From Archbishop Donoghue

School Mass
October 6, 2000
St. John Neumann Catholic School
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Dear Friends in Christ, and especially my young friends enrolled here at St. John Neumann School,

It is truly not an easy thing to hear about the last hours and minutes that our Lord spent on earth. The story we have just listened to is not the kind of story we might choose to ask someone read to us, and though we like to have good thoughts, pleasant ideas about our lives and about what we are going to do, this story is not easy to deal with, and perhaps we might even say to ourselves, I don’t want to think about that any more, or at least, until the next time I have to hear it in Church.

But many times - and this is true in many ways - the most important things about life are not necessarily pleasant or easy to take. It was not easy for you to be born - your mother had to go through a lot of pain and discomfort to bring you into the world, and yet, who loves you more than your mother does? And you father - maybe he would rather spend his time fishing, or out with his friends at the hardware store, or just sitting back and watching a game on TV. But he doesn’t just do these things - he works, he gets up every morning, and sets himself about the task of earning money so that his family can have what they need - he may not like all this work, but he does it for you, because he loves you, and that makes it OK, that makes the work and the effort not so hard, not so unpleasant. And we could go on - all through life, if we are to have a good life, we do things for one another because we love one another, and even if it is unpleasant, or hard, and even if it makes us hurt, we still do it, because we want to be good to one another, and we want to have good things to share with one another.

And sometimes, doing these good things for one another can even mean that we might have to take a chance with our own life. We have all seen stories on TV, or read them in a magazine, and maybe we even know someone - who has been brave enough to give a kidney to someone for a transplant operation, or to donate blood cells so that someone could be treated for leukemia or some kind of cancer. This is never easy, but you know, that if you brother or sister, or your mother or father needed to have this kind of operation, well, you probably wouldn’t think too long about helping out - and it wouldn’t be for money, or for advantage, it wouldn’t be to impress anyone - it would be for love, pure and simple, for love.

When we hear this story, of what Jesus went through on the cross, and about the blood and the water pouring out of his heart, we have to forget for a minute, the awfulness of it all, and try to think of the good that He was doing. For in this case, Jesus was giving, not just a kidney or some blood cells - Jesus was giving his life - and not just for one person, but for every person who has ever lived, and who ever will live, and this most certainly includes us. And by telling us about his heart, and by telling us that the blood flowed from His heart, the gospel is not trying to scare us, or to make us feel bad - it is God speaking in this story, and He is telling us that all the love He had to give, all the love that He has to give, He gives us, through the heart of His holy and wonderful Son, who is our Lord, and who is our friend, Jesus Christ, and He is a friend just like our brother or sister, our mother or father, who loves us so much, that He will do anything to keep us safe from evil, from bad things, and that He will do anything to make sure that we stay His friend, and a friend of His Father, who is above us always, in Heaven.

Now when Jesus dies on the Cross, He made it possible once again for us to learn ourselves about being generous to one another, and even to give away what we would rather keep, if it does someone else good. Perhaps the things we are called on to do are not as terrible as dying on the Cross, but that does not make a bit of difference. If we do something for someone, and we do it because Jesus loves us, then God will smile on what we do, and you better believe that the smile of God is where all happiness begins. The main thing we need to do, is to always remember how much God loves us, and how much Jesus loves us - so much, that He gave His life for us.

To help us remember, because it is easy to forget, we have to remind ourselves on a regular basis, about Jesus’ great love, and one way of doing this is to think about His heart. You know, and all human beings know this, that when you feel strongly about someone, say if you’ve hurt someone’s feelings that you didn’t mean to, or say you are getting ready to see someone you love, and haven’t seen in a long time, then you feel it around your heart. It doesn’t exactly hurt, but a strange feeling comes into you, and it makes you put your hand on your heart and sometimes the feeling even makes you feel or even hear your heartbeat. Well, that is the feeling that Jesus always has for us, and that is why it is good to think about His heart. On every First Friday during this school year, you will be doing just that - coming to Mass, and spending a little of your time thinking about Jesus’ heart, and praying that He will make your own heart just as full of love as His is.

I won’t be here for every one of those Masses, but I am certainly happy I am here at this one, and I want you to know that I am very proud and very happy about what is going on here at St. John Neumann School. I promise you, that on every one of those First Fridays, I will be thinking about you, and asking God to bless you in the future even more than He has blessed you in the past. And I know - I believe - that if we think about the Heart of Jesus together, at those times, His love is so great, that we will all feel it, and that we will feel much better, because there is enough of His love to go around for all of us, with plenty left over.

I am glad we have had this time together - I hope that I haven’t tired you out talking too long - and I ask, truly ask, that you will all pray for me from time to time, because I need all the prayers I can get. God bless you all.

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