Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21 | Raising the Next Generation of Leaders: How Catholic Education Can Unlock Your Child's Potential

Good morning everyone.

Well, my dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate the beginning of Catholic school.

And it's amazing how the readings on this day correspond to what we try to do on a daily basis with young people that attend Catholic schools.

And what is this exactly?

Let's focus on today's Gospel.

If I can find it.

Jesus went in the synagogue, and he was handed a scroll, the reading of the day.

And when he opened it, it said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sanctuary of life, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim that you're acceptable to the Lord.

And then what he says after that is remarkable.

He says, Today this scripture passes, this prophecy is fulfilled.

To have such a clarity of who you are, and what your mission is in this world.

To be able to realize that when you're young.

What did God want me to do on this world?

Why am I here?

What is the purpose of my life?

You know, I didn't grow up going to a Catholic school.

I went to public school.

And so, in public school, I took up the piano. I ended up playing piano for 20 years.

I'm good. But not as good as my friends. My friends were great.

But I remember being in a piano competition.

And in another room, there was a young person that was practicing their piece.

I was practicing mine, and then I overheard theirs.

It was one of the most difficult Chopin pieces I've ever heard.

And it was extremely difficult, and they were playing it amazingly well.

I was in high school.

And I went over to the other room to see who was playing… and it was a 9-year-old.

At that moment, I realized I have no future as a pianist.

No future whatsoever.

And my dad was happy.

Because when I told him I wanted to be one for music, it was like I'd never been one.

And I said, well, what should I do, Dad?

What should I do?

He said, be an engineer.

And I was a pretty good engineer.

I was good.

But I wasn't passionate about it.

And I was happy being good.

And when it was 4 o'clock, I left work.

And I dried my body every morning to go to work.

And I loved the pain.

The pain was good.

But I wasn't passionate about it.

The only time I ever had become passionate about anything is when I learned about my faith and love.

And I was 27 years old when finally someone, anybody was looking for me.

Someone, my girlfriend, she challenged me.

She said, do you know who God is?

And I was like, yeah, God.

God.

God.

Up there.

I've never been as passionate about anything as I have with the Catholic faith and with God.

And you know when you have discovered what your reason for being here is when you are passionate about something, when you love something.

When work is not even work.

When you love going in every morning and doing what you do every day.

And the fact that you get paid for it, you love it.

But that you love it.

That is what you want in every, you want that for yourself and you want that for your children.

You want them to be happy in this world.

Really what you want them to do is you want them to discover who they are.

And who God is.

And then when you do that, then you say to yourself, I am happy.

My curiosity has been fulfilled.

My wonder.

You can imagine what the people were saying.

Who does he think he is?

Imagine.

Imagine what Jesus says to the people in the synagogue.

One day this prophecy has been fulfilled, it is in me.

And the people are like, who does he think he is?

Can I tell you something?

When I first arrived at Mariana, the school for the last 15 years had been going down in a bowl.

Every year, they had been going down in a bowl.

And the fundraising stacked up.

I remember going to one of the meetings, one of the four meetings, the school advisory meetings, and I said, we are going to raise X amount of money and we are going to get this number of kids.

Afterwards I heard that someone said, he doesn't know our community.

And you know what?

I didn't.

But I knew what my mission was.

I knew what my mission was.

I knew what my job was.

And no one and nothing is going to stop me.

And the team that I have today at the school, the sisters that are over there, Sister Marianne, Sister Lucia, Sister Margaret Mary, please stand up.

Pleasure to see you.

Thank you.

There is a famous entrepreneur who says, Jeff Bezos, Amazon.

He says, he has this thing that he calls regret minimization framework.

Regret minimization framework.

You know what that means?

When he had a great job, and then he had the opportunity to leave the great job for someone that he was curious about.

I wonder, I wonder if I can do this, start my own company, because I have this dream.

He said to himself, I asked myself at 80 years old, when I'm 80 years old, am I going to have regrets that I didn't try?

When I'm 80 years old, am I going to have regrets that I didn't try to follow my dream?

To follow something that I'm passionate about?

And he said to himself, I will.

I will.

So what did he do?

He left his job.

Safe, secure job.

And he said, I'm going to try this.

And of course, the rest is history.

Do you have any regrets?

Before you turn 80 years old, if you have any regrets, if there's some dream that you have, something that you're passionate about, something that you dream that you would love to be able to do before you leave this earth, then do it.

Do it.

If you think that you can be great at it, and you have the passion and willingness to sacrifice for it, then go for it.

That's when you realize and discover who you are.

And look at this.

It took me 27 years old to be able to put together art, art, piano, music, science, technology, engineering, and God.

When you have a good formation when you're a young person, those three things go together easily.

And that's what we do at Mary Mack.

We put the arts, we put the sciences, and we put God all into the same place so that you can discover new creativity and the presence of God, the universe, in your life.

You know who does that?

Geniuses do that.

Leonardo da Vinci.

Do you know the man who cut the drawing and he has the man in the circle and the square?

You know who that is?

That is da Vinci's man.

Who is human, who is in this world, this square, and who also touches the infinite, God.

Art, science, spirituality.

When Einstein, while he was working on his theory of relativity, when Einstein would hit a roadblock, right?

He was a pretty smart guy.

But he would say the thing that he appreciated most was the sense of wonder they had in the universe.

And so whenever he hit a roadblock in his theory of relativity, when he was trying to figure it out, you know what he would do?

He would put down his notes, he would go over to the music room, pick up the violin, and start playing Mozart.

And that would open his mind to the next guy in his theory of relativity.

Who doesn't want to give their children an opportunity, the best opportunity, to discover who they are and who God is?

Without leaving anything out.

Having all the opportunities to discover who they are and who God is.

The best combination you could ever have.

That's what we do.

How many of you, raise your hands, how many of you went to a academy school?

A few more.

And look at our beautiful choir.

And wait until you hear them sing the last song tonight, today, at Mass.

It's a song that you sing at the end of every month, giving glory to God.

And it doesn't inspire you, really.

I don't know why.

But that's why at Mary America our mission is very simple.

Create a Christ-centered learning environment that fosters curiosity, fosters wonder and excitement.

So that's the most beautiful gift that you can ever receive, is wanting to be a learner for the rest of your life.

That is the mission.

To find out what you're passionate about, what you can be great at, and how you can serve God.

Amen.