Baccalaureate Mass 2011

We come together here on this lawn, in front of this building, in the celebration of an act that has served to center our community since the days of our founding. We are a Catholic and Jesuit University. As a University, we are a House of Intellect. As Jesuit, we are a House of Justice. As Catholic, we are a House of Faith. This act, of coming together in celebration of the Mass is the most fitting way we can imagine to bring to a close your Commencement.

I wish to begin by expressing my appreciation to the man who for the past eight years has been responsible for these celebrations. Father Phil Boroughs has been Georgetown’s first Vice President for Mission and Ministry and just two weeks ago he was named the next president of the College of the Holy Cross. His contributions to our community have been incalculable and Phil, on behalf of our community I wish to express our sincere appreciation and very best wishes as you take this next step on your journey.

Come to him, a living stone…chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house….

The images from our second reading today from the letter of Peter are so appropriate as we gather here, in this place—on this lawn, in front of this building. I am sure all of us have had that feeling, when you have been away from campus, whether for a few days or a few months, perhaps for some of our parents, for some years, there is that incredible feeling you have, when you are coming nearer to campus, perhaps on the ride from the airports, when you see the silhouette of the tower of Healy. It just takes our breathe away.

And there is something very special about this place. These stones are alive. I remember once walking this campus with a distinguished scholar of religion who was visiting our campus and at one point she looked at me and said: “I love this place. It feels prayed in.”

These stones are living. But these stones have the life they do because of the work and play, the prayer and service, the very life that is lived here on this campus. If we listen carefully, we realize that it is us—it is all of us who are the “living stones,” because we, too, are “chosen and precious in the sight of God.”

People say lots of nice things on weekends like this. People will say what a great university this is, and how special, how meaningful these four years have been. I am often asked how this all works.

If this is a great university, it is because you want it to be great—because you decide to make it great. It comes alive in you. In your decisions and actions, in the values that you embody, in the service you offer to our city, in your efforts to explore and develop new knowledge, in your friendships, in your art and performance, in your prayer. All of these acts contribute to the spirit of this place.

There is always something else going on here. There is a Spirit at work.

In the lives we live here, and in moments when we come together like this, we “let [ourselves] be built into a spiritual house.”

This spiritual house is the gift of our faith.

Wherever we go…wherever our journeys take us…wherever we are meant to be, know this: by virtue of our faith, through the love of a God whose own Son said to us: “I am going to prepare a place for you,” a Son who came to show us “the way and the truth and the life.”

Wherever we go, we are “built into a spiritual house.”

A spiritual house that will be as alive wherever you are, wherever you may finds yourselves, as it is alive right here in this moment.

And in those moments, if you close your eyes, you will be back here, right here on this lawn, right here in front of this building, right here on this Hilltop.