Dear Graduating Students,

We will soon witness a special ritual that we do not see very often: an elaborate and explanatory ritual of preparing the Altar for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. This will refresh our memories about how Jesus, before He would sit with His disciples to celebrate the Passover, sent two of his disciples to find a specific room upstairs, get the needed permission to use it for the Passover meal, and set the table with everything that would be needed. Right within that ‘Last Supper’ that has come down to us as the central celebration of our faith Jesus bid farewell to His disciples. It was a farewell before He would be gone from this life to the next.

Thousands of students are being given a farewell in these days or weeks all over the country. Not many of them have the privilege of saying goodbye to their schools, teachers, and companions in the manner you do: during a celebration that Jesus used to say goodbye to His friends. It is only as a school body that we are gathered today for the last time. Farewells are never joyful nor are they easy. For soon you will not be seeing your staff members, faculty, and companions who have been an integral part of your growing up in “age, wisdom, and grace” as it is said of Jesus. All of us have to pass through numerous transitions in life and we all have to keep moving on.

In this farewell, however mixed your feeling are, I would like you to focus on what you are taking with you as you leave Sacred Heart School and the Parish. You are taking with you the excellent ‘education’ that you acquired here. E-ducere, in Latin, means to be ‘led out from’. During the last 9 years you have been led out of your own potentials, gifts, and abilities that were right within you as God had put them there. He had put them there as a seed that needed to be cared for, watered and cherished. He placed them there like a bud that needed to be loved tenderly, surrounded with much care, and nurtured into a fully blossomed flower. This is what education is meant to be and this is what this school, your teachers, and educators did to you.

This is what you are going to carry and exhibit to the world. Jesus says it differently: you are going to be the “light of the world and the salt of the earth”. Considering you had the advantage of a Catholic school, there is no better way of describing your ‘moving on’. In trying to be the light and the salt, you will encounter challenges and hurdles in a world where there are forces contrary to your kind of faith and your kind of education. But you cannot afford to let down our faith, nor your school, nor your personalities that are molded and shaped in a unique crucible called ‘the faith’.

You will want to carry with you what God said to you today in the first reading: “Because God Himself will be your everlasting Light”. The light you will want to shine will not be your own light; you will be mere mirrors that reflect God who is that light. You are specially empowered with the power of faith. Therefore just like the salt, you cannot mix with the world and expect it to remain the same. Believe me, ‘they will know you are Christians’. No matter what road you will have to tread, remember one thing, “For you are God’s garden, planted in His hand, blooming to His glory” (1^st reading).

The real ‘graduation’ is the one that has taken place in your hearts, the graduation of your faith in God, in yourself and in others, the graduation in qualities of mind and heart.

Crossroads and confusing paths will always be there, hurdles and roadblocks will always confront you. In such situations repeat today’s opening song: “Here I am Lord, I will go Lord, if you lead me”. He will. Let the future of your journey be left in His hands so that it will be His problem and not yours. He has graduated much before you did and He is qualified enough to lead you, us, and the whole world.