“You could say my faith [is] very propositional,” said religion teacher Michael Pascual. “Almost like a quasi-scientific-Thomas Aquinas-galactic-medieval kind of thing.”

For the past two years, Pascual has taken the teachings of the Catholic Church in his Religion 2, 3, and 4 classes and — with the help of Marvel and DC comics — has translated them into understandable, digestible concepts that high school students can easily grasp.

Like all his beloved superheroes, Pascual came from “humble beginnings” in his faith in Jesus Christ.

“My parents were very superstitious and my dad had a very literalistic interpretation of the Bible that was just not consistent with how I look at the world,” he said.

As a result of his family’s perspective on faith, Pascual began asking serious questions about his beliefs as early as grade school.

“I just could not find harmony [with my parents’ beliefs],” he said. “So I became that ‘obsessive’ in trying to find reason to why I believe and what I believe.”

He sought out God and a faith that had reason to it and “made sense”. In high school, Pascual gravitated towards the Catholic Church for its historic consistency.

He followed his fascination with God into college. He attended Cal State Fullerton to pursue a business degree and flirted with the idea of becoming a priest.

“I was actually thinking about being a priest because people said I had the skills for it,” Pascual said. “And I thought, ‘Okay, I want to be a priest, but I want to be good at it. So I’m going into business!’ And I will tell you, I sucked at it!”

Pascual realized that business wasn’t his strong suit when he received his first F his in accounting class. But eventually, Pascual was put on the right track when he signed up for a class in religious studies. He walked out of that course with a 110 percent grade and a newfound direction.

“I switched my undergrad to religious studies,” Pascual said.  “Then near the end of my Cal State Fullerton career, I realized that this was depressing. I had studied every religion but my own. So I decided to study [pastoral] theology at Loyola Marymount.”

Once there, Pascual encountered a faith crisis: he was suddenly dumbfounded at his own religious philosophy.

“I had to come to grips with a theological world view that was consistent with reason,” Pascual said. “I’m a guy who needs systematic explanation.”

Evaluating the Gospel with logical reasoning, Pascual came to a conclusion: love was the answer he had been searching for.

“When it came down to it, my experience of love was what really brought me back,” he said. “The teaching that ‘God is love’ made sense to me. Secondarily, if there’s someone out there who is God who wants to reach out to humankind, the concept of God becoming man into person Jesus Christ makes sense to me too. I think that’s how I maintained my Christian faith.”

As Pascual followed his theological curiosity into grad school, he discovered skills that would lead to his future career.

“I found out I had a talent for explaining difficult concepts for people, whether it be my colleges, peers, or even young people,” Pascual said. “People naturally followed me, in terms of explaining the faith. I also had a skill in making it fun. My girlfriend said, ‘You know, you act like a teacher. You should consider being a teacher.'”

Former SMCHS president Paul Carey approached Pascual while he was teaching youth ministry for the Diocese of Orange County.

“He said, ‘You’re pretty good at this. You should be a teacher,'” Pascual said. “And so, that’s how I ended up being a teacher at Santa Margarita: a guy suggested it….who just so happened to be the president.”

After two years of teaching as a proud Eagle, Pascual accredits his eventual path to teaching as God’s vocation for his life.

“Most people think that when God calls you to [your vocation], they think it’s that the person is going through a passive, ‘Yes! I’ll follow your orders God!'” he said. “It’s more like God is hinting to us what makes us truly happy and what makes us truly human. And, for whatever reason, there’s something about teaching that really fulfills who I am.”