High School Hunger Games

If you ever feel the pressure to succeed and be rewarded for your talents, you are not alone.  Today's high school culture can feel like the Hunger Games.  It's kill or be killed, only the strongest survive.  Everything is better for everyone else than me, and it will always be like that.

Except when you have the epiphany that high school only recognizes the EARLY ACHIEVERS...  those that excel early in life at something.  Dating, sports, grades, cars, popularity... the list goes on.  Those in the spotlight and those in the shadows.  The haves and the have nots.  What this does not tell is the full story.  Those that will succeed later in life, sometimes right after high school is over, often in college and some years later.

My point is simple.  Don't be discouraged,  Have faith,  Have hope.  Trust that God has a plan for you to succeed beyond your belief right now.

With this in mind, listen to what Jesus is PROMISING you today in Luke 6:20-26:

Raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor (not the greatest in high school yet),

for the kingdom of God is yours.  (you have all of my Fathers love right now and forever)

Blessed are you who are now hungry (want more than you have now in high school),

for you will be satisfied. (you will have what you really want soon)

Blessed are you who are now weeping, (suffering in high school)

for you will laugh. (joy comes in the morning after a bad day or even a bad year - it won't always be like this)

Blessed are you when people hate you (make fun of you for being faithful and a goody-goody in high school),

and when they exclude and insult you,

and denounce your name as evil

on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.  (TRUST ME it will get so much better after high school)

But woe to you who are rich, (woe to you to have everything you ever wanted in high school)

for you have received your consolation. (the things you have enjoyed not from God are the best these they can ever be, they are temporary and gone tomorrow)

But woe to you who are filled now,  (woe to you to have everything you think you ever wanted in high school)

for you will be hungry.  (Later, you will hunger for more of these empty temporary things and never be satisfied)

Woe to you who laugh now,

for you will grieve and weep. (you will seek the false joy you once had)

Woe to you when all speak well of you,  (woe to you to when everyone "loves" you in high school because soon that false acceptance will all be gone forever)

for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.


Do you TRUST God even when you aren't winning the first or second lap around the track?

Keep running.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Saint Paul's longest run on sentence

Ephesians 1:3-14

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will -- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.   7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,  10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.  11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,  12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.  13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,  14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory.

Question & Answer: Are You Saved?

Q: "Are you saved?"

A: I am saved, I am being saved, I will be saved.

1) I am saved - On the day I was baptized, Christ chose me, not I him, to be a member of his Body and the relationship he has with the Father by nature, I now have through adoption. (Ephesians 1:4)

2) I am being saved - Through the action of the Holy Spirit at work through prayer, life in the community, immersion into the Scriptures, uniting myself to Christ's offering in the Eucharist, service to the last, the lost, and the least, and a life of conversion, I am being conformed to the image of Christ and Christ is being formed within me. Catholics don't think works save us, but conformity into Christ should be real, distinguishable and identifiable (Galatians 4:19)

3) I will be saved - There will be a day when all the elect will be bound into unity and formed into the complete body of Christ with Jesus as the head of his body and we will have an intimate, face to face relationship with the Father ...the relationship Christ has by his nature and that we have through adoption will be ours in its fullness: heaven.

From Robert Feduccia
@robertfeduccia