Baccalaureate Mass 2005

We end this weekend – we send you forward – your commencement – gathering in a way at the end of this academic season and at the end of your study here, together, as we have with each class for more than two centuries.

In the tradition upon which this University is built, we believe that God is here, right now, present here among us, and has been present, the Spirit at work here throughout two centuries. When we are asked about the nature of this institution, at the deepest level we hold that the Spirit is at work here, and has been at work in all of the hustle and bustle, chaos and confusion, late nights and early mornings, in our group projects and club activities, in victories and defeats, in our friendships, in our classrooms and concert halls – in all that we do.

There is something mysterious about the presence of the Spirit. We don’t always have the confidence – the faith – in this presence. We don’t always have the words, the vocabulary, the syntax, the grammar to capture this experience. But at different moments, sometimes in the most unlikely of times and places, we have a feeling, deep within ourselves, that we are not alone.

We have a feeling, deep within ourselves, of consolation, of peace, of joy, the feeling of love and knowing that we are loved.

Here, we sustain a tradition that attempts to give meaning to these moments – attempts to provide us with a capacity to experience them more deeply. In this tradition, we believe that one way of deepening this capacity is to come together, just like this, and together feel this presence, and to draw sustenance from each other in these moments.

During four years on this Hilltop, we hope you have deepened your self-understanding of these moments as you move through the next decades of your life, when you are in need of sustenance and consolation, when you struggle and doubt, that when you look into your own soul, you will always be able to find yourselves right back here, on this Hilltop, remembering this feeling, a feeling you may be having in this very moment, a feeling you may have had at different moments during your years here.

There is no more fitting way to bring your commencement to a close than in this celebration of the Mass. In this gathering, we come together acknowledging our common, shared belief, our faith.

You are now going forth. Know as you do so, that you will bring with you this Spirit. Know that you are forever linked to a University community shaped by a shared commitment to this understanding. It is now your time.

There is always a touch of sadness in a commencement. But remember, wherever you find yourselves, whenever you find yourself feeling the Spirit, when you know you are in the presence of God – it may be in the smile of a loved one, or it may be in a moment of unimaginable suffering, or it may be at the moment of birth of a child, or a moment that demands a deeper reservoir of courage than you have ever been able to summon – in these moments, you will be right back here, back here on this Hilltop.

And you will know that “the God of love and peace is with you.”