From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass at Pinecrest Academy
December 3, 1999
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Dear Friends in Christ, and especially, dear students of Pinecrest Academy,

You all know, I am sure, that we are now beginning the season of Advent – and I know that the teachers here at Pinecrest, and your parents, have told you something about what Advent means – that it is a time when we try and get ready to celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ, our Lord – and perhaps you have also been taught that Advent is also the time when we think about the end of the world – and how on that day, Christ will come to earth again, to judge everyone who has ever lived. These are important reasons that Advent is a special season for us in the Catholic Church, and I hope that you will think about these things during the next few weeks – it’s not always easy to think about religion during this time, since almost everybody else is already thinking about Christmas already – kids are thinking about what they are going to get for presents, the grownups are worrying already about how they are ever going to pay for it all – and I, and all the priests I know, we’re already worrying about how we’re am going to say all the Masses and hear all the Confessions and make sure all the Christmas cards get sent, and how we are possible going to get to all the parties that people expect us to show up for – and it goes on and on. You see what I mean – it is very difficult, the way the world is about Christmas, to actually remember what it is that we are going to celebrate, and why.

It is so difficult, that I think we need to ask for special help – and so today, we are going to do just that with this Mass.

As a matter of fact, asking for help is another thing that Advent is all about. It was to help us that Jesus came to the world in the first place – to help us as we have to live every day, and to help us make something of our entire life as well. The important thing to remember, is that we have to ask for His help – we cannot just take it for granted. It’s a very strange thing to say that we have to ask God for help – why can’t He just step in and take care of things the way parents and teachers do – why can’t He just wave His hand, and rescue us from all our troubles, the ones that come our way, and the ones that we make for ourselves. Well, in a way, that is exactly what He did when He sent Jesus into the world – He did make things right, and He did take care of all the problems that trouble all men and women, the young and the old.

But God still needs that one other thing – He needs to be asked. It has to do with the fact that He loves us so much, that He wants us to return His love because we want to, not because He tells us to, or forces us to. It is hard to understand, but it is what makes us free creatures – that He has given us what we call free will – and that with that will, we have the choice to either reject Him, or to accept Him. We can toss Him right out of our hearts and live without Him, or we can welcome Him into our hearts, and enjoy His being with us every day of our lives.

You remember in today’s Gospel, when the blind men came to Jesus – well, it was obvious that they wanted to be cured – any person who can’t see would never turn down the chance to be able to see – and if He had wanted to, Jesus could have just given them back their sight without them having to say a word. But what happens, this time and almost every time in the Gospel when He cures someone – Jesus stops and asks them, “Do you believe that I can do this – that I can give you back your sight?” And when they answer yes, He tells them, “This will be done for you, because you have asked, and because you have believed.”

Dear friends and students – this is one of the most important things we can ever do – that we can ever learn to do – to ask God for His help, and to believe that He will help us. He has proven this once already – when He sent Jesus Christ into the world, to be born on Christmas day, to die on Good Friday, and to rise from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. He has proven it by showing us in Christ, that we do not need to worry about the future of our lives, or the future of the world and all time – if we believe, if we trust, and if we do what He wants us to, then even though we may have troubles in life, and even though we will certainly die, we will still rise up and live forever in heaven, with God, and with our family and friends, and forever.

So, during this time of Advent, as we try to think about the birth of our Lord, about the great hardships that Mary and Joseph had to undergo in order to bring Jesus into the world, and as we try to remember that all of this happened because God loves us, let us also remember that we won’t be able to do any of it unless we start asking God for help right now, and keep on asking Him every day for the rest of our lives. That is what thinking ahead is really all about – not worrying about what we might receive as gifts, not worrying about how we are going to afford everything we have to have, and not worrying about how we will find the time to do everything we have to do during this time before Christmas – but rather, thinking ahead is all about trusting God – trusting God to show us the way to take care of all these things – because we have asked Him to show us how, and because we know, and we believe, that He will.

May God hear our trust, dear friends, as we express it to Him now, at this Mass and in our prayers, and may He bless us with the best Advent and the best Christmas that we have ever had.

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