Graduation
Mass
Saint
Margaret Parish School 8th Grade
June 3, 2016
Readings: Colossians 3.12, 15-17
Matthew 25.14-21
An Experience of
Mine
In my first assignment as a priest, my main responsibility
was youth ministry.
It was a large parish and I was to work with the youth,
especially those in their high school years.
In that parish, there were lots of teens.
What I quickly learned was that some of them, actually a
lot of them were going in the wrong direction.
They were hanging on the streets at night and getting into trouble.
Many of them were into drugs – starting with marihuana for the
younger ones and getting into other, more harmful drugs as they got older. There were about 100 youth in this “group.”
To make a long story short, I eventually got to know these
young people. And two things became very
clear to me.
1) These kids had good potential and were basically good
kids. And 2), I as priest had to do
something and had to meet them on their terms, where they were.
Well, with the grace of God, a small team of young adults
about my age – I was in my mid-twenties at that time – a group emerged to work
with me. We opened and operated a
drop-in center three nights a week and here came the key learning.
These young people, roughly ages fourteen to nineteen, they
just needed to have their talents directed.
In other words, we adults needed to guide them into the good use of their
time and gifts.
Little by little we offered a variety of activities inside
and outside of the drop-in center, at night and during the day. And little by little, we saw a great change.
Many of them who had been searching, experimenting, lost
and getting into trouble – they found themselves. They started going in really good directions.
And the basis, the key to all of that was, in a way,
simple. They needed to spend their time using
their God-given gifts well and and that’s where they found real satisfaction
and fulfillment.
Eighth Grade
Graduates
Okay, you eighth grade graduates here this evening are very
different from those young people I worked with forty-four years ago.
You have done good things with your gifts and talents. I saw some of them recognized at the Middle
School assembly the other morning.
You are not lost.
You are not going in the wrong or harmful direction.
But, the story of my past experience helps to illustrate
the points I want to leave you with as you leave Saint Margaret’s and go on to high
school. Here is what I am thinking.
Lessons as You Go
Forth
Number One. Keep
using the talents and gifts God has given you.
Each one of you is talented, so just stay focused on using your gifts.
Number Two. You have
a variety of talents: in math, science, fine arts, sports, language, social
studies, public speaking, cheer-leading, and on it goes. Just recognize your gifts – and I am saying
gifts and not gift because I think you all have more than one gift.
Number three. Be comfortable
with your own gifts. Each person, each
one of us is different, we don’t have to be like the next guy, and we can just
be at peace with our own gifts.
Number Four. If you
focus on developing your gifts well, you will experience satisfaction and
fulfillment in life. You will be heeding
God’s call and that’s the lesson of Jesus’ parable in tonight’s gospel.
And Number Five.
Wherever you go to high school and whatever you do, just remember the
words of Saint Paul tonight. Relate to
others with respect and be compassionate with persons in need.
If you do this, you will create a good future for both yourselves
and others. And you will be the kind of
person God calls all of us to be.
