Graduation Homily for the Class of 2018

LIVE JESUS IN OUR HEARTS 

FOREVER 

A Graduation Homily for the Class of 2018 

St. Therese School, Succasunna, NJ 

June 13, 2018 

Isaiah 44: 6-8, 24; Philippians 1: 3-11; 4: 8-9; Matthew 7: 24-29 

There once was a man who had a dream. He was often criticized for having this dream. People thought his dream was unrealistic, and that he didn’t have what it would take to accomplish it. But he wouldn’t give up. Those in authority often found fault with him because his ways were unconventional, but he refused to go with the flow, to be like everyone else, to live up to their expectations. Eventually, he met a group of young people, and although they were intelligent and talented, they lacked direction and purpose in their lives. But slowly, he impacts their lives. Although they are reluctant at first, his dream becomes their dream. And in the process of ultimately fulfilling the dream for himself and for them, he instills meaning, self-confidence, and a sense of direction into their lives. 

Graduates, does this story sound familiar? It should. Because if you add, music, dancing and an electric guitar to it, it’s the plot of the Broadway musical that you saw two weeks ago on your class trip to New York: it’s the story of Dewey Finn and how he formed “The School of Rock.” 

But his story might also remind you of another dreamer, one who lived 2,000 years ago and the impact he had on a group of twelve students, and the sense of purpose and meaning he instilled into their lives and all lives ever since. In a real sense, he too established a School of Rock, and that is the school from which you graduate today. 

In our gospel this morning, Jesus tells us that a foolish man builds his house on sand, but a wise one builds it on ROCK. And in our first reading, we heard God speak through the prophet Isaiah, and he tells us that HE is the ROCK, that there is no other. And so, St. Therese’s School is the true School of Rock because it’s built on Jesus Christ. He is the reason why St. Therese’s School exists. He is the unseen but ever-present teacher in all its classes. He is the model of its faculty. He has been the inspiration for you, its students. 

Graduates, each of you is built on a strong, sturdy foundation – the ROCK that is Jesus Christ. The evidence that you are isn’t found in the awards you’ll receive in a few minutes or the diploma you’ll get this evening. The proof is found in who you are, how you live your life, the virtues you possess, and the positive impact you bring to the world around you. Things like this: 

• Riley: You always demonstrate sensitivity, compassion and concern for everyone – your friends, but also anyone who might be in need. You’re a true and loyal friend who can always be counted on in the good times and in the bad. 
• Clay: You have an incredible sense of humor. And your humor is never caustic or hurtful to anyone, but is self-deprecating, always making yourself the butt of your jokes, never anyone else. Through your sense of humor, you dedicate so much of yourself to making other people happy, to lifting their spirits when they’re low, to bringing joy to their hearts. 
• Jillian: You have the biggest heart that anyone could possibly have. You love constantly, completely, unselfishly and without reserve and make everyone’s life better just from you being a part of it. 
• Marco: You constantly give one hundred percent of yourself and are completely dedicated and devoted to everything and everyone in your life, whether that be school, or basketball, or your friends. You possess an amazing degree of leadership and self-assuredness that gives everyone peace of mind and the sense that all is well, because you’ve got everything under control; you’ve got everybody’s back. 
• Alyssa: You have such incredible inner beauty. You possess some of the greatest virtues that a person can possibly have - grace, integrity, honesty and trustworthiness. 
• Alex: To know you is to know a person of deep faith, profound love of God and unwavering respect for every man, woman and child. You are precisely what Jesus praised in the Beatitudes when he said, “Blessed are the pure of heart.” 
• Peter: You have a quiet strength that everyone depends upon. You’re steadfast, loyal, dependable. Just by your personality, and probably unknowingly, you provide in every situation a sense of peace and calm that everyone needs and on which everyone relies. 
• Christina: Your sense of joy just radiates from you. Your kindness, courtesy and ability to see the beauty in life is unwavering and uplifting to all. 
• Megna: You possess one of the greatest virtues, and one that is sorely lacking in our world today – humility. You never show off, never seek to be the center of attention, but simply, quietly and humbly excel in every area of your life. 
• Connor: You are the most sensitive, thoughtful and kind person I think I’ve ever met in my entire life. Your eyes are constantly focused outward on other people to anticipate their needs. And you unselfishly respond immediately to them without even being asked. 
• Kevin: You are truly an honorable person – generous, positive and always the epitome of what it means to be both gentle and a gentleman. 
• Dominic: Warmth, sensitivity, innocence and inquisitiveness are the hallmarks of your personality which make you immediately likeable and loveable to everyone who meets you. 
• Andrew: You care so much for people and are so warm and charitable. I’ve never heard you say one unkind word about anyone because you always see the good in people and never the bad. Your smile and your optimism just makes everyone’s day. 
• Diego: You possess the virtue that is considered the greatest virtue in the Bible, one credited to very few in Scripture and one that few people demonstrate today – righteousness, pure goodness. Your personal goodness, coupled with the enthusiasm with which you live your life, is like an aura that surrounds you which is evident the moment anyone meets you and every time you just simply walk into a room. 

