Shark takes surfer’s arm, not spirit

In this les­son, we will see how atti­tude tri­umphs over adversity.

Part I: Fac­ing the Unexpected

Some peo­ple show true hero­ism by their actions; oth­ers are heroic sim­ply by their atti­tude.  In this les­son, we will see how atti­tude tri­umphs over adver­sity.  This is the story of Bethany Hamil­ton, a young surfer, whose promis­ing career was cut short by a shark attack.

Grow­ing up in a fam­ily of surfers along the north­ern shores of Kauai, Hawaii, Bethany eas­ily took to the sport at age eight.  By thir­teen, after win­ning many tour­na­ments, she had secured a cor­po­rate spon­sor and was look­ing for­ward to turn­ing pro.  Her plans unex­pect­edly changed on the morn­ing of Octo­ber 31, 2003.

After break­fast that morn­ing, Bethany wished her father well.  He was sched­uled to have knee surgery later that day, and both were look­ing for­ward to surf­ing together again.  While he pre­pared for the hos­pi­tal, Bethany met up with her friends for a day of surf­ing at the Tun­nels Beach reef.  After rid­ing a few waves, Bethany took a break, float­ing on her board with her left hand dan­gling in the water.

Sud­denly, a gray blur pulled Bethany into the water.  She held tightly to her board until the blur, a 14-​​foot tiger shark, let go.  Along with a large piece of her surf­board, the shark had bit­ten off most of Bethany’s left arm.  Her friends used a surf­board strap as a tourni­quet to limit the bleed­ing.  Still con­scious, Bethany remained sur­pris­ingly calm.  “I think I figured…if I pan­icked, then things wouldn’t go as good as if I were calm,” she said.

An ambu­lance drove her to the near­est hos­pi­tal, where another patient await­ing surgery was moved from its only oper­at­ing room.  The other patient was Bethany’s father.  “I just prayed to God that she’d sur­vive,” he said.  “They had to roll me out of the upcom­ing surgery room and she replaced me.”

As Bethany con­tin­ues to recover, peo­ple are still abuzz about her story.  Shark attacks like hers are not so uncom­mon, but her atti­tude and actions fol­low­ing the inci­dent con­tinue to make news.

 

Part II: Faith and Hope 

Through the eyes of faith Bethany is able to see her appar­ent mis­for­tune as an oppor­tu­nity to do some­thing for God. “I look at every­thing that’s hap­pened as part of God’s plan for my life,” she says, “and I look for­ward to new chal­lenges.”  Faith is the the­o­log­i­cal virtue by which we have the “cer­tainty of things hoped for”  (Hebrews 11:1).   At a time when some peo­ple are tempted to become bit­ter at life and their sit­u­a­tion, Bethany refuses to be neg­a­tive about her injury because she truly believes God is in charge of her life.

Not only has Bethany cho­sen a pos­i­tive out­look, she has been busy shar­ing it with oth­ers.  Soon after surgery, she com­mented that she could now be a more effec­tive instru­ment in spread­ing the mes­sage of Christ, which pleased her.  These are nice words to say, but Bethany quickly acted on them.  While still in the hos­pi­tal, she vis­ited fel­low patients, includ­ing a blind man and a young girl suf­fer­ing from a tumor, to offer them sup­port and hope.  Hope is the virtue that keeps us from dis­cour­age­ment and sus­tains us in times of trial.  Hope is the “sure and stead­fast anchor of the soul”  (Hebrews 6:19).  Bethany’s strong faith gives hope to every­one she meets.

Days after the attack, Bethany was already mak­ing plans to get back out on the waves. 

She made her plans into a real­ity this past week.  On Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 10^th, 2004-​​ just ten weeks after los­ing her arm-​​ Bethany was back com­pet­ing.  She fin­ished 5^th in her age group in the National Scholas­tic Surf­ing Asso­ci­a­tion  (NSSA) meet. “It was def­i­nitely a good start,” she com­mented on her results.  The NSSA direc­tor offered to give her more time between heats or put her in a more favor­able heat, but Bethany refused.  “I want to be treated like every­body else,” she said. 

 Per­haps, every­body else should strive to be a bit more like Bethany.

Vocab­u­lary

Tourni­quet: A tight ban­dage used to stop the flow of blood to a large wound.

Faith:  The­o­log­i­cal virtue by which we believe in God and believe all he has said and revealed to us

The­o­log­i­cal virtue: Virtue infused by God at bap­tism into the souls of the faithful

Hope: The­o­log­i­cal virtue by which we desire the king­dom of heaven and eter­nal life as our happiness

Bible Blurbs

“We know that all things work for good for those who love God.”  Romans 8:28

“For the fool­ish­ness of God is wiser than human wis­dom and the weak­ness of God is stronger is than human strength.”  Corinthi­ans 1:25

“This ill­ness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of Man may be glo­ri­fied through it.”  John 11:4

Sim­i­lar Stories:

Blessed Pier Gior­gio Frassati 

was born April 6, 1901, to a wealthy fam­ily in Turin, Italy.  Ath­letic and hand­some with an ener­getic per­son­al­ity, young Pier Gior­gio was known as a prac­ti­cal joker.   

