From Archbishop Donoghue

Catholic Schools Week Mass
January 29, 1999
Immaculate Heart of Mary School
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Dear friends in Christ, and especially you young men and women of the 8th grade,

I am glad to be here with you, and to mark Catholic Schools Week by celebrating this Mass with you.

It gives us all a chance to be aware of what a privilege it is to have good Catholic schools, and a chance to attend them. I say this, because not all who come looking for a place can find one. That’s a sad thing, when you have to tell someone that they can’t be a part of your school because there just isn’t’ any more room - but it is the way things are. We are trying to build schools as fast as we can, so that many more youngsters can get the good education we offer, but it will take time, and more money, and many more of the kind of dedicated teachers that you have here at IHM School. I tell you these things, because I want you to be as grateful for being able to go to this school, as I am grateful to your parents, and to the many good people of this parish, who stand behind the school, and who make it possible.

In a way, what I am trying to say to you, is what we hear our Lord mention in the Gospel, when He says to His followers, you are the salt of the earth. Very few foods taste like anything at all unless you put a little salt on them - I know that everyone says you shouldn’t eat too much salt, and I am sure they are right - but I don’t want to want to eat too much salt myself - I want to eat just enough. Because just enough makes everything taste better, and in a way, makes everything taste more like itself. When Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, He is telling us that when we give of ourselves - when we love other people, when we share our talents with others, when we help others who are poor or sick or old, we are making things not just acceptable - we are actually making them better for everyone.

When someone you love or like very much is upset or sad, if you say nice things to them, if you bring them something nice to look at, or if you just sit and listen and let them share their troubles with you, then you will not only make them feel better - you will feel better yourself. Hoe many times growing up, did I hear, as I know you have heard, the voice of our mother or father telling us, “You help out around here and things will be better for everybody” - or “Go outside and play with your little sister or brother, so that I can get my work done” - or even something like, “Help your grandmother get up those steps - you know she is getting old and needs help.” These are the little things that we hear and do all our lives, things that make life easier for those we help, and make us happier for having done something good. And if we learn to do them as a habit when we are young, then when we grow up, and doing good deeds become much harder, e will be able to do them that much more easily, because we have gained the habit of doing them - with no more thought or effort than it takes, say, to pick up the salt shaker, and to sprinkle a little life on to that tomato, or that French-Fry. The food needs a little salt, and life needs a little love.

If we do that, if we apply love and concern and patience to all the situations that life brings us, then what Jesus Christ tells us next will also be true -that we will become a light for the world, so that we can see better the needs of the people who God has given us to love, and so that together, we can all can see how to make our way through this difficult and sometimes dangerous world.

Dear friends, let us offer our prayers today, to thank God for our Church and our Schools, to thank Him for giving us one another for one another, in friendship and in love, and finally, to thank Him for Himself, as He comes to us at Mass, in His Body and Blood we are about to receive.

In the name of the Father…

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