Reflections of a beloved son

" Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe " were the words Jesus said to Thomas in the locked room (Jn. 20:27). When the other Apostles had told Thomas that Jesus had appeared to them and that He has truly risen from the dead, he did not believe and said that unless he saw Him and touched His wounds for himself he would not believe.  So, Jesus came back and appeared to Thomas.  When Jesus came back to show Thomas that He truly has risen, He laid out everything - He showed him His wounds.  Jesus was basically saying, "Here, look.  Look at the nail marks and my pierced side.  Look.  Touch it.  Feel.  It's me."  I read in a meditation that because Jesus showed us His wounds we can bring our wounds to Him.  At Golgotha, Jesus was stripped of everything - His clothing, His rights, and His dignity.  Jesus gave up everything in order to give us everything...

Imagine this scenario: You are the homeroom teacher for one section of high school juniors.  Throughout the semester you have reminded them daily "Phones away during prayers and announcements."  The students had a rocky start but later caught on and were generally compliant and had no phones out during homeroom.  The end of the semester comes and everyone goes home for Christmas break.  Ten days later everyone comes back for the first day of the new semester.  It is 7:40AM and the first bell rings - a warning bell.  The bell rings again at 7:50AM.  Everyone is in their homerooms and prayers come on through loudspeaker.  You find that 70% of students have their phones out.  How do you respond? If I were the teacher I would be quite disappointed, but at the same time not completely shocked.  I don't want to say I expected it because I had hope that my students who continue with their good work - I mean not the entire class violated the...