Jim Webber

I was born in 1949 and raised in the Bronx. After graduating Fordham
University I taught high school science at Cardinal Spellman H.S. My wife Kathleen was a visiting nurse. After two years I switched to teaching religion. It was a grace filled period because I quickly realized that to teach, I had to
live it first. I needed to follow the Teacher, Jesus. (“You have only one Teacher.”)

Teaching all grade levels in High School was a challenge and I found myself bombarded with questions from the youngsters. I met some people who introduced me to the Word of Life – it is a sentence of the scripture that
could be lived each month. I recall the first one which I taped over the kitchen counter to help me remember – “our love should not be words but actions.” This time washing the dishes and meditating on those words I felt that Jesus Himself was growing in me and I felt free from my grumbling self. I sometimes resented doing more than my fair share of the dishes at night.

This newfound freedom was worth the “cost of discipleship.” By 1991 we had five children ages six to seventeen years. I needed a job because of the downturn in the economy and so we moved from the East Coast to Concord, California where we attended St. Bonaventure parish. I was now working in sales and marketing and worked in that field almost thirty years in total. I joined a small Christian community group in the parish that met twice a month to share our experiences of faith.

A shock came in 2006 when my wife decided to live independently. There was nothing I could do to change her mind. We sold our family home and I moved to Rossmoor, attending St. Ann’s parish. Living alone in a condo in
Rossmoor behind gates that seemed more a prison than a protection  was difficult. I found solace in thinking of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt to protect the baby Jesus. I, too, needed to protect my faith, a faith that was really being tested. I managed to attend retreats every month and have
conference calls with friends who shared the same love for Jesus. I kept living the Word and did not give up.

Around the same time I decided to retire from sales and go back to teaching. I was hired to teach science and religion at St. Francis of Assisi School in Concord. In November 2016 I was given a diagnosis of stage four prostate cancer. This was a shock. However, in the context of faith I was not knocked off my feet, honestly, because I had a lot of friends and family that support me. Just before starting chemo I moved to Martinez to live with my daughter
and her husband. I joined St. Catherine parish, and when I can, I sing with the 8:30 AM choir and attend daily Mass. I look forward to the new Ignite activities that are being offered in our parish.