2019 Baccalaureate Mass and Dinner

It’s always with great joy that the church gathers to celebrate graduations and accomplishments in the lives of the people of the church. Whether it is a wedding, or graduation ceremony, or other times we set aside to mark the growth of the people of God, the contributions, the development of goodness. It all takes us back in our minds and in our hearts to the very beginning of creation when God gave man and woman the ability to continue the process of creation. He says to them, “Be fruitful and subdue the earth.” Subdue might be, in my opinion, the greatest translation for that word. It really means to fill the earth. We are really here tonight to celebrate the way that your gifts have begun to fill the earth. How your talents, how your blessings from God are not merely your own, but they are given to you to be used responsibly, generously, and lovingly for the good of your family, for the good of the world, and the good of the church. We are called to build up the world around us with the talents that God has given us. We hear in the readings that we heard this evening, they all speak about gifts. They all speak about talents, about those basic things that God has given us, that we then must develop and use, and with them promote goodness, holiness, sanctity in the world. And that really is an important aspect of what we come to do here tonight. In a very real way, this has a double direction; we look back and we look forward. Looking back is easy, especially as you prepare for graduation. I was watching you all today, signing each other’s shirts and yearbooks, and remembering all the funny things and not so funny things that happened in the past four years and celebrating the growth, the development, the relationships, the friendships that have been formed over these periods of time. The things that you went through, together. The things that you over came, together. The experiences that you had that have changed you., molded you, and helped you. The relationships that you have established with one another and with the faculty that have helped you draw out of yourself those gifts and talents that God has placed within you.

 

As you look back on them tonight, I hope it is a great opportunity for you to give thanks. Be thankful tonight for the people around you. For the friendships you’ve made. For the relationships that have been such and important part of your life for the past four years and that I pray will continue to be an important part of your life going forward. Many of you have learned so many academic things, but you have also learned many spiritual and personal things, emotional things. How to be a good friend, how to forgive, how to love, how to be generous and kind, how to be sensitive to things around you, and how to respond with a good, gracious heart. We’ve seen such development in your lives over your four years here at St. Edmund Prep, in which you’ve become, not just these young teenagers, but young men and women, ready to go out into the world and to use those gifts and talents you’ve developed and strengthened to do even more. And so, we not only look back with gratitude, we look forward with great hope and anticipation of all the great things you are going to accomplish, all the wonderful things you are going to do in the world in your chosen professions. More significantly to me as a priest, in the relationships that you will form as you go forward. Some of you becoming husbands and wives, some parents, some doctors, lawyers. You are going to contribute to this world in ways that make a difference. You’re going to change this world for the better. You are going to take the gifts that God has given you and that you’ve developed in your four years at St. Edmund and continue to hone them and strengthen them so that they will make a difference. Think about the ways tonight in which people have made a difference in your life. Teachers that have touched you; helping you to discover and uncover gifts that maybe you didn’t realize you had or were unaware of, who gave you the courage to be brave about trying something new. To give you the wisdom to look at an area that you never thought would matter in your life. To try new and difficult things, overcome challenges, and to contribute to your family and your friendships in a way that maybe surprised you as you discovered more and more about the talents, the gifts, and the blessings that God has bestowed upon you. Tonight is a good night to think about the people who have been instrumental in helping you discover who you are. Your identity is not something that you created by yourself. But, we believe that most of our identities are created by relationships, by the give and take of being in a relationship with another person. By listening and by speaking, by sharing and be receiving. Tonight is a good opportunity for you to think about what have you received from the people around you; from your family, from your friends, from your teachers and administrators, from the Church, from the school. What have you received in terms of your own personal growth? Tonight is a great opportunity to be thankful.

 

You know that the word Eucharist means, “to give thanks” and we are really here tonight to give thanks for you. As a faculty, we give great thanks to God for you. Not only for what you have gotten out of St. Edmund, but for what you’ve contributed to St. Edmund. I can’t tell you, for me, how going on the Emmaus Retreats with you was such a powerful experience for me. I remember on one of the retreats saying, “I’ve been preaching for, I don’t want to tell you how many years…too many years” and I heard one of the girls give a talk , and I said, “I wish I had that wisdom.” She’s 17, I’m… and she has way more wisdom than I have about that topic. I was touched by that. It’s a great gift that God uses each one of us to bring into the world His word, His love, His goodness. All of you are a word of God spoken in the world and St. Edmund, we believe, has helped you to become that clarified word. That word that is clear. That word that is focused. That word that is filled with richness and meaning, depth and with love and with charity. We are grateful for that. Grateful that you were part of our community and that you remain part of our community, grateful that you contributed so much and grateful that we were able to be part of it. As for me, I can only tell you, as a priest to be involved in the life of so many wonderful young people is really a dramatically powerful thing in the life that I have. It is a blessing for me to be assigned to St. Edmund Prep. To meet such wonderful young people and to have the opportunity to say mass with you, to go on retreat with you, and to listen to your stories and to be there for you when you are struggling, annoyed, or angry, offer confessions; things like that. They are all very beautiful. They are simply a reminder to us about what it means to be a human person created in the image and likeness of God. We pray and believe that St. Edmund has helped you to discover more deeply who you are, created by God. What your gifts and talents are, you’ve strengthened them, you’ve developed them, maybe even pointed them in a new direction and on a new path, in the path that college is going to lead you on, you are well prepared now to take that path and to continue growing and continue celebrating all the gifts that God has placed in you that you are developing and growing in each of the experiences of your life.

