From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass
November 10, 2000
Our Lady of Mercy High School
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Dear Friends in Christ,

I want you to know that I consider this High School one of the most important projects of our entire Church in North Georgia - I am going to do everything I can to make it work, and I know that the hundreds of thousands of Catholics in all our parishes are just as eager to see that our schools succeed and grow and become better as the months and years unfold.

Of course, just as no one can be born and live and grow and become stronger unless they have a healthy heart, this school will not prosper unless it has a healthy heart. And where we must find the heart for this school, is in how each one of us - the teachers, the staff, the parents, and most especially, the students, believe that God is truly and personally involved in helping us make this school work.

In the Gospel we have just heard, our Lord tells us a story about a shrewd and not altogether honest man, who was faced with a big problem - he had been slack on his job, and his boss had heard about it, and let it be known that he was going to call him on the carpet, and make him explain why he had been goofing off.

This man got very worried in a big hurry, and thought about what he might do to protect himself in case the worst scenario happened. So he went to other people who owed his boss, and he changed their accounts, so that they would only owe half as much. This way, he figured, if I get thrown out, and am without work, these people will remember what I did for them, and they will help me out too. The amazing thing was that when his boss found out what he had done, he wasn't angry - in fact, he complimented the man on his resourcefulness, and maybe he even forgave the man for having done such a terrible job in the first place.

Now we may as well admit to ourselves, that in many ways, this is just ho the world works. You get a job, and then you find out that the only way to get ahead might involve you in lying or cheating, or in hiding things, or in stepping on somebody else, so that you can get above them. In other words, the only way to get ahead is by using your guile, your sense of craftiness - by being a kind of Wiley Coyote, trying to outsmart the Roadrunner all the time.

But the point of all this, is heard towards the end of the Gospel story, when our Lord says, "If you have not been honest with what belongs to another, then who will give you anything for your own…you cannot serve two masters…you cannot say that you belong to God, if you give yourself to the dishonest ways of the world."

Here in our Lady of Mercy School, we are not shut off from evil - evil can happen anywhere, because no matter how hard we try, there is still something in us that says we might get ahead by taking the easy way out. This can happen in any number of ways - it might be cheating in our work, it might be in taking advantage of fellow students, who are not as strong or as smart as we are, or think we are - it might be in lying to our parents or our teachers about something that we should be telling them the truth about - you can think up your own scenarios - you know what I am talking about - everybody has in them a little of the steward in the Gospel - let me see how I can cut corners, let me figure out how I can arrange things, so that I am the one who comes out on top, and never mind what happens to this other guy - I've got to take care of myself.

But boys and girls, young men and women, if we want to be truly good, and more important, if we want to take care of our souls - and remember, it is the soul which lives forever, not the body - if we want to be on the right side of God, who will give us what really matters, what is really important, what is really valuable, then we must serve Him, by doing what He wants us to do, instead of serving ourselves, and doing only what we want to do.

And what God wants us to do is this - to take care of each other - He wants students to be good and caring to other students -He wants teachers to help students - He wants parents to encourage students -and he wants the students to be honest, committed, serious, dedicated - and to do the work that they need to do in order to learn the things to help them get along in this world, not by being clever or sneaky or mean, but by being honest and up-front.

Wiley Coyote never wins - he is always trying some gimmick, some trick to get the Road-runner, but it always back-fires, and he always ends up caught in his own trap, beaten by his own stupid scheme. And the Road-runner sails on down the road, free as a bird, so-to-speak, and untouched, unharmed by the Coyote's plotting and planning.

Let us all, students, faculty, and all friends of the Lord, right now, at this Mass, promise that we are going to give up all scheming, all dishonesty, all cheating, and all things which are not the pure and honest truth. Let us stop being stupid coyotes, tripped by our own tricks, and become smart and savvy Road-runners, free and unhurt. And let us trust God, if we are honest, to always help us out, so that if we do have trouble, we won’t have to figure out a sneaky way of getting out of it, but find, in Him, and in our friends and families, the right way out, the right way back to being the good people we want to be, and we believe we can become – people who belong to God, and not to the dishonest ways of the world.

God bless you all, and make this year at Mercy High School one of the best years of your life.

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