Here we are again; another World Series is over and for the second year in a row the Dodgers lost. It was interesting to notice the difference in the air this year when I was in Pasadena than last year. The hope and excitement of people in the streets, the pop-up vendors, buses flashing Go Dodgers, that was so prevalent last year was not there this year. Us Dodgers fans went into the games this time with a glimmer of hope, but not really hopeful. Dispirited as we were from the get go, we hung in there even as we played badly (ask most of us and we'll gladly recite to you a litany of all the bad decisions and errors that were made, how bad our relief pitchers were, etc.), but they are our team, win or lose, and we stayed the course. Wins are sweet, and any fan enjoys them, but a fan is not there only if their team wins. You get behind your team because they need you, but also for the simple fact that they are your team and you enjoy the game. That's radical, and it's what Jesus calls us to do with our faith also. To trust in him, to continue to follow him because he is our Lord and we love him, even when there is turbulence in our lives, prayers, seemingly, aren't being answered, when we want to just chuck it all in and find something "better." We have to see that victory even when it seems like defeat; the cross seemed like defeat that Good Friday, but turned out to be anything but a loss. As Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Philippians: Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ.
The Gospel this past Sunday was from Mark 10:46-52, where the blind man asked Jesus to help him see. Jesus is always there giving us eyes to see, sometimes it just takes a little time for our eyes (and our hearts) to adjust. Our 7th grader today sees with compassionate and caring eyes those who all to often are not understood or treated with dignity - he helps us to adjust our eyes and shows us a way to see a challenging situation with hope.
Radical Community Care
by Guage
A better way of helping people then just giving them food or money would be to build homes for them. They now have a shelter instead of being outside in the rain or hot weather. We need to keep people out of the hot weather to prevent them from being dehydrated, or freezing to death in the cold weather.
Another way of helping people is helping them get jobs. If they have jobs and start getting paid they can start buying clothes, food, and drinks. Having a job would help them stop depending on other people. The people who are starting to make money from their jobs would also be happy.
One last way of helping people can be by getting them mental health help. A lot of the time people are nervous because of seeing other people behaving in a crazy way. These people might have an illness in their body that's making them to act crazy, and we can get them professional help. If we got these people the help they needed we could help them get their lives back together, and they could get homes and jobs.
Two weeks ago when we showed Tower Music to the 7th graders for their faith reflection, I reminded them that Mr. Bertolozzi had done the same thing with the Mid Hudson Bridge in upstate New York, before the Paris city officials let him use the Eiffel Tower as a big instrument. They asked if they could listen to Bridge Music, so that is what we listened to last week, as well as watching their own Playground Music. Again they found it fascinating how he used this structure to produce music and wished they could see him do this in person. They were additionally impressed with what they had produced using the playground as their instrument. Some of their thoughts about Bridge Music were: "(It was neat) how these different tones make up one song and how we are tones and God's making us into a song of God"; "The hidden faith in this video is that the man took something man-made and made something beautiful out of it. He was doing this to entertain others, not himself. He was serving others, not himself."; "God is from heaven, and he creates the music in us."
Link to Bridge Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIgXPEnvJSU
Thank you.
Mrs. Alhadef
Campus Minister