LIFE AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON – Brothers Keeper!

Catholic Social Teaching

Special Post

LENTEN SEASON YR. B

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida

*Parents wait for news after a report of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Joel Auerbach)*

⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ – Genesis 4:9 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)

As we come to a hollow anniversary during this Lenten Season marking the tragic passing of 17 high school students who were brutally murdered by a gunman – one of their peers – whose horrific act of senseless violence will forever call out to our nation that something indeed is wrong with our Gun Laws. However, my brothers and sisters as tragic as this mass shooting is there has risen a small ray of sunshine as the dust settles a little. This ray of sunshine I would like to direct everyone’s attention to is incredible considering the age group we are talking about. In their reaction of what they personally lived through – that no teenager, child, parent, or anyone should ever have to live through; have answered the question posed by Cain after he killed his brother Abel, “YES WE ARE OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER!”

The high school students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida have gotten together to organize a movement with a very poignant message which rings clear and should shame those in Government who refuse to do anything to protect our youth, who refuse to be the adults in the room, and refuse to act like our Brother’s keeper. Thousands of young people in unison loudly and bravely declare – ‘We are going to be the last mass shooting!’ To the Federal Government, ‘You are either with us or against us!’ – Cameron Kasky – Junior Class, February 18, 2018. The movement that has started according to this young brave man is called March for Our Lives – Protest planned to occur is scheduled for March 24, 2018, in his own words, “My message for the people in office is: You’re either with us or against us. We are losing our lives while the adults are playing around.” Echoing this call to action is Emma Gonzalez, a senior who bravely publically announced, “Every single person up here today should be at home greaving but instead we are up here getting together because if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers then its time for victims be the change we need to see.” Sat February 17, 2018. These students rightly blame the lax gun laws and chief among this issue is the National Rifle Association (NRA) for protecting profits rather than peoples lives. I urge all of you, my brothers and sisters – join this protest, support these students, show through your actions that you too are sick of the laws that protect money instead of human lives!

We can’t ignore the issues of gun control that this tragedy raises. And so, I’m asking — no, demanding — we take action now. – Cameron Kasky

Catholic Social Teaching in Action

Photo courtesy of Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS

For many of you who may not be Catholic but may have seen this title before as it relates to Catholic Social Teaching, I say to you it is a human issue, this is a personal, moral, even Godly issue! People of faith in every corner of the globe should be able to hold each other’s hands on this one! For we all have a duty to stand up and campaign for those weaker than us and those who cannot stand up for themselves! We as children of God cannot just turn a blind eye to this one, and out of the mouth of babes (Matthew 21:16) ‘We can’t ignore the issue of gun control that this tragedy raises.’ In good conscience the 17 students who lost their lives and all other students in every mass shooting in America and anywhere this violence has occurred we can not look away, rather we need to look this evil in the eye and do something about it! Part of the response should be to tax the HELL OUT OF GUNS! Tax them out of business – make owning a semi-automatic weapon illegal – go for the money – give it to the victims – educate, educate, educate – be a responsible citizens and vote out any lawmaker refusing to be on the right side of this movement – be our Brother’s keeper and protect all life here on planet earth! JUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE! FOR THE LORD, THY GOD IS WATCHING! ¹² ‘This land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” – Deuteronomy 11:12 (NRSVA)

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Teachers resources – Catholic Social Teaching

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17 People Died In The Parkland Shooting. Here Are Their Names

Alyssa Alhadeff, 14 -student
Scott Beigel, 35 – Geography Teacher and the school’s Cross-Country Coach
Martin Duque Anguiano, 14 – student
Nicholas Dworet, 17 – student
Aaron Feis, 37 – graduated from Douglas High School in 1999 and had been an assistant football coach at the school since 2002, the Sun-Sentinel reported. He had worked as a security guard at the school for at least eight years.
Jamie Guttenberg, 14 – student
Chris Hixon, 49 – was fatally injured after he raced to the scene of the shooting to try to help students, the school’s head football coach told NPR.
Luke Hoyer, 15 – student
Cara Loughran, 14, student
Gina Montalto, 14 – student
Joaquin Oliver, 17 – student
Alaina Petty, 14 – student
Meadow Pollack, 18 – student
Helena Ramsay, 17 – student
Alex Schachter, 14 – student
Carmen Schentrup, 16 – student
Peter Wang, 15 – student