But graduates, all these are not the things that the world recognizes, much less gives awards for. They won’t bring you a medal, a plaque, a certificate or a check. But they are the things that God sees and rewards. And the award for them is called Heaven. 

The past few weeks, I’ve had a difficult task. I’ve been trying to figure out what my final words to you as a class would be. I wanted them to be something that would hopefully inspire you and something that you would remember. But ultimately, I came to realize that the most important thing I want to leave with you on this most important day is something you’ve already heard from me twice a week, for ten months out of the year, for two years; it’s the way we would end our prayers every morning at the beginning of class: “Live Jesus in our hearts – Forever!” Since the heart is the center of your being, these words express your desire that Jesus be the center of your life, that his words be your words, his thoughts be your thoughts, his heart be your heart. FOREVER. 

Graduates, live Jesus in YOUR hearts forever. It’s not enough to know Jesus, nor even to love Jesus. You must live Jesus. How do you do that? It all has to do with the cross I gave you on your retreat last Friday. If you look at it, you’ll see on the left and on the right of the cross are two Greek letters –the Alpha and the Omega. They’re the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and are symbolic of the eternity of God, the One who is the beginning and end of all things. Intertwined at the center of the cross are two more Greek letters: The Chi and the Rho. These are the first two letters of the Greek word CHRIST and is one of the earliest Christian symbols. And so, by this cross, may you be reminded daily that Christ must be the center of your lives. From the time you wake up each morning, until you close your eyes at night: CHRIST! From the beginning of the week every Sunday morning, to its close every Saturday night: CHRIST! From the first day of high school to the day you again graduate: CHRIST! And from the beginning of your life to the end of your life: CHRIST! 

Class of 2018, please stand, take off your cross and look at it. Make this the most sincere prayer you’ve ever said. Repeat after me: 

Christ with me, 

Christ before me, 

Christ behind me, 

Christ in me, 

Christ beneath me, 

Christ above me, 

Christ on my right, 

Christ on my left, 

Christ when I lie down, 

Christ when I sit down, 

Christ when I arise, 

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, 

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, 

Christ in every eye that sees me, 

Christ in every ear that hears me. 

Live Jesus in my heart. 

Live Jesus in my heart. 

Live Jesus in my heart forever. 

You may be seated and put the cross back on. 

Dear hearts, Class of 2018, congratulations on all you have accomplished. And thank you. Thank you for who you are and thank you for loving me. I wish I had the words that could adequately let you know how much you mean to me, how much I will miss you, and how much I love you. I can only hope you already know. 

Live Jesus in our hearts . . . FOREVER!

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

PERSPECTIVE

Genesis 3: 9-15; 2 Corinthians 4: 13 – 5:1; Mark 3: 20-25

Perspective: 

Just who does this Jesus think he is? A CARPENTER trying to teach US, pointing the finger at us Pharisees and Scribes for not living the Law of Moses as it should be lived? A NAZAREAN? Can anything good come from Nazareth? 

He welcomes sinners and eats with them and makes the poor, the sick, women, the downtrodden, all those who exist on the fringe of society, even SAMARITANS, the focus of his ministry, making them feel beloved and blessed by God. He declares that salvation is no longer just for the Jews, but is for all who believes in Him, even outcasts, sinners, pagans, and Gentiles. All this is just too much for any devout Jew to take! 

He subverts our authority. He criticizes our strict observance of the law. And he dares to claim that tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God before us! US - the Pharisees, the “pious ones!” Yet it is he who brakes the laws of ritual cleanliness, he who violates the Sabbath, he who speaks openly of a kingdom not of this world, he who claims he communicates directly and intimately with God. SINNER! He dares to claim that he is from God, that he is the equal of God, that he IS God! BLASPHEMER! 

Son of God? NO! More like Son of Satan! After all, Satan is the Father of Lies, the Master of Deception. And that is all that this is – lies and deceit and trickery - pure evil capable from only the Evil One Himself. 

Perspective: 

What has happened to him? Is this the same Jesus with whom we grew up? The same good, introspective man we knew? Where is he getting all this? He’s just one of us, the same as us – a simple carpenter, a Jew – nothing more - no worse and certainly no better. We are his neighbors, his friends. We know his family . . . We ARE his family. In fact, his mother is over there in our group. 

