KENNETH G.

DIABORDO BSAIS 3 PRE-MIDTERM EXAM

1.You Can’t Please Everyone

An old fable, that has been passed down for generations, talks about an elderly man who was
travelling with a boy and a donkey. As they walked through a village, the man was leading the
donkey and the boy was walking behind. The village-folk said the old man was a fool for not
riding, so to please them he climbed up on the animal’s back. When they came to the next
village, the people said the old man was cruel to let the child walk while he enjoyed the ride. So,
to please them, he got off and set the boy on the animal’s back and continued on his way. In the
third village, people accused the child of being lazy for making the old man walk, and the
suggestion was made that they both ride. So, the man climbed on and they set off again. In the
fourth village, the people were indignant at the cruelty to the donkey because he was made to
carry two people. The frustrated man was last seen carrying the donkey down the road!
Reflection
We smile, but the story makes a good point: We can’t please everybody all of the time and if we
try, we end up carrying an impossible burden. Well-meaning people may offer us advice, and
much of it is valuable. But when we try to do everything, others want us to do, we can quickly
become frustrated and confused. That’s why we need to remember that the one we must please,
above all others, is Jesus Christ. We do that by obeying God’s Word.

2.The Haircut
A man went to a barbershop to have a haircut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began the
task, a good conversation followed. They talked about many people and a multitude of subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: “I don’t believe that God
exists.” “Why do you say that?” asked the customer. “Well, you just have to go out in the street
to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned, children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I
can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things”. The customer thought for a
moment but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument! The barber finished his
job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy,
dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. The man was homeless and unkempt. The customer turned
back, re-entered the barber’s shop and said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers don’t exist”.
“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just
worked on you!” “No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there
would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside”. “Ah, but
barbers DO exist! What happens, is, people do not come to me”. “Exactly!”- affirmed the
customer. “That’s the point! God, too, exists! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do
not look for Him. That’s why there is so much pain and suffering in the world.
Reflection
If we want something material like an iPhone or car, we generally need to go shopping for it and,
if valuable, we must be prepared to spend a significant amount. When we have bought our dream
item, we must then take care of it. That’s likely to involve more time and more money. So, the
leading question! Why are many of us willing to give such special attention to material wealth
but not to God? After all, the items we buy and cling to usually depreciate in value over time;
God does not and His rewards are for eternity. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear,
and my load is not hard to carry.” (Matthew 1128-30) Remember, God is loving and merciful,
look for Him!
KENNETH G. DIABORDO BSAIS 3 MIDTERM EXAM

REFLECTION OF THE MOVIE ENTITLED “THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST”

The agony in the garden was really the agony in His mind. He suffered the passion in
His mind before He suffered it in His body to the point of actually affecting the latter by
sweating blood. But from then on, it was His bodily suffering that affected His mental suffering.
At the base of all His suffering was the one thing that human beings dread the most: rejection.
He was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and abandoned by all the rest of His Apostles; those
He had hand-picked as His closest intimates. He was most rejected by those who put Him to
death. They not only wanted Him dead, they wanted Him to suffer. They not only considered
Him to be worth nothing, they considered Him to be worth minus nothing! He felt fully the
rejection as each physical agony reminded Him. So, we thank Him for joining us on our human
journey and actually choosing to experience what we fear the most.
We thank Him for enduring the arrest and the cruelty of the guards and the Sanhedrin. We thank
Him for enduring the cruelty of Pilate who allowed Him to be executed rather than risk his own
political ruin—and for the cruelty of Herod who wanted to be entertained by having Him work a
miracle. We thank Him for all the time He spent satisfying their preoccupation with themselves,
just delaying His ultimate death. We thank Him for the anxiety of that night in a cell. The next
morning, he was brutally scourged with such intensity and violence that He became as an aged
man in a matter of minutes. His multiple wounds bloodied His entire body. The loss of so
much blood not only severely weakened Him; it also caused a severe, throbbing headache that
remained with Him for the duration. We thank Him for this and for the mockery He received
when they put a purple cloth on His shoulders and pushed a crown of thorns down into His head
which intensified His headache. They blindfolded Him and slapped Him, insisting that He
‘prophesy’ who had hit Him. The spat on Him and beat Him.
It was only with the help of Simon of Cyrene that He made it to the top of Calvary. There they
drove the nails into the carpal tunnels of His hands, causing pain throughout His upper body.
The nail in His feet registered great pain through all the sensitive nerves there. When the cross
was righted, His up-stretched arms squeezed His lungs and He began to pant for lack of oxygen.
He had come to the point where His strength simply gave out and He suffocated. In this eternal
moment as He died, He gave us His life. Transcending time, this moment of divine love is
present to us in the tabernacles of the world. Thank you, Lord. We adore you O Christ and we
praise you. By your holy cross, you have redeemed the world!