From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass and May Crowning
May 22, 2001
Holy Redeemer School
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Dear Friends in Christ, and especially Dear Students,

I am very happy to be here today, to bless the new statues you will be placing in classrooms and around your school, and to celebrate Mass and the May crowning. All of these things we do today have great meaning for us, and the secret of the meaning may be found in the name of the school, Holy Redeemer.

I'm not sure everyone understands this word "Redeemer" and what it means for us. So I thought I would tell you a little story to explain it, and to show how its meaning is at the heart of everything we are doing today.

You all know that when you go the grocery store with your parents, when you go through the check-out line, and pay the bill, the cashier hands you a long strip of coupons - coupons being a sort of promise, that when you come back to the store next time, if you buy a certain product, then the store will take off a part of the price, so that you will save some money. This is a good practice - it encourages people to come back to the store, which makes the manger and the owners happy, and it saves your parents some money on the grocery budget, which is very important when you are raising a family, and trying to make every penny count.

When I was a boy growing up, and I think this is also true of many of your own parents and teachers, things were a little more interesting than coupons. In those days, when you paid your bill, you were given a certain amount of what were called "trading stamps." Although there were several different kinds, I guess the most famous were called "S&H Green Stamps." You would take these stamps home, and paste them in a little book that was made especially to hold them. Then, when you had collected a certain number of these books filled with stamps, you would take them to a very special place, like a giant department store, called a “redemption center,” and you would "redeem" them. This meant, that you could trade in your stamps for something very nice, depending on how many stamps you had saved. Of course, there were many different things to get – for instance, with just a few books of stamps, you might get something like some new dishes, or a set of towels, or a new baseball, or a doll for your little sister - something small but nice. But sometimes, if you saved a long time and had many books of stamps, the prizes were even bigger - I remember stories of people saving enough stamps to redeem them for big appliances, like washing machines or electric saws, and I think that a few people even saved enough to get themselves a new car, or a boat for the lake.

Back at the beginning of time, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and He decided to send them out of the Garden of Paradise and into the world, He promised them and their descendants, that in time He would send a redeemer - someone who would do enough good things, that God would be impressed and give back to His people all that they had lost, because of their sins, and because of their disobedience. Over time, the people of Israel, God's Chosen people, would do good things, and every time they did something good, it was like they had collected a certain number of saving stamps and pasted them in the book, hoping that if they did enough good things, the book would be filled, and everything good they had lost, they would be able to get back. Unfortunately, it seemed like for every good thing they did, they also did something bad - so that every time they had filled the book, they either lost it, or ruined it, and it was no good, and they would have to start all over again.

Finally, one day, God had enough. He decided that the people were never going to be able to save up enough stamps to get back what they had lost, so He decided on a new plan of action.

He would ask a woman, a woman who had been picked from the moment that her parents had made her, to be the mother of His own Son. And if she said yes, then it would be like giving the world a brand-new savings book. And then, His Son Jesus would be born, and for every good thing that Jesus said, and every good thing that He did, the book would be filled, page by page, with magic stamps, and when the book was filled, then God would open up the redemption center again, and all the good things that had been lost by Adam and Eve, and by all their descendants, would be made available to people again, would be restored, would be redeemed.

And Mary did say yes to God's offer - she became the Mother of Jesus Christ, and we know the rest of the story. From the time He was born, Jesus could only do good things. And every time He did something good, and every time, later on, when He was preaching and teaching, that He said something beautiful and wise, God, His Father, looked down from Heaven, and filled another page of that savings book, with beautiful and perfect stamps. It wasn't always easy - sometimes Jesus' enemies tried to ruin the book or steal it away - sometimes people tried to hurt our Lord, to drive Him away, and even to harm Him physically. But He was strong, and He knew that the Father, and that His mother Mary believed in Him, and He was able to keep going, and to keep doing all His good works. Even at the end of His life, the Devil tried his hardest to ruin Jesus' life, by having one of His own Apostles betray Him, and making His other friends so afraid, that they all ran away. The Devil even fixed things so that Jesus was made to die a very hard death, being tortured first, and then made to carry a heavy wooden cross all the way through the city, and then to be nailed upon it, and hung there in the terrible sun and heat, until finally He died. Things looked pretty bad at that moment - in fact it looked like the savings book and the savings stamps and all the hopes for redeeming the prizes had been swallowed up by Hell.

But even at that terrible time, Mary, Jesus' mother was still there - her belief in Him never faltered, never stumbled, and lo and behold, after He was dead for three days, and laid in the tomb, He rose up, He fooled the Devil and defeated all his evil tricks, He proved His mother right, and you better believe, that savings book was filled up with absolutely perfect stamps, and the redemption center was opened once and for all and for all time.

Now here is what that means for all of us - it means that even though when we try to do our best, but still fail - or that when we try to be our kindest, but still end up doing something mean - all is not lost. We can take our bad deeds, and go to Confession, and have them forgiven, and our souls fixed and made whole again. The savings stamps that we get by doing good can never be completely lost like they were before. And this is because Jesus Christ has redeemed us once and for all, and as long as we stick by Him, and ask Him for forgiveness for anything wrong that we do, and as long as we are faithful about going and receiving His True Presence in Holy Communion, then the redemption will stay whole, and we will be saved, redeemed, and enjoy all the good prizes that God has made for us. This is why we call our Lord the Holy Redeemer, and this is why it is so important to understand why this school is named Holy Redeemer, and why we must remember Jesus, and pray to Him as our Redeemer every day.

Finally, when we crown our Lady's statue, and remember her as well, it is because of what I said before. Of all the people who ever lived on earth, she was the most faithful, the only perfectly faithful human being who ever lived. She never stopped believing in her Son, Jesus, or in the promise that God had made her. She was like the perfect book to hold all the beautiful stamps that Jesus earned as He walked through life and did every good thing that we can imagine, and said every good thing that could be said. They were the perfect pair, Jesus and His mother, and we want to try and be just like them - doing all the good we can do, and remembering no matter what, that God has saved us, that He has become our Holy Redeemer, and that the Devil, no matter how hard he might try, does not have any real power over us at all.

Well, that’s the story, and I hope now that you may understand a little better what it means to have a school named Holy Redeemer, and how blessed we are to have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. Thanks for asking me to be here today, and I hope you will all pray for me, because your prayers really do make it easier for me to do all the things I have to do, and I truly appreciate them.

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