ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Praised be Jesus Christ!

My Brother Priests, Deacons, Graduates and Families, Administration, Faculty and Staff of Bishop Shanahan High School, Friends in Christ,

I offer my congratulations to our graduates. Today represents quite an accomplishment. I commend you for your hard work and sacrifice. May the formation you received at Bishop Shanahan assist you in providing faith-filled leadership for our Church and nation.

I also congratulate the parents of our graduates. I am sure you wonder where the years have gone. Daughters and sons have matured into young women and men. By your prayers, example and sacrifice, you have nurtured the lives entrusted to you by God. May God continue to work through you as instruments of grace to your children.

Graduation is an occasion that is filled with memories. Graduates recall the excitement and anticipation they experienced upon entering high school. There were new classmates and new teachers. There were different courses and schedules. There were the challenges of course work, examinations and SAT’s. There were the more joyful moments of sporting events, school plays, homecoming, proms, retreats and liturgies. During your high school years you learned much about God, the world, and yourself.

Although graduation provides an opportunity for reflection on the past, it is also offers an opportunity to look toward the future. Convocations at which graduates receive degrees and diplomas are known as commencement exercises. The term "commencement" indicates the time at which something begins, a new start. While graduation marks the end of high school years, it marks the beginning of a new and different stage of life. It is a time of hope.

For many graduates, the decisions that come with commencement, can be difficult and confusing. What does this next phase of life involve? Undoubtedly, you will receive suggestions about what you should do. Family and friends, guidance counselors and teachers, offer helpful advice. The recommendations will be varied and given with the best of intentions.

The best advice that anyone can give is this: Seek God’s will in your life and live it. If you seek and do the will of God you will never go wrong.

During this month of May, the Church remembers Mary, our Blessed Mother, in a special way. Her unique place in salvation history makes her worthy of special veneration and honor. At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel extended God’s invitation for her to be the Mother of the Redeemer. The Gospel reveals that Mary was deeply troubled, and wondered what the message meant. Despite her uncertainty about the Angel’s words, she asked that God’s will be done in her life. Mary trusted that God would never ask what was beyond her strength. She was convinced that God, who had looked with favor upon her, would never forsake her. Her brief, but trusting response, "May your will be done," forever changed the course of human history. By opening herself to God’s will in her life, she conceived Jesus and gave birth to the Savior of the world. She was confident that God would only ask what was for her good and the good of others. As a result, all generations call her blessed.

Mary’s response was not easy and during her lifetime she had many challenges. She met and overcame those difficulties with the help of God’s grace and her own desire to do God’s will. In the end, she is counted as the greatest of all saints, the Queen of Heaven.

Doing God’s will was also the goal of Jesus. After the Last Supper, prior to Jesus’ arrest and death, the Gospels recount that Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane. There He prayed in preparation for his Crucifixion and Death. The Scriptures describe Him as being crushed by grief and anguish. His prayer is so intense that His sweat turns to drops of blood. With His brief, but courageous words, "Father, your will be done," He accepts the Cross. He is certain that His Father will never abandon Him. He is confident that by obeying His Father’s will, He will be victorious over sin and death. His Death and Resurrection change the world and human life forever.

By opening herself to God’s will, Mary gave flesh to God’s Son in the Incarnation. By opening Himself to His Father’s will, Jesus, liberated humanity from sin and opened the path to eternal life. From the beginning of His earthly life, to its triumphant conclusion, Jesus desired to do the Father’s will. Each and every day, Jesus prayed in communion with His Father, so that He might learn and live His Father’s will. When He taught His disciples to pray, He instructed them to say, "Our Father," and to ask "thy will be done...."

Each day, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask that God’s will be done. In so doing, we entrust our lives to a God who loves us and desires what is best for us. As with Mary and Jesus, learning and living out God’s will can be challenging. Here, the Eucharist is so important. It is only in association with Jesus that we learn the truth about life. The Eucharist unites us with Jesus and mysteriously transforms us. It must form both the foundation and goal of our lives. In so doing, we learn God’s will for us and receive the grace to respond single-heartedly.

Society often tries to relegate the Christian faith to the margins of life as if it were irrelevant to everyday affairs. Living as if God does not exist is futile. There is a need to rediscover that Jesus Christ is not an abstract idea. He is a real person who has become part of human history and is capable of renewing the life of every man and woman and child.

The Eucharist gives new impulse to our lives. It gives rise to a love of others and commits us to give witness to God’s love through our words and actions. We become the instruments by which God’s love and compassion come to others. Graduates, always view others from the perspective of Jesus. Recognize that they, just like you, are created in God’s image and likeness. Do not remain passive in the face of human suffering and inequality. Place your enormous gifts and talents at the service of promoting the cause of life, justice, reconciliation and peace. The Gospel reminds us that if we wish to be great, we must be servants. If we want to be first, we must be the slave of all. In so doing, we will make God known and loved.

Some of you will respond to God’s will by serving as lay members of Christ’s faithful people. Others will be called to witness as Priests, Religious Sisters and Brothers. Just over a week ago, seven young men were ordained to the priesthood for service in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. I am convinced that God is calling some of you to the priesthood and religious life. There are currently graduates of Bishop Shanahan at Saint Charles Seminary, preparing for the priesthood. What a joy and privilege to place your talents at the service of God as a priest, brother or sister. Parents, encourage your children to be open to doing God’s will. Trust in Jesus, and help your sons and daughters accept their vocation in life with wisdom and freedom, whether it be the vocation to Christian married love, to the Priesthood, to religious life or to a single life of dedicated service.

There is so much for which to be thankful this evening. I express my deep gratitude, first of all, to the parents who have entrusted the education and formation of their children to our Catholic schools. In so doing, you have given us the privilege of sharing a role in which you have the primary and irreplaceable responsibility.

I am grateful to the administration and faculty of Bishop Shanahan High School. We depend upon you to set high academic standards and instill a spirit of faith and those values rooted in Christ. You give generously of yourselves to advance the teaching mission of the church.

I am grateful for the support of the entire Catholic community. By their prayers and financial support, many receive a Catholic education who might otherwise be deprived of it.

I appreciate the hospitality that Monsignor Meehan and the parishioners of Saints Simon and Jude Parish have extended this evening. This church building is a beautiful setting in which to worship God.

Again, I congratulate our graduates. Your achievements are worthy of recognition. The future of the world and the Church belongs to you. We are proud of you. Christ expects great things from you. Put your talents at the service of the proclamation of the Good News. Be friends of Jesus and offer witness so that others might know Him and love Him.

We entrust to our Blessed Mother all our graduates, and in particular Austin DiIanni, whom we remember in a special prayer. May Mary, the Mother of the Church and our Mother, intercede for you, dear young people, on your important journey through life. And after offering God glory here on earth, may you come to the eternal glory that God has prepared for you in heaven. Amen.