(Remarks as prepared)
Once again, it is wonderful to be together. This is a great weekend, especially for those of you preparing to graduate, your families, and all those who have accompanied you these last few years.
And, amidst all the activities, it’s fitting that we pause to celebrate Mass together. It’s fitting that we celebrate the great Love of God; the God who has always been with you, through thick and thin, through ups and downs, and a God who will always be with you come what may.
In this Mass, and every Mass, God is calling you, calling us all, to open ourselves to his presence and to put our gifts, which really come from Him, at the service of others.
Over the past few weeks, I have encountered students preparing to graduate who expressed having some conflicting feelings about graduation. One graduating senior named Allie told me that there is a part of her that wishes her experience as a Notre Dame student would never end…and another part of her that is incredibly excited to move on with her life. While Allie told me it’s difficult to think about parting company with the amazing friends she has made over the past few years, and the professors and mentors who have come to play such an important part in her life, she said she knows, deep down inside, that it’s time to move on.
Jack, another student preparing to graduate, told me that he, too, will miss just about everything about being a Notre Dame student. When I asked what he meant by “just about everything,” he said he would not miss early morning classes and the weather between January and April. (Come on Jack, it’s not that bad, is it?!) He said that part of him would not mind hanging out on campus a while longer. I’m not sure his rector would like that.
But, then, he said, he remembers Fr. Pete’s story from Welcome Weekend Mass four years ago. Perhaps you remember that story as well. Fr. Pete told the story about how, when he was struggling to leave the familiarity of home and venture off to Notre Dame, his mom told him, “I did not raise you to live in my basement.” (Fr. Pete, it’s good to know people remember that story! And we are glad that you moved out of that basement.)
Just as Fr. Pete knew it was time to move out of the basement and on with his life, Jack knows it’s time to move on with his life.
There are times in our lives we might call “in-between” times. In a sense, we are always “between” one thing and another. We are always between the past and the future. We are always between what has been and what will be. However, there are times and places in our lives when we experience a profound sense of being “in-between.” We might call these “liminal” experiences.
These liminal experiences are important and can even be sacred. We find ourselves leaving something behind and on the threshold of something new. We sense that something new is about to be demanded of us.
Graduation may be one such “in-between” or liminal time. Here, you are “between” your life and work as a Notre Dame student and your life and work as a Notre Dame graduate.
This in-between time can be a little uncomfortable. That’s because in a particular way there is change in the air. You know something new will be demanded of you, but perhaps you’re not exactly sure what that something is. It is not unusual to have conflicting feelings: excitement about the future and maybe some trepidation; self-confidence and maybe a little self-doubt; the desire to lengthen your time at Notre Dame and to get on with your lives and careers.
As we have noted, today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord! The time had come for Jesus to part company with his disciples. We might say that it had come time for the disciples to, in a sense, “graduate.” They had heard his preaching and teaching, in word and deed. They had observed him forgiving sins and healing the sick. They had witnessed his special care for the poor, the vulnerable and those made to feel like outsiders. They saw how he continued to embody the Love of God even when doing so got him arrested and crucified. And, to their utter amazement, they encountered him risen from the dead.
Up to this point, they were, for the most part, spectators of Jesus’s saving ministry. And as long as Jesus was with them in the way he was with them, they would remain largely spectators.
But, as I noted, now it was time for them to graduate. And, graduation for them would mean going from being largely spectators of Jesus’s saving ministry, to participants in that saving ministry.
In a sense, the disciples enter a “liminal space,” between the ascension, their “graduation,” and the sending of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, when they begin to do the work Jesus did.
During this in-between time, they perhaps sensed that something new was about to be demanded of them, and probably a keen awareness that, as much as they learned from Jesus, they still needed something else if they were to rise to the occasion, answer the call, and truly do the work that Jesus did.
That something or someone else is, of course, the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus was not simply calling them to perform tasks in his name. He was calling them to love in his name. He did not give them a manual to follow; he gave them an example to follow.
To follow his example and love in his name means to love in a new and radical way: in a way that does not discriminate between deserving and underserving; in a way that transcends nationality and religious difference; in a way that transcends the politics of the day or ideology; in a way that brings comfort to the afflicted, and challenges arrogance and self-righteousness;
in a way that respects the dignity of all life; in a way that gives up on no one; and in a way that encourages all people to live their lives in that love.
In order to follow his example and love like him, they need his Spirit.
And Jesus promises to send it. He is not abandoning them. He will be with them, not in the same way he had been with them, but in a different and powerful way.
They are of course stunned by all of this, looking into the sky in their very in-between or liminal state, when an angel speaks one of my favorite lines in Scripture, “…why are you standing there looking at the sky?”
As if to say, “God did not give himself so completely, he did not die and rise again, in order for you to stand there looking up in the sky. Open yourselves to the Spirit! Address the needs around you see before you. Let him work through you. You have what it takes. He will be with you as he said.”
Those of you in this sacred time between your past as Notre Dame students and your future as Notre Dame graduates may feel a little like the disciples did at the ascension, upon their graduation, so to speak. Excited even if a little anxious, realizing that something new is about to be demanded of you. But, consider this: This is not the first time that something new has been demanded of you.
When you arrived at Notre Dame, and listened to Fr. Pete tell his basement story,
something new was about to be demanded of you, and, with God’s grace, and the support of rectors, professors, mentors, family, and friends, you met the moment and here you are.
You met that moment not simply by performing tasks required of you; a Notre Dame education is about more than performing tasks, as important as tasks may be.
You met that moment by perhaps taking time to reflect, to pray, to participate in Mass or other religious services, or by seeking advice and counsel from a professor, a rector, a campus minister, a mentor, or a friend. Getting to where you are now, to this moment, takes inner resources, whether you are aware of it or not. It takes Spirit, and in this Mass, and every Mass, God offers the Spirit that will give you, give all of us, the strength to navigate complexity, to always remember what matters the most, and, most importantly, to follow the example of Jesus and love as Jesus loves.
No doubt there will be times in your lives when, despite your immense gifts, you feel, like the disciples felt—that there are tasks beyond your talents. At times like that, I invite you to reflect on the words of Jesus to his disciples at the ascension, at their “graduation”: “Behold I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
My friends about to graduate, know of our prayers for you and the tremendous hope you give us.
May the Lord bless you with assurances of His presence and may you always be open to His Spirit, which gives us all the grace and strength to rise to every occasion and be the creative, courageous, and compassionate people we were created to be. God bless you all!