reveals the mystery of the Blessed Trinity (3 Persons in 1 God) and that He, the Holy Spirit, and the Father are one.   So...Jesus perfectly seeks the Father’s will.   

Immediately before His arrest, Jesus passionately prays to do God’s will in the garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will” (Mt. 26:39b).  A day later Jesus exclaims from the cross, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30b).  On the cross Jesus perfectly accomplished the  Father’s will, the salvation of the human race. 

In whose name do you act? God’s or your own?  Jesus did not act on His own, but did the will of His Father.  We often speak of discerning God’s call for our lives, such searching being necessary. However I think many of us already know situations or things God is asking us to accomplish.   We are just unwilling to because of fear, uncertainty, etc.  it takes a lot of courage and strength to accomplish God’s will, and many times it requires us to go out of our comfort zone.  

Take some time today and recall one of those situations in your life in which God is encouraging you to accomplish His will .  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you courage and strength to accomplish it.  It might help to spend some time in prayer with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:

[Then going out he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives,

   and the disciples followed him.

When he arrived at the place he said to them,

   “Pray that you may not undergo the test.”

After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling,

   he prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing,

   take this cup away from me;

   still, not my will but yours be done.”

And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him.

He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently

   that his sweat became like drops of blood

   falling on the ground.

When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples,

   he found them sleeping from grief.

He said to them, “Why are you sleeping?

Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test.”] (Lk. 22:39-46)

Teaching the Way of Love April

The Diocese has asked all schools to inform parents of the newest Teaching the Way of Love blog.

The April post can be found at

https://twl4parents.com/physical-maturity-setting-standards-boundaries/

In Christ's Peace
Daniel Minter
President
Assumption Catholic Schools

April 2

[There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate

   a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.

In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.

One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there

   and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,

   “Do you want to be well?”

The sick man answered him,

   “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool

   when the water is stirred up;

   while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”

Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.] (Jn. 5:1-9)

“Do you want to be well?”  Jesus asks this odd question to the sick man confined to a mat.  The answer the man will supply is obvious to us and most likely to Jesus as well, yet He still asks it. Jesus does not assume the man wants to be healed. He waits for the sick man’s request. 

Jesus poses this same question to you. “Do you want to be well?”  Again I’m sure the answer is obvious, “Of course I do.”  Yet, it’s ironic that many times we don’t ask Jesus to heal us.  We’d rather rely on ourselves or wait for the situation to fix itself all the while needlessly suffering alone. 

What needs to be made “well” in your life?  Are you and your spouse going through a rough patch?  Are you trying to crawl away from the shackles of a certain sin(s)?  Are you having difficulties at work or with coworkers? Is your financial situation enslaving your every thought? Are you mourning the imminent death or the recent death of a loved one? Etc.? 

Talk to Jesus about your struggles. You don’t have to go through it alone.  Jesus is waiting upon your request. 

“Do you want to be well?”

Father Becker April 1

[At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.

For Jesus himself testified

   that a prophet has no honor in his native place.

When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,

   since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;

   for they themselves had gone to the feast.] (Jn. 4:43-45)

Jesus was commonplace in His own native town.  His neighbors saw nothing special about Him. Though Jesus was “God among them”, inhabitants of His hometown refused to look deeper than skin. They could not see the extraordinary amidst the ordinary.  Thankfully others saw signs of the divine in the human such as many people of Galilee and the Apostles. 

Normally God works through the ordinary.  Jesus (2nd Person of the Blessed Trinity) took to Himself human flesh. Through His humanity He accomplished our salvation by His death. To bystanders His death was ordinary, just another man crucified by the Romans.  However we know through the eyes of faith that the extraordinary was achieved in the ordinary. 

God continues to engineer the extraordinary in the ordinary most especially in the 7 Sacraments He gifted the human race.  A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.  In the Sacraments very ordinary words and materials are used as vehicles of God’s grace—water, bread, wine, oil, speech, imposition of hands, etc.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a great treasure trove of mercy God gave His Church (see Jn. 20:22-23). We confess our sins audibly to an ordained priest who in turn responds with words.  His own words yes, but synonymously Jesus’s— words of forgiveness, healing, and peace. 

Today make an examination of conscience, and prepare yourself to infallibly  receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.  There are lots of opportunities this week and in the coming weeks to go to confession. Also you can always stop a priest whenever you see one and ask him to hear your confession. 

Here are two simple ways I llike to make my examination of conscience. 

Begin by asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten me and bring to mind my sins. 

1.) Go through the 10 Commandments one by one recalling the sins I’ve committed against each.

2.) Recall the sins I’ve committed

       • Against God

       • Aganst others 

       • Against myself 

Sometimes it helps to make a list before going into the Confessional, noting the sins I’ve committed and the number of times I’ve committed them. 

Screenagers

St. Lawrence Catholic Church is hosting a showing of Screenagers on Tuesday April 9, 2019
at the McMillan Library

The showing begins at 6 PM
Admission is FREE

Movie Synopsis

Are you watching kids scroll through life, with their rapid-fire thumbs and a six-second attention span? Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston saw that with her own kids and learned that the average kid spends 6.5 hours a day looking at screens. She wondered about the impact of all this time and about the friction occurring in homes and schools around negotiating screen time—friction she knew all too well. 

In SCREENAGERS, as with her award-winning documentaries on mental health, Delaney takes a deeply personal approach as she probes into the vulnerable corners of family life, including her own, to explore struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant, and unexpectedly funny stories, along with surprising insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, SCREENAGERS reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and offers solutions on how adults can
empower kids to best navigate the digital world and find balance.

Movie Trailer