Prayer for Life and Dignity

‘Eternal God, creator, and sustainer of life, bless us with the courage to defend all life from conception to natural death. Bless us with the strength to respect all peoples from east to west, from north to south, so that we may truly follow the call of Jesus to be neighbor. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.

– (From Being Neighbor: The Catechism and Social Justice, USCCB, April 1998)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

May the Lord bless you, protect you from all evil and bring you to everlasting life.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saint Joseph, Pray for us. ~ Sancte Ioseph – ‘ora pro nobis,’

Amen, Alleluia

Now go spread the word!

Reaffirming Our Mission

To Always Image Christ in Mind, Heart, Body, and Soul.

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“Let’s grow together as children of God”

Resisting Temptation

Driven into the Wilderness

Lenten Season Yr. B

First Sunday of Lent

¹²And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him. – Mark 1:12-15 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)

I want to begin this Sunday’s reflection with a thought, ‘What would it have been like to be tempted by Satan as Jesus was?’ This goes without saying because we are tempted by Satan every day, but not in the same way. I saw that because Jesus was being tempted in a very particular way, in fact, His temptation was centered on His life as a human being and on His divinity all in one go. Satan sought to over through our Lord right out of the gate! Here is an analogy I used to tell my students in elementary school. We as human beings are like a raw metal that is filled with impurities. God seeks through our lives and experience to drive those impurities out through a series of lessons that burn away those impurities only to give us cooling down periods which serves to toughen us up. From the purification fires to the cooling down faith forming waters over and over we follow this cycle all the days of our life.

However, Jesus was born without sin, He was already pure. So why did He need to be tested by Satan? (Let me know your thoughts on Facebook)

Possible Answer: Satan saw an opening and tried to take advantage of it. Because Jesus was both man and God there were two sides of the same coin, on weaker than the other. Guess which one was weaker – the human side right? Satan, therefore, sought to tempt Jesus’s humanity and appeal to his human desires. It is here where Jesus was most vulnerable as forty -days lingered on. Think of the world today if Satan had gotten Jesus through His mortal hunger to make the stones before him into loaves of bread? What would this world be like if Jesus allowed His humanity to stumble as we often do? But Jesus instead chooses to answer Satan with a quote from Deuteronomy, 8:3;

4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Reflection Question: ‘What example does this set for our lives today?’

The temptations of Christ was intended to test every facet of what would become His ministry all the way to His final passion. Jesus would overcome Satan on both sides of that coin. Satan most certainly knew that Jesus in whatever form He chose was stronger and could destroy his hold on humanity, Satan knew that Jesus was that one High Preist that would intercede on man’s behalf gaining the favor of God as it relates to our sins. The very sin’s that condemned humanity from the very first day in the Garden. Satan’s temporary victory would be shattered for all time! Satan finally knew that Jesus through the very act of humbling Himself in becoming human would be able to relate to humanity, feeling every sorted feeling, every physical pain, every tempting thought to rebel against God. Jesus being driven into the desert was to clear His doubts about His final three years on earth, His desire to live over the plan of salvation; so Satan tempted Him. Each day Jesus walked the earth as a man was another day closer humanity could relate to God in a new and exciting way. All of which would topple Satans stranglehold on all of mankind for eternity. Jesus’ s very public announcement that kickstarted His ministry after His baptism was one that most certainly drove Satan to defend all that he had done in his rage against God, the lion looking pounced upon Jesus and our Lord took the brunt of His rath for all of us through those forty days of His divine temptation.