CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS GRADUATION CEREMONY
JUNE 20, 2017
SACRED HEART CHAPEL
Dear Graduates, Distinguished Guests, Families and Loved Ones:
Que hermosos los pies de los que anuncian el Evangelio! How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
There is a moment in the musical “Cats” that I think captures the essence of the purpose of our celebration this evening. The moment comes in a song which is sung by the enormously fat cat whose name is Old Deuteronomy and it is being sung in the occasion of the transition of one of the female cats, named Grizabella, into another one of here nine lives. Old Deuteronomy sings about the difference between cats and human beings and he identifies the difference this way: he sings that human beings, in distinction to cats, always “have the experience, but miss the meaning.”
Human beings always have the experience but miss the meaning.
We who gather here tonight will definitely have an experience tonight; everybody is dressed up, we are in this beautiful setting, with beautiful music, certificates will be handed out individually, there will speeches given (Hopefully all briefer than this one, there will be applause, beaming faces for photographs after the ceremony.
It will be a great evening, it already is; but, if we aren’t careful, we may miss the meaning of what is actually happening. Those receiving their certificates this evening are not just completing a program, they are being commissioned, exactly as the disciples are in the gospel reading, commissioned to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, both in word and deed and in the testimony they give to the world by the way in which they live their lives. The meaning of tonight’s ceremony is that these men and women who have been disciples of Jesus now commit themselves to be apostles of Jesus. Having been taught by Him, they are now sent by Him to be His ambassadors in the world, to be ministers of the reconciliation to the Father Jesus achieved through his life, death and resurrection.
And this good news of God’s mercy and unconditional love is to be preached to all people, to all people, as St. John Paul insisted, “without exception”, and as Pope Francis continues to insist: “always, everywhere, in every situation, no matter what.”
The meaning of tonight is not just a commissioning; it is an empowering as well. It is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to bring the spiritual gifts of baptism and confirmation into a world thirsting for meaning and for love. As St. Paul says in his first letter to Timothy: “God wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.” (1Tim 2:4) And as St. John Paul said: “The most valuable gift that the Church can offer to the bewildered and restless world of our time is to form within it Christians who are confirmed in what is essential and who are humbly joyful in their faith.”
But another aspect of the meaning of tonight’s ceremony is that, far from being an ending of the journey, it is the beginning of a lifelong pilgrimage in a pilgrim church, a pilgrimage which will always be marked by a sense of incompleteness, of human deficiency, even of sinfulness and division, as we make our way, always through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to the Father’s house.
In that regard let me draw your attention to the fact that you will never be able to draw strength from the powerful energy of preaching the gospel without a habit of daily person prayer. Only by daily prayer can we be sure that the good news we preach remains the good news of Jesus Christ. In addition to prayer, let me also emphasize that evangelizing involves the implantation of the Church, which, as Blessed Paul VI wrote “does not exist without the driving force which is the sacramental life culminating in the Eucharist.”
As ambassadors for Christ, you need to be keenly and continually aware of the interests of the one you represent, as any good ambassador would. As heralds of the gospel, you need to make sure you are delivering the right message, as any good herald would. Without a prayer life and a sacramental life, your study of scripture, your study of spirituality, your attempts at spiritual direction and pastoral care, your business acumen, your musical contribution, none of these will demonstrate the essence of the full meaning of this ceremony tonight: that you truly and fully converted to Jesus Christ, completely adhered to his Person and committed to walking in his footsteps.
We’re writing a gospel, a chapter each day,
By the deeds that we do and the words that we say.
People read what we write, whether faithless or true,
So what is the gospel according to you?
So, graduates, not only do I pray that you will stay in close contact with the Person of Jesus, whose gospel you now embody, but I pray also that you will increasingly grow to love those you are evangelizing, that you will take seriously their right to the joy of the truth that comes from the gospel, and that you will hold them dearly and tenderly in your heart with the love that comes from God.
May God who began this good work in you bring it to completion.