What has happened to good Jesus? Now he has become a troublemaker, a religious fanatic. His behavior has become bizarre, his words disturbing. Heads are shaking, fingers are pointing, and most of the time in our direction. “Do something,” people are saying. “Speak to him. Control him! Stop him! He is becoming an embarrassment to us. He is causing trouble for us with the Romans and even with our own leaders.” 

Apparently, he believes the fantasies his mother has been claiming about him all his life – virgin birth, a new star rising at his birth, angels serenading him, dignitaries and scholars from the East worshiping him. And now, look where all of this has led – to this. He’s crazy! He’s insane! He’s delusional! 

Bread that will give eternal life? The poor, those that mourn, the meek, those desiring righteousness, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted are BLESSED? Come on . . . GET REAL! Turn the other cheek, give your cloak also when someone asks for your shirt, forgive seventy times seven times, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, the greatest in the Kingdom of God is the one who serves? YEAH RIGHT! You’re CRAZY! Jesus, this needs to stop, right here and right now. Enough is enough. Come home with us; we’ll take care of you. (Poor guy . . . He’s lost it.) 

Do you understand what’s going on in today’s gospel? The religious authorities, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Priests, the Scribes are all condemning Jesus – yes as a blasphemer, but even more – as EVIL. And Jesus’ neighbors and friends, and yes, even some of the members of his own family, the folks back in Nazareth, are convinced that Jesus is CRAZY! There’s no more powerful way to discredit someone and diminish their affect than to convince everyone that who that person is, what that person does, and what that person says is either pure evil or total insanity. THEN and NOW. 

Perspective: 

How dare you Catholics! How dare you try to impose your morality on the rest of us! You Catholics think you’re SO good, when all you do is inflict harm and guilt on everyone who doesn’t agree with your point of view. You force people to bear burdens that a good and gracious God would never expect. You treat your laws as if they are unchanging, as if they were carved in stone. Get with it! Your laws aren’t God-given. They’re man-made and the papyrus on which they’re written has become yellowed and decayed with age. 

You say you act out of love, yet you point your finger at all who hold a different point of view than yours and label them “sinner.” Yet maybe it is you who is the sinner, and perhaps even worse – evil. Old celibate men dictate sexual morality. Whether it be sex outside of marriage, birth control, gay rights, same sex marriage, your laws are rigid and antiquated. Even some of your own members don’t even believe this – and certainly aren’t living it out. You have become like the very Pharisees that Jesus criticized for and tying up heavy burdens, hard to carry, and laying them on people’s shoulders, but not lifting a finger to lighten their load. You say everyone is equal in the eyes of God, I guess unless you're a woman or gay. You quote bible passages about love and forgiveness and “judge not lest you yourself be judged,” except I guess if you're divorced. 

Your Jesus said, “Be not afraid,” but you are afraid – afraid to let go of control, afraid of anything new, afraid of advances in science and medicine that might benefit humankind - like stem cell research, genetic engineering and invitro fertilization. And you heartlessly further the physical, psychological and emotional torment of those who seek to end an unwanted pregnancy or the life of those who live in the agony of terminal illness or dementia. You brand contemporary society as “evil.” Well, Catholics, look in the mirror and tell me who really is the evil one! 

Perspective: 

So let me get this right . . . You Catholics believe that there’s one God, right? But this one God is made up of three divine persons? Hmm . . . And you believe that a virgin conceived a child without having sexual relations with a man and this child is the Son of God? And this child, who you call Jesus, was both totally God and totally man? And this Jesus died a horrific death by being crucified, but three days later he rose from the dead? And that the human body may die, but there’s something called a soul that is immortal and lives on for all eternity? And umm the bread and the wine at your mass, like one minute it’s just bread and wine and the next minute it isn’t, it’s the body and blood of this guy Jesus who died 2,000 years ago who you think is God? And eh when your pope speaks, sometimes what he says about faith or morals is infallible? (How convenient!) Man! You Catholics really are crazy! 

People of faith are called to have different values, because they see this world through God’s eyes. Our value system is going to sometimes run against the grain of this world. Believing in a God of love and grace will sometimes make us look “crazy” to others. Acting on those beliefs, caring for the least of these, will make us look even more crazy. Let us be sure that we're seeing our world as God sees it, then let us act in God’s love, even though it may look as if we're out of touch with reality. The truth is, we will be in touch with the most real reality there is. 

Perspective: 

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you (Jn 15:18) . . . Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Mt 5: 11-12).