For the week of April 25, 2010

Thanks to the following families who helped this past week:
• For sponsoring a school lunch, Mrs. Cathy Porretta and her daughters Maria, Sarah and Theresa, Mrs. Ann Rincon, Mrs. Donna Stropko, and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Wheatley.
• For helping Ed Lim work towards his eagle project: Mr. JooBin Lim.
• For hosting students over the weekend: Mr. and Mrs. Manzano, Mr. and Mrs. Porretta, and Mr. and Mrs. Rincon

Announcements
• Radio advertisements about the May 1 entrance test for St. Michael’s Prep are on Immaculate Heart Radio both midmorning and midafternoon in these areas:
KIHP 1310 AM (Phoenix, AZ)
KJPG 1050 AM (Bakersfield, CA)
KIHH 1400 AM (Eureka, CA)
KPJP 89.3 FM (Greenville, CA)
KJOP 1240 AM (Lemoore, CA)
KHOT 1250 AM (Madera, CA)
KSMH 1620 AM (Sacramento, CA)
KSFB 1260 AM (San Francisco, CA)
KWG 1230 AM (Stockton, CA)
KXXQ 100.7 FM (Gallup, NM)
KIHM 920 AM (Reno, NV)
KIHU 1010 AM (Salt Lake City, UT)

Volunteer Opportunities
• Join in sponsoring a Parent Lunch or Event Reception
• Take photos
• Help before-during-after an athletic event
• Host students who live too far away to go home on the weekend

Baseball This Week
Tuesday, April 27tht: STM vs. CVC @ STM; 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 29th: STM vs. CVC @ San Juan Sports Park; 3:15 p.m.
Saturday, May 1st: Double Header @ Avalon; 11:30 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.

Birthdays This Week
April 30 Josh Aaker

Homily of the Week by Fr. John Henry Hanson, O.Praem.,
Fr. John Henry, among other things, teaches English in the school.

“He who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks.” Since the beginning of this Easter Season, we have been reminded often by St Paul to “Set [our] minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Or, as he says elsewhere: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Somehow the Lord’s resurrection is supposed to change our mentality.

Many of our thoughts, though not necessarily sinful, might be useless or vain--having nothing to do with Christ. Then we all have our “fixed” ideas--i.e., ideas/impressions that are so strong in us that even when we are presented with the truth, we cannot see clearly enough to change. The Apostles on the morning of the Resurrection were all this way: They heard first-hand accounts that Jesus was risen, but to them it seemed nonsense.

The challenge that we all face is keeping our minds in the truth—and specifically in this truth: That Jesus is risen. That truth, more than any other, has the power to transform and renew our minds, desires, and actions.

But the problem for us is as it was for the Apostles: The resurrection is a fact that goes beyond any experience we have ever had. How can such a thing change us? Pope Benedict says that unlike Christmas, Easter does not correspond with any experience we have ever had. We know all about motherhood, birth, a newborn infant--but being raised from the dead so as to live forever in perfect happiness is something completely new and unfamiliar. We have yet to enter into our own graves, much less rise up out of them.

But in this life, the change that the Lord wants His resurrection to bring about in us is an interior change. To be renewed inwardly by the Resurrection is to know where the victory lies in all of our struggles. Because those who try to imitate and follow Christ, who aim high in the spiritual life, always run the risk of either falling low or feeling low when they fail. And the only truth that will ultimately pull us up again after we have seen our weakness is the truth that Christ is risen from the dead: the tomb was empty, it remains empty, and will be empty forever.

The Lord has purchased for us the hope and the courage to rise up again morally, spiritually, throughout our lives. If we live in hope of our own resurrection, then when we fall down, we don’t stay down. We can’t stay down: Christ is risen! If we live in the present moment, then we live when another resurrection is always possible for us.

Visit the empty tomb again: What you expected to be true because of your human way of thinking, because of fixed ideas, has been changed by the power of God. The empty tomb is not like a Christmas tree, a holiday “prop” to be admired; it is the foundational truth of our Christian lives--our thoughts, desires, actions, and hopes should reflect that. If we have any fixed idea, it should be: The Lord is risen, Alleluia!

We cannot allow ourselves to be mentally trapped by the boundaries and limitations of this world, and so think and act and speak as though there were no hope. Christians can be just as sad, cynical, angry as everyone else. Pope Benedict, in an Easter homily, quotes Epiphanius, a Church Father of the fourth century, who has Christ say: I have not created you to be in prison forever. And the Pope suggests that our prison can be anywhere--and especially, I think, inside of us.

There are experiences that we have had that are very vivid to the imagination--maybe after years of having had the experience. They are “fixed” within us. They can move us heavenward, toward our own resurrection, or pull us back down to earth and the things of the world.

But because we are Christians, our thoughts and desires must be wholly directed toward the gift to be conferred upon us when Jesus Christ appears: resurrection and eternal life. Until that day, we live in blessed expectation--not thinking of Christ’s resurrection and our own as a dream, but as something to prepare for in this life, by getting up when we fall, and never ceasing to give as the reason for our hope: The Lord is risen, Alleluia!

In publishing this homily, we hope to share a portion of the spiritual treasure by which the students are enriched every day. However, this homily may not be reproduced by the parents or friends of St. Michael’s without written permission of the author.

Prayer Requests
• Aid to the Church in Need, an international charity of the Catholic Church, which is seeking God’s blessings upon their work and their national directors during the month of May.
• Ms. Kelly Choi who is experiencing problems in her vertebrae following an auto accident.
• Dr. Joseph Gloudeman who struggles with a reoccurrence of cancer.
• Mr. Mark McCormick, who was injured during baseball practice
• Mrs. Harriet Nordeck, one time teacher at St. Michael’s, who is close to death
• St. Michael’s older priests and those who care for them
• Those who suffer in the current economic crisis
• Those who are in the armed forces.