Regina Catholic Schools Opening of the School Year

My dear friends, I have been away for the past three weeks on an adventure, accompanying 40 young people from our diocese on a pilgrimage in Italy and then the events of World Youth Day, which was held this year in Madrid Spain with one and a half million young Catholic people in joyful attendance.

My dear friends, I have been away for the past three weeks on an adventure, accompanying 40 young people from our diocese on a pilgrimage in Italy and then the events of World Youth Day, which was held this year in Madrid Spain with one and a half million young Catholic people in joyful attendance.

Just before I left, I grabbed the sheet of paper that Myles Meyers had sent to the office with information about this Mass. I knew that I needed time to think about what I would say to you all today and two days after a long trip wouldn’t do it. So from time to time I would look at the readings for Mass and with what energy I had left after trying to keep up with a big crowd of 20 year olds in 38 degree temperatures, and I would think of their meaning for us.

It was the theme that you have chosen for the coming school year that kept popping up in my mind: “Go, make a difference.” So that’s what I would like to reflect on a bit this morning, for this theme, I believe, carries a message  for all of us who have accepted the responsibility of teaching our children and young people, a message that is at the heart of what Jesus teaches us.

Go make a difference. I don’t know how many times Jesus told people to go and do something. I thought I would point out a few examples of times when Jesus told people to go and do something particular. There is a great tool for people who look for things like this in Sacred Scripture. It is called a Concordance. It lists every word in the bible, what its context is and where it is found.

So I went and very blithely turned to the page where the word “go” was. Well, you know what, there was no word “go” in the Concordance. So I tried another one. This one politely told me that there were a number of words that were not in the concordance because they had no special importance, among them was the word “go.”

I of course said “that’s silly.” “Go is really important.” When Jesus said “Go” it was always “Go and do something.” If Jesus said “Go and do something” then it’s important.  My chances of changing the concordance, however, at that point were nil.

Fortunately, I could remember a couple of those “go and do something” statements. In Matthew’s Gospel, after he rose from the dead, Jesus told his disciples“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes , to the end of time.”I think that’s pretty important “go and do something” statement. And if we think about it, Jesus was telling them to go and make a difference in the world.

They were to go and make people of all the nations of the world, disciples of Jesus, followers of Jesus, believers in Jesus: Jesus who is always with us; Jesus who is in fact so close to us in every moment of our life that Jesus and each of us are within each other, inside each other, immersed in each other. Jesus tells us: Go and teach people this; go and tell this good news; go and make a difference in the whole world.

And without the help of the concordance, I remembered another occasion when Jesus had healed the poor Gerasene man who was possessed with a demon who tormented him night and day so that he lived among the graves and tombs, the abode of the dead, and ran naked screaming in his torment. And Jesus reached out and touched him and drove out the evil that was destroying his life and returned him to calm and lucidity and peace. And the man said to Jesus, I don’t ever want to leave you: you are my salvation from that horror, you are my hope, you are my peace, you are my life. I want to be with you all the time, always.

And Jesus said to him: No, go home to your people and tell them what the Lord in his mercy has done for you.” Go and tell them about my mercy and my love. Go, show them what my love can do. Go, and make a difference in your family and your friends.

One of the people who made a great difference in the church and indeed in the world was Blessed Pope John XXIII. There is a story told about him when he was elected pope. After the final ballot was counted, it was clear that the 80 year old Cardinal Angelo Roncalli had been elected pope. The Sistine Chapel was still as the Cardinals waited. The Camerlingo, who is the Cardinal who presides over the Conclave which elects the pope, walked over to where Cardinal Roncalli was sitting.

And in a very profound moment, and with greatest solemnity, he asks if he accepts the election to be Pope. The Cardinal replied yes, he did. Then the Camerlengo asks: “Then by what name will you be called.” And the reply was “I will be called John.” And the Camerlengo is reported to have asked, “Is that after John the Apostle or John the Evangelist?” And Pope John XXIII replied: that name is dear to me because my father’s name was John.

I like that story because in it Good Pope John teaches us that, in our relation with God, which is what our Catholic Religion is all about, apostles and evangelists are important, but so also are fathers and mothers, so also are brothers and sisters and indeed so also are friends, and so also are teachers.

And that is where we fit in, dear sisters and brothers. Angelo Roncali’s father simply was a man who lived his faith and taught it by word and example to his son. By doing that he made a difference. He nurtured the faith in his son, who would become one of the most loved popes in history and who made a tremendous difference in our world. He showed simply in the way he lived his life what the mercy and love of God can do. That moved his son to go out to be a teacher for the whole world of what Jesus taught us about the love that is in the heart of God for all people.

That is the difference which is found in Catholic education, that is the difference that is found in our Catholic Schools, that is the difference that is found in our Catholic teachers. We certainly teach math and English and science well, but more importantly we also bring our students to know Jesus, who drives out the demons who throw the world into the anguished torment of wars and violence and hatred. We bring our students to know Jesus who restores peace to anguished souls and gives the promise of life, life forever, life in all its fullness to each of us.

That is our gift, and that is our calling. The gospel reading reminds us that we need to be busy at this calling all the time. We live in this time which is between the two comings of Christ. As we say in the Eucharistic acclamation: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” Jesus says: blessed are we when we are found at this work. For it is when we go and do this work that we will truly make a difference in the lives of those who come to us, and in the lives of all the people around us.

 Compassionate Jesus, loving Jesus, bright light of God, help us, your friends, to go and truly make a difference in our families, in our schools and in our world. Amen.