Location: Beckman Catholic High School
(Dyersville, IA) – 9 a.m. Baccalaureate Mass
Date: Saturday May 3rd,
2014 (Feast of the Apostles Philip and James)
READINGS:
1st Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
Resp. Psalm: Ps. 19:2-3, 4-5
Gospel: John 14:6-14
FOCUS: Like the Apostles, we are sent out
to make a difference in the world around us.
FUNCTION: Look to the future with
confidence; be a trailblazer in name and action.
Seniors,
family members, teachers and faculty, administrators, supporters, and friends
of Beckman Catholic: the road ahead looks bright. The education our graduating seniors have
received here at Beckman has laid a good foundation for what’s still to come. The end of the year is near, and since we’re
not far away from graduation, we celebrate this Baccalaureate Mass for all of
you here today, but particularly our seniors.
A Baccalaureate Mass is the occasion to do a couple of things: it’s a
time to look back at what has been and to give thanks to God for His blessings,
to celebrate graduation, and to look forward to what’s still to come – the
aspirations we all have for the future.
That’s
how our faith works: we remember the past, we celebrate in the present moment,
and we look forward to the future. At
every Mass, we remember how the Lord gave us His Body and Blood first in the
Holy Eucharist and then upon the cross; we make that memory a present reality
in the Eucharistic prayer; and we look forward to His coming again in glory. And that’s what today is all about: we remember,
we celebrate, and we look forward.
Today,
we also remember the example of two men who were closest to the Lord, the Apostles
Philip and James; today is their Feast day.
They were chosen by the Lord to proclaim the good news of the Gospel
throughout the whole world. They weren’t
perfect: when Jesus was arrested, they fled out of fear; they weren’t present
at the Lord’s crucifixion; and after Jesus’ death they hid in the upper
room. But after they saw the risen Lord,
they were empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of
the earth. And now we remember them as men
of courage and zeal who initiated the Church’s all-important work of building
the kingdom of God in the world.
To
be an apostle literally means “to be sent.”
Jesus was sent by the Father, and He in turn sent His disciples into the
world. The same is true for us – we,
too, are sent out. This will be even
more real at the graduation ceremony, often known as commencement, which means
“to start or begin.”
Like
the first apostles, we are sent forth; we are beginning something new; we are
on the cusp of new opportunities. Today
we stand on the threshold of a new beginning, a new adventure, a new
experience. In the Gospel we just heard,
Jesus told His disciples, “Amen, amen, I
say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do
greater ones than these….” These
words help us realize that God has not made us for mediocrity, but for
greatness; our task is to begin new journeys, and to accomplish new wonders.
Sometimes,
though, it takes a while. We might be
tempted to act like the apostles did before the risen Lord appeared to them –
we might be tempted to run away because we’re afraid, to avoid getting involved
in certain things because they seem hard or challenging, or to hide for fear
that we’ll be asked to take on more than we think is possible.
The
apostles weren’t perfect, and neither are our seniors. There have been days and weeks and perhaps
even months where they’ve been lazy, not motivated, fearful, ignorant and maybe
a little arrogant, stubborn, impulsive, irresponsible, uncooperative, rude,
mean, and selfish; let’s be honest – they have been all those things and
possibly more. But those days are
hopefully behind us; and now something new lies ahead of us. The education our seniors have received here
has prepared them for this new path.
We
must become who and what we claim to be: we must become trailblazers – people
who lead the way, perhaps through uncharted territory; we must become men and
women of heroic virtue, in imitation of the Church’s two newest Saints, John
Paul II and John XXIII; we must become true leaders – visionaries – in a world
that’s become all too accustomed to following.
Outside
the walls of this school, there is a mission field – it is there that we find our
apostolate; there are plenty of men and women living in our area who do not yet
know the love of God; many people who have been raised in the faith have fallen
away; and maybe some of us here today haven’t been living up to our goal of
regularly living and practicing our Catholic faith.
The
past is what it is. We can’t change the
way things have been, but we can change the future, and it doesn’t have to look
like the past. It can be different,
better, brighter; we can be different, better, brighter. The future will be what we make of it. But in order to make the future the bright
place we all want it to be, we have to start right now, in the present
moment. We have to remember our
foundation of faith, and we have to start making the future a present reality,
here and now. We must be the change we
want to see in the world around us.
I’d
like to offer two quotes for us to think about today, and these quotes should
be pretty familiar to us. The first one
is written on the wall behind me, from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not go where the path may lead, go
instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” A good philosophy! Do we want to be trailblazers? It’s time to be innovative, to be daring, to
blaze new trails toward the kingdom of God.
The Saints knew how to do this; they often acted in unexpected and
surprising ways. St. John Paul II
thought he could do a lot of good by staying in his native Poland; little did
he realize that by being elected Pope he would be instrumental in bringing down
communism in Europe; St. John XXIII was elected to be a kind of “caretaker” or
“transitional” pope – no one thought he would convene the Second Vatican
Council. St. Catherine of Sienna also
offers us some wisdom with the quote written on the front of our worship aid
today: “If you are what you should be,
you will set the world ablaze.”
Dear
friends, this is our mission: let’s be who we should be; let’s set the world
around us on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit; let’s refuse to follow
well-worn paths and start blazing new trails, like the apostles and the Saints.
We
may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future, and we
know that He is faithful. So let’s be true
trailblazers, all for the honor and glory of God, and the salvation of
souls.
