Commencement Address - Regina Pacis Academy - June 3, 2021

 

Commencement Address

Regina Pacis Academy

Thursday, June 3, 2021

 

            A young Spanish teenager named Josemaria was living a fairly ordinary life. His life was studies, sports, friends, girls…nothing out of the ordinary, until one day he saw a most remarkable sight. He was walking through town on one snowy morning, headed to church, when he saw footprints in the snow from a barefoot Carmelite monk. He was amazed – why would anyone walk barefoot in the snow? This kind of penance only made sense if God was real, and if He was worth giving our entire lives to Him. Suddenly, the trajectory of his life changed, and he later wrote that he felt like he was “being chosen for something.” He became a priest, the founder of Opus Dei, and is now a canonized saint: St. Josemaria Escriva. But he would not be a saint if it weren’t for the faithful witness of an anonymous Carmelite monk.

            That monk was just going about his daily business of sacrificing his life for Christ. He had no idea that he would inspire a future saint. But because the monk was willing to live a radical life for God, millions of other souls were impacted.

St. Catherine of Siena once said, “If you are who you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” I want to unpack this quote and see how it applies to your life.

We begin with the question: who should you be? It’s easy enough to say “you should be a saint” – because the goal of every life is holiness in Christ. But holiness looks different for everyone. Holiness for a priest is different than holiness as a married person; holiness is different for a high school student than it is from a grandmother. Nevertheless, there are a couple characteristics of holiness that are common to every state in life.

First, holiness consists in a deep friendship with Jesus Christ. In your past many years at RPA, you have learned a lot about Jesus – but have you come to know Him as a friend? Do you speak with Him daily? Do you have a living, active relationship with Him? Do you share with Him your joys and sorrows, your homework and your sports, your friendships and your hobbies? Every saint has this relationship with Jesus as the bedrock of their lives.

But the other quality that all saints have in common is that they do their daily duties to the best of their ability, out of love for God. It may be daunting to think about, but if you end up going to college, that means you have eight more years of school…or more if you get a Master’s degree! Ugh! That sounds awful, right? But no – that is precisely how God means to sanctify you. He gives you everything you need to grow in virtue and become a saint – through the challenges of your schoolwork, through the drudgery of chores, through obedience to your parents, through loyalty to your friends, through kindness to those you don’t like, even through the fun times of sports and recreation. All of this is given to you so you can become holy through it – so don’t waste it!

Okay, so let’s go back to that quote: “If you are who you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!” Now that we know who we should be (saints), what about setting the world ablaze?

You have been given a couple amazing gifts. First, the gift of your Catholic Faith – how awesome it is to never have to wonder about the meaning of life, or if God exists! All the time, I meet with people who are depressed because they think their life is meaningless, or anxious because they don’t know that they can trust their Heavenly Father, or restless because they’re looking for love and they can’t find it. But as Catholics we know what our life is all about, we know the love of our Heavenly Father. Thus, our faith is a great gift!

But you have also received a gift of education and formation at RPA. I’m ashamed to say that by the time you have graduated from RPA, you know more Latin than me…when I sat in on the fifth and sixth grade Latin play a couple weeks ago, I was completely lost! That is a great gift to you – to know truth, beauty, and goodness – to know history and logic and Latin and literature.

But these gifts – your education and your Faith – are not meant for you alone. They are meant so that you can “set the whole world ablaze” – helping others encounter the Truth through Love. You can’t hide these gifts away, but put them at the service of others.

A few years ago when I was chaplain at Trinity, I used to host monthly Adoration for the students – and most students complained about it, because they didn’t really have a deep faith in Christ. One day, a really faith-filled sophomore named Nick came into my office. He plopped down on the couch and said, “Father Joe, I see all my peers who have very little love for God, and my heart is just burning to evangelize. How can I do it?” The next day was our monthly Adoration, so we decided that the best way for him to evangelize was simple: to tell his friends how much he loved Adoration, and how much he got out of it. He excitedly went off to do just that – to try to stir up the love of God in his peers.

And you can do the same. Encourage one another to pray; set a good example of Christ-like love; explain your faith to those friends in your neighborhood or on your baseball team. You have been given a gift, and you are expected to use that gift so well that you bring others to Jesus.

My friends, congratulations. You have worked hard to get to this moment – and God has begun a good work in you. It is good to pause and reflect with gratitude on how far you’ve come. But now, the work begins in earnest – the work of sanctification, the work of spreading the Gospel. You’ve been given many gifts – now go and bring the world to Christ, the desire of our hearts.

“If you are who you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!”