. . . To Hear the Gospel and Make a Difference: Short enough to be memorized by a second grader and simple enough to be understood by a Bishop; and my humor will probably get me in trouble with about 100 bishops, but that’s alright, because that’s what we’re all about, to hear the gospel and make a difference.

In the 1960’s when President Kennedy announced that we would join in the space race, they say that if you went to Cape Canaveral where the work was being done and you asked anyone from the top scientists to the janitor pushing a vacuum cleaner, if you asked them, "What are you doing?" they would have answered, "We’re putting a man on the moon."

The story is told that in one of the great cathedrals in Europe being built during the Middle Ages a visitor came bye to the foundation stones of one of the cathedrals and found a woman from the village sweeping and he asked her, "What are you doing?" and she said, "I’m building a cathedral." And so it is with Christ the King, what we are about: To Hear the Gospel and Make a Difference.

And during Advent, what we’re going to do is look at different aspects or facets of that mission statement. This weekend it’s "People Who Saw and Made a Difference." "People who Saw…," what people? Where Jeremiah, the first reading—when everything was in disarray and dismay and destruction, he saw things differently and he announced hope for the people. Jeremiah, and we’ll meet other prophets. We’ll meet John the Baptist, we’ll meet Mary, and even today we hear Jesus saying, "Stand firm, stay awake, read the signs of the times, be among the few who get it right, who have insight or wisdom or grace or common sense, just to see the truth and make a difference."

I want to share with you a couple of people who have made a difference in my life. The first of them is my mother. Now my mother came from Ireland to the United States in 1923. She was in her early 20’s—in this picture she’s in her 30’s. She came single and alone as most Irish women who came to the United States did. That was untrue of all the other countries, France, Italy, Greece—the immigrants came as families. The Irish woman came single and alone. She met my father and married him in 1935. She was a devout Catholic, she was a very traditional conservative Catholic. We said the family rosary every day and I stayed awake all the way through half way through the second decade. My mother went to daily mass every morning at 6:45 at St. Anthony’s in East Oakland. And bad language and bad behavior was not tolerated at our house.

One summer I was in the 5th Grade, I was the alter server at Mass and at the end of Mass the priest in the sacristy said, "Brian what are you doing this summer?" and I said, "I’m going to learn to swim." He said, "Where are you doing to learn to swim? And I said, at the YMCA, 21st and Telegraph Avenue in Oakland." He didn’t say anything but that afternoon he rang the doorbell at our house and wanted to talk to my mother. He sat her down and he explained to her as she nodded and smiled and welcomed him, he explained to her that YMCA means Young Men’s Christian Association, that it’s a Protestant organization and Protestant institution and Catholics should have nothing to do with it. She smiled, she nodded and she offered him a cup of tea. After he left she turned to me and she said, "Isn’t that the silliest thing you’ve ever heard?" And I learned to swim at the YMCA.

But I learned some other things too. She helped me to see and it made a difference. I learned that priests are not always right and Protestants are not always wrong and a little common sense goes a long way in life.

The second person I want you to remember is Pope John XXIII, the "surprise Pope." He was genial, he was jovial, and he was friendly. Some people said he looked more like a pizza salesman or your friendly barber instead of a Pope, but he made a difference. He saw things differently, he went against the advice of all his advisors, everyone of them said, "no, no, no" and he called an Ecumenical Council, the Second Vatican Council. He asked the Bishops to enjoin in free debate and free discussion of every question that needed to be faced by the Church. And at the beginning of the Council he said, "I don’t believe of these prophets of doom anymore, I don’t believe in the prophets of gloom, …the mission of the Church today is to bring the medicine of mercy to the world, and also to seek for Christian unity and to dialog."

We learned many things from him, one was—I learned—that the Church is suppose to be very much in the world, not outside of the world, not limited to preaching and sacraments. Secondly, we are to do everything we can to work together with our Christian separated brothers and sisters. And finally, the most amazing thing; we learned that the Church can change..the Church can change.

Well, what about us? We’re called to be a people who see and make a difference. I think during Advent we might begin with ourselves, to find some quiet time (we’re all so busy), I suggest you take one of those Little Blue Books that’s available for each day of the Advent Season and set that time aside and use it or a passage of scripture, or just get a quiet nook or cranny and be still and look at the direction of your own life and see if anything needs to be in a different way. Because, what we try to do is take some time to see our God and to see truths more clearly and to make a difference. To see our God more clearly, to love our God more dearly, to follow our God more dearly nearly, day by day.

Amen