August 20, 2004: First Mass of the New School Year

St. Paul’s School
Danville, Illinois
Feast of St. Bernard
August 20, 2004

It’s probably hard for you to believe that summer vacation is over and you’re back in school again for another year! As for me, it’s hard to believe that after being gone from Danville for six years, I’m back again as your priest here.

If we haven’t met before, my name is Father Jeff Lawrence. You can call me Father Jeff if you like. I’m really looking forward to getting to know everybody at St. Paul’s School. Since there are 300 of you, it’s probably going to take me a while to learn everyone’s names. But please be patient with me, especially if I ask you for the 14th time: “What’s your name again?”

Besides getting to know me, you’ll also get to know my new dog, Maggie. She’s already gotten to meet many of you. She likes to run and jump and give doggie kisses. Maggie is very gentle and friendly, so I think you’ll be seeing a lot of her. I tried to sign her up for preschool, but Mrs. Buesking told me that she’s still too young.

I know that some of you girls and boys are new students this year, too. Well, I guess we’ll stick together and we’ll pray that the kids who have been here a long time will be nice to us and welcome us.

In case you didn’t know it, the reason that I’m here at St. Paul’s is because our bishop — Bishop Jenky — sent me here. The Bishop is Jesus’ apostle in our special corner of Illinois called a diocese. We’re in the Diocese of Peoria. A priest listens to his bishop just as though Jesus was speaking to him directly.

That’s the same reason why Father Doug had to go to Bloomington. The Bishop needed him for important work in another parish.

A priest is a helper to the bishop. It’s a priest’s job to be a father to the people of his parish. It sounds a little funny, because some of my children are much older than me! Some of my children are close to 100 years old! But that’s OK. I’m a spiritual father, not your flesh and blood father.

So now you know that you have two dads: your flesh-and-blood father at home, and your spiritual father here at St. Paul’s. Just please don’t hit me up for an allowance, or else I’d go broke with so many children!

At home, your other dad, along with your mom, has a big responsibility to take care of you. He makes sure you have a place to live, clothes to wear, food on the table, and he teaches you a lot of important stuff to help you become happy, responsible adults.

Here at church, my job as your spiritual dad is to take care of your soul and help you to know Jesus. Jesus, of course, is God’s Son and He loves all of us very much. He wants us to be happy and safe in this life, and especially He wants us to learn to know Him, love Him and serve Him so we can be with Him forever in heaven. He promises that heaven will be so wonderful and awesome, that we can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like. He asks us to believe Him and trust Him.

Well, let me introduce you to Jesus. We’ll talk about Him in church and in school. We’ll meet Him in the Sacraments we celebrate together—like Mass, confession, baptism, confirmation, First Holy Communion. We’ll hear His words in the Bible. And He’ll be with us when we do kind and loving things for each other.

I have to apologize to you, though. Your real dad makes sure you have food every single day. When you say, “Dad, I’m hungry. Can I have breakfast?”—he never says, “No, sweetheart. You ate yesterday. Why don’t you ask me again on Monday.” That’s ridiculous!

Jesus wants me to feed you His Body and Blood every day, too, because your soul needs spiritual food as much as your body needs regular food. But this year, I’m afraid that we’re only going to have Mass twice a week: once on Friday with the school, and once of course on Saturday night or Sunday morning when you come with your family. So please forgive me for that. If you feel like your soul is starving, you can always come to 7:15 Mass any morning of the week before school starts!

So what can we say about Jesus to start off this brand new school year? Maybe some of you had a chance this summer to see the new Harry Potter movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but I read all the books. Harry, as you may know, went off to Hogwarts School to study to become a wizard. He and his friends learned all kinds of interesting ways to tap into magical powers. The magic didn’t happen instantly, though. The wizardry students had to do a lot of reading, study hard and practice a lot to learn their magical arts. Harry discovered that there was a lot that he didn’t know. There’s a good lesson for all of us. We have to work hard if we want to be a successful student.

As fun as it may be to think about, though, Harry Potter is fiction. Fantasy. No one can point a wand, say a few words, and turn another person into a rat. No one can jump onto a broomstick and fly around on it. It just isn’t real.

But I want you to listen to something that really is very amazing: St. Paul’s School can teach you incredible powers that will put Hogwarts School to shame! If you’re prepared to work as hard as Harry, Ron and Hermione did, you will master these sacred arts.

Catholics, you see, receive a most unique and powerful set of gifts when they are baptized. You’ve got them all! But unfortunately, most people never learn to use their powers except maybe just a very little bit. And that’s a terrible thing. It’s like being very, very rich and not even knowing it!

What are these powers all about? Maybe the best way to explain it is to say that they let you and God become best friends. And because you’re best friends, God will start to do amazing things for you. Really good things, like opening up undreamed-of opportunities, help you out of close calls, protect you against dangers, fill you with a lot of happiness, help the people you love, and lots more. These are not Harry Potter stories; these are absolutely real!

I guarantee you this: God will open up all these gifts to you, but only on one condition: you really have to want them and go after them.

I’m going to teach you how. So will your teachers.

When Bishop Jenky first came to our diocese two years ago, I’ll never forget what he said at his first public Mass. He looked around at the crowd of people, he spread his arms wide and said, “Isn’t it great to be Catholic!” Everybody cheered, because they knew just what I’m telling you. God has the best of the best for Catholics, because we completely accepted His Son, Jesus.

At this Mass today, please join your hearts and prayers with mine that this is going to be a fantastic year. We want to ask for God’s powerful blessings on all of us: students, teachers, school staff, families and friends. And please be enthusiastic and excited as you begin this new year, because this is the start of one awesome journey of faith!

Amen!