Homily given by Bishop Anthony Randazzo
Bishop of Broken Bay
Mass for Broken Bay Schools Staff
Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral
5 March 2020
Shortly after I was nominated as a bishop, an invitation arrived for me to return to my old school on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It was a great pleasure to go back to Aquinas College, my alma mater, my other mother.
Like my real mother, my alma mater taught me many things, and one of the things that Catholic schooling taught me, was to strive for nothing less than excellence, to recognise excellence and to celebrate excellence.
Excellence comes in many forms. We often celebrate the kind of excellence that those in school will recognise most easily, excellence in Mathematics, Science, History, and so on. These form an essential part of our Catholic education, because they offer the students who are entrusted into our care, the opportunities to excel in academics which in turn become part of a broader bank of knowledge that provides life skills well beyond school life.
As we honour these achievements, and our dedicated Catholic educators, it is important to remember the other forms of excellence, the type that is espoused in families and which shapes our society. Our Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Broken Bay - and indeed I hope Catholic schools all around Australia - teach our youth other kinds of excellence that may not necessarily receive prizes, like the ones that are awarded at the end of each academic year.
What does an education in a Catholic school teach us that others either cannot or will not?
Certainly, a good school should teach us all the necessary technical skills that make us learn to read, write, calculate, and think. A great school would strive to move beyond the curriculum, whether it is in sports, in music or art or debating, values that form the other parts of the human person, the heart and the imagination.
Catholic Schools in Broken Bay, on the other hand, take it one step further. One giant step further. With its religious education, a liturgical life, and the presence of dedicated chaplains and teachers of faith, our Catholic Schools remind us of that most mysterious form of excellence – going through life in this world so as to prepare for eternal life in the next.
Through the use of faith and reason, a Catholic school allows us a glimpse of this other world. Catholic education provides us with an opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ in mysterious and wondrous and often surprising ways, in every classroom, in every office, in every home, in everything that you do and in every person you meet. In this way, learning at the feet of an alma mater, a Catholic School in the local Church of Broken Bay, is not just to look to build a technical excellence within oneself, but to look outwards and beyond, to seek excellence in all its forms in this world and in the next.
My sisters and brother, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we will have a lifetime to develop and explore this kind of striving for excellence. This discipleship is not just for the children who seek to be educated in our Schools. It is an essential dimension of every woman or man of faith who is called to the mission and ministry of faith education in our Church.
Like the Queen Esther in our first reading today, we too take refuge in the Lord. (Esther 4:17) Inspired by this heroic woman of faith, we remember that God is revealed to us throughout our lives. Likewise, in today’s Gospel, we are invited to find shelter in the God of Jesus Christ, who gives when we ask, who reveals when we search, and who opens when we knock. (cf. Matt 7:7-12)
In this Mass today, we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all who contribute to the education of our children in our Catholic Schools throughout Broken Bay.
We give thanks for the CSO leadership team and for the Religious who have given Spirit-filled inspiration to our Congregational Catholic Schools.
We thank God for the teachers and staff, for their tireless efforts in forming and guiding our students patiently and skilfully.
We praise God for the parents and care givers, for their devotion and investment in their children and for their trust in the Church of Broken Bay.
We give thanks to God for our priests and deacons who faithfully guide and shepherd the People of God.
And lastly, but most importantly, we bless God for our students, for their faith and reason, for their enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work. To God be the glory, now and forever.
Amen.