He orga­nized a group of friends he called the “Sin­is­ter Ones,” and led them on gru­el­ing hikes through the Alps.  He would always get his friends to pray the rosary with him on these hikes, and Mass was a part of every out­ing: either before or dur­ing the climb.  He would set up ski week­ends with his friends in the same way. “To live with­out faith… with­out a steady strug­gle for truth,” he would say, “that is not living.”

Pier also had a great love for the poor and often said, “God gives us health so that we may serve the sick.”  He used his allowance to buy food and med­i­cine for fam­i­lies in need.  He would even give away his own bus fare, hav­ing to run home to make it in time for din­ner, but he never revealed what he was doing for others.

When he was only 24 years old, he con­tracted polio and died within five days.  At his funeral over 1,000 mourn­ers from all over Turin came to pay their respects to Pier Gior­gio.  Pope John Paul II beat­i­fied him in 1989 and has often talked about him to young people.

St. Ignatius of Loy­ola was born in Spain at the begin­ning of the 16^th cen­tury.  He was from a noble fam­ily and received a mil­i­tary edu­ca­tion.  When he was still a young sol­dier he was badly wounded by a can­non­ball dur­ing a bat­tle.  While he was recov­er­ing, only reli­gious books were avail­able to him.  As he read about Christ and the saints, he decided to fol­low God along a dif­fer­ent path.

Ignatius went back to school to study the­ol­ogy and prac­tice char­ity.  When he was given a mes­sage to relay to a fel­low class­mate that his par­ents could send no more money for tuition, Ignatius took it upon him­self to take on a night job to pay his friend’s tuition rather than have his friend humil­i­ated.  He was later ordained a priest.  In 1534, he founded the Soci­ety of Jesus, (Jesuits).    Ignatius founded many schools and inspired future saints and mar­tyrs, includ­ing St. Fran­cis Xavier.

Dis­cus­sion Questions

What does Bethany’s reac­tion to los­ing her arm tell you about the way she lived her life before the shark attack?  How might Bethany have reacted had she not had her faith?  

Why do you think God would give Bethany a great tal­ent for surf­ing if he knew she would not be able to pur­sue her tal­ent to the fullest all her life?  (Remem­ber  that God knows what is ulti­mately best for us and what will make us most happy.  See Bethany’s exam­ple of joy in being able to use the loss of her arm as a plat­form for bring­ing Christ to others.)   

Do you know of an exam­ple of some­one who encoun­tered an obsta­cle or tragedy, then used his or her over­com­ing it to make other’s lives bet­ter?  How did faith and hope play into their over­com­ing the obsta­cle?  Explain.  

Activ­i­ties

One aspect of liv­ing out hope is look­ing at every­thing with a pos­i­tive atti­tude, just like Bethany.  Iden­tify one aspect in your school where you could do some­thing to encour­age pos­i­tiv­ity and come up with a class cam­paign to do it.  (Some exam­ples: Make school spirit signs and pro­mote an upcom­ing school event.  Have your cam­paign encour­age par­tic­i­pa­tion in the sacra­ments: masses, com­mu­nion ser­vices, and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion opportunities.)  

Sched­ule a visit to a Nurs­ing Home with the inten­tion of mak­ing peo­ple happy, just like Bethany went to her fel­low hos­pi­tal patients to cheer them up.   

Send Bethany an email of sup­port and encouragement. 

Cat­e­chism Tips

The fol­low­ing points elab­o­rate on the virtues cov­ered in the stu­dent text by pre­sent­ing sum­maries of points from the Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church (CCC).

The­o­log­i­cal virtues (Faith, Hope, Love) are gifts from God received by each of us at bap­tism.  As such, we must freely respond to them in order to live in a rela­tion­ship with the Holy Trin­ity and merit eter­nal life.

