As I was getting ready for this Mass for the opening of the school year, I looked to see what the theme for this school year for Regina Catholic Schools is. It is: “Go make a difference.” A good theme, I would think. But it raised some questions in my mind. To make a difference is to change something. When I set out then to make a difference, I set out to make changes, presumably in the world around me.

As I was getting ready for this Mass for the opening of the school year, I looked to see what the theme for this school year for Regina Catholic Schools is. It is: “Go make a difference.” A good theme, I would think. But it raised some questions in my mind. To make a difference is to change something. When I set out then to make a difference, I set out to make changes, presumably in the world around me.

So I go out and into people’s lives and say: “I want to change things.” And they might say: “who are you?” Who gave you the right to come in here and tell me that you are going to make things different? Who gave you the authority to make a difference?

So then, it’s good to ask: Where do we get the authority to “go make a difference?” Upon what do we base our confidence that the difference we make will be a good one?

Now, that being said, you and I both know that everybody who has any sense of purpose in their life wants to make a difference in their world. They want to contribute to a better world and a better life for people.

We are teachers here, both you and I. I am a teacher of the faith of the Church founded on Jesus, the eternal Wisdom of God made flesh. You are teachers of young people who will build their lives on what you teach them. You want them to have better lives because of you; not only because of what you teach them, but because of you. You want to make a difference in their lives.

One day I was travelling from New Brunswick to visit my sister in Nova Scotia. And on the way I stopped at a super market to pick up some things for supper. I turned around and met a man who had, many years before, been in a senior scout group that I had led in my first parish, a Venturer Company. He was a smart young fellow but could have gone in any direction in his life, good or bad.

During our conversation in the produce aisle, he said to me: “You made a difference in my life.” He went on to tell me that after he had graduated from High School he joined the Navy, made a career there, married happily and had a family.

When he used those words: “You made a difference in my life.” I felt a great sense of happiness and indeed of achievement. If nothing else in my life, I know that I had a positive influence on one person and that I helped that person to make choices that enable him to achieve something good in his life. To know that, even for one person, is so important and so valuable that it made  me feel that my life has been successful. I did make a difference, an important difference, a good difference in someone else’s life.

But the driving force that impelled me to try to make a difference in the lives of these young people in that Venturer Company thirty years ago, and in the different parishes I have served and in my ministry as a Bishop is found in my faith in Jesus the Christ, the light of the world.

Because of my faith, I knew that I had something of value and worth to offer to others around me. When I set out to make a difference, I knew that the difference I was trying to make was truly good; it was a light which could drive out the darkness that afflicts our human lives. I knew that, because it was founded on the person and the teaching of the eternal Son of God who took human flesh in Jesus and who is for all who believe in Him and follow Him, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

St. Matthew tells us in his Gospel: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”* (Mt 28: 18-20)

And so if someone says to me: “Who are you to come and try to influence my life” I say, I am nobody any different from you, but I am a follower of Jesus, the Son of God, I am one of his people and he has told me to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Go and make a difference.

This is what is absolutely unique about Catholic Education and Catholic Schools. This is the unparalleled strength of the Catholic School system; this is the only reason for having Catholic Schools. It is our Catholic Faith that makes us different from all other school systems. It is because of our faith that we can give to our children the wisdom of God made present in the teachings of Jesus that we can confidently teach them a way to live that will overcome every threat and darkness that afflicts any person’s life.

To truly make a difference, we must believe. To truly make a difference we need to live our faith. The greatest threat to Catholic education does not come from without, it does not come from public school advocates, it does not come from militant atheists or extremist secularists. It comes from us when we will not believe.

In his letter announcing the Year of Faith which will begin in October, Pope Benedict defined faith in this way:  Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him. Faith is not simply a list of beliefs; it is the way we live. And therefore the true strength of the Catholic School System is us, when we choose to stand with the Lord so as to live with him.

We heard St. Paul’s words in the First Reading this morning: “I give thanks to my* God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind.”

That richness us not in the system, it is in us, in every person involved in Catholic education. And that richness which is the grace of God enables us to go make a difference that others cannot make.

In his call to observe a Year of Faith in the Church throughout the world, Pope Benedict acknowledges the reality of what he calls “a profound crisis of faith” in our world and in our Church today. We are well aware of how real it is. Even in our Catholic Schools I am given to understand that the majority of students do not choose to stand with the Lord and live with him. Children and young people who do live their faith are sometimes made fun of and teased by their friends.

I will look to our Catholic School Divisions to actively become involved in the observation of the Year of Faith and with the whole Church enter into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith. I will invite you to do that so that we can find again the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith to those entrusted to our care.