Confirmation!

Oh, I love communication in Belize! So just this past Tuesday I had a meeting with Ms. Lena, who is a teacher at the primary school. She helps with Confirmation every year, and we were discussing the logistics of retreat, service project, rehearsals etc. We were told that Confirmation would be Palm Sunday, April 9th. It is a little hectic trying to cram everything in as it is since we started classes 2 months late, because the priest was in the states due to a family emergency. Ms. Lena asks me nervously if I had seen the Catholic paper. I said no, and she proceeded to show me a list of the dates for Confirmation. San Pedro, Catholic Church…Sunday, March 26th. Uh oh… so for the 4th time I am re-doing the schedule for Confirmation. 2 weeks earlier is a big deal when you’re preparing 70 kids for Confirmation. Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us here.

Just last week we were teaching on Moral Decision Making, and discussed the difference between objective and subjective truth. Since it was right around the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Ali brought that into the teaching and used it as an example. She simply explained that because one woman thought it was okay to kill the baby in her womb, she took this to court and a law was passed based on her opinion (subjective truth). The 12-year old boys interrupted Ali in an outrage, totally shocked and said, “Ms. that is murder, how can she do that?” It was very encouraging to see them so upset over this. I think we have a lot to learn from the simple and yet emotional reaction of the youth. It IS MURDER! And as they yelled it, I had to say to myself, “Courtney, don’t forget how outrageous this is!” I mean I know it is murder, but it’s been going on for so long that I’m not AS outraged, as I probably should be! Do we realize that 4,000 babies are murdered EVERY WEEK in the United States? We still talk about the Holocaust in history class and learn about the horrible deaths and murders from World War II, and they are horrible! But since Roe vs. Wade was passed, there have been 40 MILLION documented abortions in the United States alone. The Holocaust of abortion is at least 6 times greater than the holocaust of World War II??? And that only includes the United States. I don’t think it really hit me until I heard those numbers as Ali was teaching. I thought to myself, “There has to be something more that I can do”, even from a third world country.

This week I have been teaching on the Universal Church as well as the 10 Commandments. It is a lot to do in an hour and a half, that’s for sure, but the kids make it a lot of fun. Just yesterday I had 13 boys in my class and their questions amazed me! We were talking about the need for authority and I compared it to the classroom. I asked them to imagine what it would be like if a teacher had no rules; if she didn’t give any homework; if they didn’t have to study and never had to take tests. They started laughing and said, “She would be really stupid”. They admitted that they wouldn’t study or learn anything, and that they needed those rules. Thirteen, 12-year-old boys were able to admit that they need authority. We talked about how God in HIS goodness gave us the 10 Commandments. That He gave them to us in HIS GOODNESS and perfect LOVE; not as punishment, not as some rules we are supposed to follow, but as a way to live, SO THAT WE CAN BE FREE. The Lord knows what leads to sin, and the Lord knows that sin leads to death. He doesn’t want us to be miserable, or fall into despair, hatred and addiction. The Commandments that He gives us, as well as all that Jesus said in fulfillment of the Lord’s commands, are so we can live in His Love and know true peace, and joy! His Words are so we can get to heaven! So, why do we still reject authority?

The first commandment alone led into a great conversation. “I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other Gods before me.” I asked them how much TV they watch a week. The response: at least 10 hours. I asked them how much they pray each week. The response: not even one hour. They were all quite surprised to realize that they allow TV, or video games to become their god. As much as we hate to admit it, the time we spend with God is more often than not put on the back burner. Addictions to drugs and alcohol, money, greed, our jobs, our families, our homework, or what others think of us are so often the gods we are living for and putting first. As I was teaching I realized the first commandment is broken more often than I realized! Please pray for us and for my students as we challenge them to put God first, to pray, and to continue seeking Him in the Catholic Church. It amazes me that at least 3/4ths of my students are the only ones in their family going to Mass. The parents aren’t going; their siblings aren’t going. At least a few of them have parents involved in drug dealing as well. It is so encouraging to see them, at 12 year’s old coming to mass on their own and to class! My prayer has been that these kids can be a witness to their whole family, and the love and faith that they have will lead their own parent’s and family to an encounter with Jesus Himself.