Commencement 2002
Baccalaureate Homily
By Fr. C. John McCloskey III
June 8, 2002
"Go Out Into the Deep"
Respice in nos ("Look at us"). Duc in
altum ("Go out into the deep"). Laxate retia
("Lower your nets for a catch").
 My
brothers and sisters, we are at a turning point. This class
of 2002 has crossed the threshold of hope this Great Jubilee
Year, and is now ready to lower the nets for a great catch.
We are now at a turning point, a time of transition. The forty
years of confusion and turmoil in the Church throughout the
world, but particularly in the West, is coming to an end.
The reasons are many – and not the moment to go into
them – but basically a malinterpretation of the documents
of the Second Vatican Council and the lack of authentic implementation
of them.
Every graduate of this class will have known only one Holy
Father, John Paul II. We are in the waning years of his pontificate,
although we pray that he has many years to go. But it is going
to be his vision of the Second Vatican Council, along with
the Bishops in communion with him, that is going to be what
all of us here will be implementing the rest of our lives.
His magisterial readings and writings will take a long time
to implement, but they promise what we all anticipate, that
Springtime for the Church.
We're told in one of the documents from the Pontifical Council
for Culture that "faith has the power to get to the core
of every culture and to purify it, to make it fruitful, to
enrich it, and to make it blossom like the boundless love
of Christ." The reception of Christ's message thus gives
rise to a culture whose two fundamental components are, in
a completely new way, the person and love.
At the present moment, the world's only superpower is under
attack. We all are living in a country during a time of war
with an enemy that has been an enemy of Christendom for centuries.
At the same time, we are under attack from within, from moral
decay, from a mistaken notion of man, and from a slide into
a high-tech barbarism, which attempts to manipulate the very
origins of life.
Only one institution stands with authority, both in our country
and throughout the world, against these attacks and that indeed
is our Church. As we heard in the Gospel, it is Jesus who
teaches us with authority and He does so from the barque of
Peter. The Church is called – and this is your mission,
most particularly, graduates of the year 2002 – to transform
our American culture. The Holy Father himself came to Los
Angeles in 1987 and spoke to the American Bishops about this.
He said unless we can see in our music, in our art, in our
literature, a culture that is influenced by Jesus Christ,
we have not accomplished our goal. And this is the mission
not only certainly of the Bishops, but above all, that of
the laity.
These world crises are crises of saints, a famous figure
of 20th century spirituality told us. Has that not always
been true? Benedict, Boniface, Francis, Dominic, (your patron)
Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Ignatius, St.
Teresa – the list goes on through the centuries –
these people have not only had a great impact on the Church,
but also a great impact on culture. They made what was the
West and will go beyond the West – a world global Catholicism,
which is being prepared for us in Africa and Asia. But, at
the present moment, it belongs to us in a special way to carry
out this great mission, this great task. It is our turn to
put God at the top of all human activities.
You have received the finest liberal education certainly
in this country. I'll leave that with you to ask, "What
are you going to do with it?" A wonderful document called
The Church in America, written at the end of the Synod
before the Jubilee Year, made very clear to us in America
what is most important. The document says there is one area
that is best suited to the lay state: lay people, who by their
specific activity bring the Gospel to the structures of the
world, and who work in holiness wherever they are, consecrate
the world itself to God. Thanks to the lay faithful, the presence
and mission of the Church in the world is realized in a special
way in the variety of charisms and ministries which belong
to the laity.
Secularity is the true and distinctive mark of the lay person
and of lay spirituality, which means that the laity must strive
to evangelize the sectors of family, social, professional,
cultural, and political life. On a continent marked by competition
and aggressiveness, unbridled consumerism and corruption,
lay people are called to embody deeply evangelical values,
such as mercy, forgiveness, honesty, transparency of heart,
and patience in difficult situations. What is expected from
the laity is a great creative effort in activities and works
demonstrating a life in harmony with the Gospel.
All of us are called to form a society of contemplatives
– a society which is based on the interior life, on a
thirst and a hunger for holiness, and on a desire to evangelize.
We are called to build that civilization of love and truth
which has been a constant theme of the Holy Father since the
beginning of his Pontificate.
The current scandals in the Catholic Church in the United
States, for which we all have to pray and do much penance,
offer us a singular opportunity for the true reform and renewal
according to the documents of the Second Vatican Council.
As the Holy Father referred to it, the great grace for the
Church of the 20th century was the Second Vatican Council,
which is yet to be realized.