 

And so, we are here tonight to be grateful to God for you. Grateful for this class, grateful for your wisdom, grateful for your humor, grateful for the challenges that you often gave us, because they make us who we are and they are part of the whole human family; of what it means to be a family. To challenge one another, to support one another, to be there for one another. I personally as a priest, I came here during your time here at St. Edmund. It was during this time, as I’ve gotten to know you, I’ve been challenged to become a better priest. I’ve been encouraged to use my gifts more wisely and generously as I’ve seen you using your gifts so generously. Academically, spiritually, athletically, culturally, socially, to see the great sacrifices some of you have made in terms of charitable things you do for each other, the love you show one another. All of those gifts are such a great blessing and tonight is such a great opportunity for us to stop and to say the word Eucharist, which means, “to give thanks” in Greek. It means to give thanks. So, we are here tonight to give thanks, for you, this graduating class. To give thanks for how you contributed to St. Edmund, how you make a better community, a stronger community, a community of love, a community of wisdom and knowledge, one that is constantly growing and changing and developing. You’ve challenged us as we hope we’ve challenged you to become the persons God has created you to be. I’ve been able to see in many of you, in speaking with you, in celebrating mass and other prayerful experiences with you, to see the great gifts that God has placed in each one of you. Tonight is a great opportunity to say thank you to God for the great development of those gifts. Think about what you were like as freshmen and here you are now as seniors all grown up. So much more mature, more focused, more Catholic in your faith, more ready to serve, ready to give more. It’s a very beautiful opportunity for us to be thankful to you and to each other for the growth. To be thankful to our faculty for the growth that has happened over these past four years.

 

And to send you forth, not finished but to continue growing and to continue learning. Our prayer for you tonight is that you stay true to the path that God has set you on. The path to know yourself and your gifts and to develop them constantly, not only for your own reward, but for the good of others. For the contribution into your family, into your culture, your society, your world, to make this place a better place, to make this world a better world, to make the Church a better church. All of these are the things that we celebrate tonight and to do it we gather with you and your families to give thanks for all of those who have contributed to your growth. Tonight is a great opportunity to celebrate the word Eucharist a word that means, “To give thanks”.

 

So, we give thanks, for you, for your contributions, for your wisdom, for your hard work and your dedication, for your humor, for your joyfulness, for the challenges you placed before us, for all the things you gave during your time here at St. Edmund Prep. As we send you forth with our blessings and with our love, we ask that you continue to give, continue to grow, continue to develop, to become the perfect human beings that God has created you to be in His image and likeness, filled with love, and goodness, and knowledge, and wisdom, contributing to your family, the world, and your own existence by sharing your gifts with others in a loving and grateful way. And so, we want to celebrate this mass tonight, with the word Eucharist, which means, “to give thanks”. We are thankful for you...for who you are and how God has created you uniquely, beautifully, wonderfully made, so that all the gifts he has bestowed upon you will be used wonderfully to build up the world, to build up your family, to serve the needs around you and to create a world of peace, joy, and love where all are treated with dignity and respect. We come tonight to thank God for the blessings he has bestowed upon this class and for the ways in which he has used you to be a blessing for those around you. We pray that as you go forth from this school that God walk with you always, that He guide you on your path, and that you always know you have a home to come back to, a place to come back and to receive our care, our support, and our encouragement. You will remain in our prayers and in our thoughts. We will always be here for you as a friend and as a support to encourage, to challenge, and support you on your journey and we pray you will be successful in every way using all the gifts that God has given you, that you will keep developing them and strengthening them and using them to the fullest of your ability, to the fullest of your advantage, and for the honor and glory of God. Let us offer this mass with devotion and with gratitude for your class and for your graduation asking that on this occasion, God send forth upon you the blessing of His peace and mercy and he guide your steps on the path of your future tonight and always.