From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass at Christ the King School
May 5, 1995
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My dear boys and girls, and friends of Christ the King School,

I am happy to be here to visit with you today, and I want to especially thank Monsignor Kenny and your Principal Ms. Warner, for inviting me. I always enjoy visiting the schools in our area, and I only wish I could come more often.

You know, every Mass has its own readings, and its own story and today we have heard two very good stories about God, and about the way He asks us to serve Him, and to do the good work that He wants us to do.

The first story, and one that I like very much is the story about St. Paul and how he came to be converted to believing in the Gospel and in Jesus Christ. Paul had been a very bad man before the story we heard today. He thought that Christ was a fake, and that people should be warned not to believe in Him. He even went so far as to arrest the people who believed in Jesus, and sometimes these people were put to death because of what they believed.

But Paul had many talents - he was a good writer and a good preacher, and God knew that if He could just shake Paul up a bit, he might see the error of his ways, and change into a good man. And this is what happened, although it wasn't very easy on Paul. he was knocked off his horse as he was on the way to Damascus, and for many days, he lost his sight and was helpless. But God returned his sight, and from that moment on, St. Paul never lost an opportunity to thank God for what he had done, and to tell people about his new belief - a belief in Jesus Christ, a belief in doing good, and a belief that if a person does good, he will eventually live in heaven forever, with all the angels and saints, and with all the people he has loved, and who have loved him.

Now I don't expect that any of you will be knocked off a horse any time soon, or that God will make you go blind to convince you to be good boys and girls. But I do know, that as you continue to grow and as you get older, there will be times when things become so difficult that you might want to say, I don't care about other people any more - they only make you unhappy - I don't care about being good, it doesn't pay - I think that I will live for myself, look out for myself, and let other people handle their own problems.

But this is not what God wants us to do, and I think that if we act in such a selfish way, in the end we will be very unhappy ourselves. That is why it is always important, even if you think you might be right to think only of yourself, to stop and consider what Jesus would think, and to try and remember the things He did and the things He said. And one of the most important things He said is this: if you want to lead a good life, if you want to go to heaven, then you must do two things - you must love God above everything else, and you must learn to love other people, and to do things that are good for other people. This is not just a good saying, and Jesus was not just suggesting a possible way that we might behave and live our lives. No, this is a rule of God, and one that we must keep faithfully, if we are to succeed at being good people, so that when our time on earth is at an end, we may rejoin our friends in heaven, where we will be together forever and ever. If St. Paul had gone through what he did, and still remained a man full of hate and fear of doing what was right, then he would not have gone down in history as one of the greatest and holiest men ever to live - no, he would have become nothing, and he would have been forgotten, and all his life in the end would have amounted to nothing at all.

But Jesus tells us in the Gospel story we have just heard that anyone who feeds on His Flesh and drinks His Blood has, not will have, but has eternal life, and that on the last day, if we have been faithful, we will be raised up from the dead. What a beautiful hope this is, what a wonderful thing to look forward to.

But in order to gain this wonderful gift of eternal life, we must do what Jesus says. We must always live according to His word, doing what He teaches us to do, and we must always go to Holy Communion, as often as we can, and from now until the last day that we are alive. And this is because, no matter how much we hear His words, no matter how much we try to do what He says, nothing is more important than going to Communion and receiving His Body. We may not completely understand how this little piece of bread on the altar can actually be the Body of Jesus Christ, but for hundreds and hundreds of years, the true followers of Christ have believed this - I believe it - and I hope that you will always believe it too. For as Jesus also said, if you don't go to Communion, if you don't receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, then you have no life in you. I'm not sure what this exactly means, but I don't really want to find out, and I don't think you do either.

Instead, let us be happy that Jesus has come, that He spent three years teaching and preaching the way that we should act, the way that we should be, and the wonderful things we can look forward to if we just keep those two commandments, to love God and to love one another. And so that we will have the strength to keep these two commandments, let us try to receive Holy Communion as often as we can, even if we aren't sure what it's all about. I know that in the end, it will all be clear, and that our reward will be better than anything we have ever been given or that we have ever gotten out of life by ourselves.

And now, boys and girls, as we continue our Mass today, I want you to know that I will be praying for you all, and for your families and you teachers. And I ask you in return to do me the same kindness - to pray for me, so that I may continue to do all the work that a bishop has to do, and so that I may do it well. And finally, let us ask God to protect us and keep us safe, so that we may continue to enjoy one another's friendship, here at Christ the King Parish and School, and wherever life's path may lead us. And we ask for these things, as we ask for everything, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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