The institutions and movements of the 20th century will play
an important role in this new evangelization. Their emphasis
on the formation of the laity, on the interior life, and also
on the reform and revitalization of religious congregations,
both old and new, will play a role as will also, in a very
important way – I'm convinced of this from personal experience,
with great confidence in the future – Thomas Aquinas
College. These movements, these institutions, these Catholic
colleges, will play the role that Clairvaux and Cluny once
did, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, in building a new
Christendom.
Respice nos is what John and Peter said to that man
lame from birth. That lame man is fallen through a fallen
world, that lame man is our society, in many ways corrupt
and decadent. He's our culture and each one of us must be
able to say to others: "Look at us." " Look
at us and we will bring you to Christ – through Peter,
the apostle of love, through St. John, through our professional
excellence, and through our commitment to family and friends.
Do this and we will indeed witness this new Springtime in
the decades ahead.
We also remember the command of Our Lord, issued from the
barque of Peter: "Go out into the deep." Our apostolic
work is an overflow of our commitment to a life of prayer
and sacraments. As you go forward, go forward to be fishers
of men, and remember that the fish are caught by their heads.
You have been well prepared here to go out into that great
work, but your work must be informed by love. And when you
then cast out, you'll be apostles, you will bring converts
to the Church, you will bring reconciliations by the hundreds
of thousands and millions, and you will bring vocations to
the priesthood, to the religious life, and to many, many lay
people dedicated to God in the middle of the world. I envy
you this opportunity.
Blessed Josemaria Escriva, who will be canonized on October
6th, and who, as the Holy Father put it, is the great forerunner
of the theology of the laity and the Second Vatican Council,
said, "it is a time of hope, and I live off this treasure."
This is not just a phrase, it is a reality. Then, bring the
whole world, all the human values which attract you so very
strongly – friendship, the arts, science, philosophy,
theology, sport, nature, culture, souls – bring them
all within that hope, the hope of Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit
for the vision and the imagination to build the culture of
love.
Each one of you should ask yourselves: "Where will the
world be, where will our Church be, where will our society
be in the year 2030?" We recognize that it will all be
in God's Providence, but, at the same time, we recognize that
he counts on our free will, our commitment to give ourselves
totally, and to leave all things and follow him.
Dan Fleury,
for whom this Mass is being celebrated, for whom we pray today
that he has already received the great reward (and we are
confident and pray that be the case), has simply preceded
you as the first real graduate of the class of 2002. We pray
for the repose of his soul and we ask his help.
The Holy Father tells us in that wonderful document, At
the Beginning of the New Millennium, that this is the
great moment. He says: "Duc in altum." These
words ring out for us today and they invite us to remember
the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm,
and to look forward to the future with confidence. Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Let us go forward in hope. A new millennium is opening before
the Church, like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture,
relying on the help of Christ. The Son of God, who became
incarnate 2,000 years ago out of love for humanity, is at
work even today. At the beginning of this new century, our
steps must quicken as we travel the highways of the world.
Many are the paths on which each one of us and each of our
churches must travel. But there is no distance between those
who are united in the same Communion, the Communion which
is daily nourished at the table of the Eucharistic bread and
the Word of Life.
What a beautiful thing it is to think of our Holy Father
and his condition, looking forward to the future, speaking
about quickening our steps as he shuffles along to serve each
one of us. What a debt of gratitude we owe to him for his
many years of service to the Universal Church.
As it happens, today is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart
of Mary. The Holy Father tells us at the end of his letters
sending us on this journey into the new Millennium that we
are accompanied by the Blessed Virgin Mary. He has often invoked
her as the Star of the New Evangelization. And just a few
months ago, in the presence of great number of bishops, he
entrusted the Third Millennium to her. Now, I point to Mary
once again as the radiant dawn and true guide for all our
steps. Once more, echoing the words of Jesus Himself, in giving
voice to the filial affection of the whole Church, I say to
her: "Woman, behold your children."
I finish with another quotation from Blessed Josemaria, one
that I have meditated upon often and is so encouraging to
me. "The Lord," he says, "has shown this refinement
of love. He has let us conquer the world for Him. He is always
so humble, but He has wished to limit Himself to making it
possible. To us He has granted the easiest and most agreeable
part – taking action and gaining the victory."
It is your turn, dear graduates, in this time of renewal
and hope, to go out into the deep, to lower the nets for the
catch, and to count on the Immaculate Heart of Mary along
the way.
(For a video tape of the Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement
Ceremonies, contact Amanda
Atkinson.)
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