The human virtues are rooted in the the­o­log­i­cal virtues, which adapt man’s fac­ul­ties for par­tic­i­pa­tion in the divine nature: for the the­o­log­i­cal virtues relate directly to God. They dis­pose Chris­tians to live in a rela­tion­ship with the Holy Trin­ity. They have the One and Tri­une God for their ori­gin, motive, and object. (CCC 1812)

The the­o­log­i­cal virtues are the foun­da­tion of Chris­t­ian moral activ­ity; they ani­mate it and give it its spe­cial char­ac­ter. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faith­ful to make them capa­ble of act­ing as his chil­dren and of mer­it­ing eter­nal life. They are the pledge of the pres­ence and action of the Holy Spirit in the fac­ul­ties of the human being. There are three the­o­log­i­cal virtues: faith, hope, and char­ity.  (CCC 1813)

The Most Holy Trin­ity gives the bap­tized sanc­ti­fy­ing grace, the grace of jus­ti­fi­ca­tion:

- enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the the­o­log­i­cal virtues;
- giv­ing them the power to live and act under the prompt­ing of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
- allow­ing them to grow in good­ness through the moral virtues.
Thus the whole organ­ism of the Christian’s super­nat­ural life has its roots in Bap­tism.  (CCC 1266)

Faith is a per­sonal act, our free response to God’s ini­tia­tive, but not an iso­lated act.  In exer­cis­ing faith, we are con­nected to God who gives it and to oth­ers with whom we share it.

Faith is a per­sonal act - the free response of the human per­son to the ini­tia­tive of God who reveals him­self. But faith is not an iso­lated act. No one can believe alone, just as no one can live alone. You have not given your­self faith as you have not given your­self life. The believer has received faith from oth­ers and should hand it on to oth­ers. Our love for Jesus and for our neigh­bor impels us to speak to oth­ers about our faith. Each believer is thus a link in the great chain of believ­ers. I can­not believe with­out being car­ried by the faith of oth­ers, and by my faith I help sup­port oth­ers in the faith. (CCC 166).

Faith is the the­o­log­i­cal virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church pro­poses for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely com­mits his entire self to God.” For this rea­son the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. “The right­eous shall live by faith.” Liv­ing faith “work[s] through char­ity.” (CCC 1814)

The Blessed Vir­gin Mary, by her per­fect obe­di­ence to God’s will, is the best exam­ple of faith.

To obey (from the Latin ob-​​audire, to “hear or lis­ten to”) in faith is to sub­mit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guar­an­teed by God, who is Truth itself. Abra­ham is the model of such obe­di­ence offered us by Sacred Scrip­ture. The Vir­gin Mary is its most per­fect embod­i­ment.  (CCC 144).

In his preach­ing of the beat­i­tudes, Christ offers us hope by lift­ing our sights to heaven, the new Promised Land.

Chris­t­ian hope unfolds from the begin­ning of Jesus’ preach­ing in the procla­ma­tion of the beat­i­tudes. The beat­i­tudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads through the tri­als that await the dis­ci­ples of Jesus. But through the mer­its of Jesus Christ and of his Pas­sion, God keeps us in the “hope that does not dis­ap­point.” Hope is the “sure and stead­fast anchor of the soul . . . that enters . . . where Jesus has gone as a fore­run­ner on our behalf.” Hope is also a weapon that pro­tects us in the strug­gle of sal­va­tion: “Let us . . . put on the breast­plate of faith and char­ity, and for a hel­met the hope of sal­va­tion.” It affords us joy even under trial: “Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribu­la­tion.” Hope is expressed and nour­ished in prayer, espe­cially in the Our Father, the sum­mary of every­thing that hope leads us to desire. (CCC 1820).

True hope in our lives can be endan­gered by two forms of pre­sump­tion: either that our own capac­i­ties are suf­fi­cient for sal­va­tion, or that God will grant us sal­va­tion regard­less of our merit.

There are two kinds of pre­sump­tion. Either man pre­sumes upon his own capac­i­ties, (hop­ing to be able to save him­self with­out help from on high), or he pre­sumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hop­ing to obtain his for­give­ness with­out con­ver­sion and glory with­out merit).  (CCC 2092)

Quotable Quotes

“Suf­fer­ing seems to belong to man’s tran­scen­dence: it is one of those points in which man is in a cer­tain sense “des­tined” to go beyond him­self, and he is called to this in a mys­te­ri­ous way.”  John Paul II, Salv­i­fici Doloris, par 2, On the Chris­t­ian Mean­ing of Human Suffering

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” (Saint Augus­tine Con­cern­ing Faith of Things Not Seen, chap­ter 1)

[DE FIDE RERUM QUAE NON VIDENTUR.] 

“We can never have too much hope in God.  He gives in the mea­sure we ask.” St. Therese of Lisueux, Story of a Soul: The Auto­bi­og­ra­phy of St. Therese of Lisieux  

Related Web­sites

Bethany Hamil­ton Sup­port Web­site…   http://bethanyhamilton.com/

Bethany Hamil­ton mes­sage board…   http://pub177.ezboard.com/bbethanyhamilton

More about Blessed Pier Gior­gio Fras­sati…   http://www.bettnet.com/frassati/