A Celebration of Thanksgiving

Joel Tabora, S.J.

May 4

[College Baccalaureate Homily: Luke 24: 35-48. 21 April 2022]

Every Eucharist is a celebration of thanks. This comes from the first Eucharist when taking bread, the Lord gave thanks, gave the bread to his disciples and said, "Take this all of you and eat of it. This is my Body given up for you." Then he took wine; he blessed it, and gave it to his disciples saying. "Take and drink. This is my Blood poured out for you." The first Eucharist was one with the passion and death of our Lord, where his body was sacrificed and his blood poured out in love for you. Beyond his suffering and death for you, Jesus' thanksgiving is also for what we heard in our Gospel for this morning. Jesus died. But he was raised from the dead. He had confronted the evil powers of sin and death. But in dying he overcame sin; in dying he dealt death its death blow. In remaining obedient to the Father's will unto death, he ultimately triumphed for you. That, turning away from sin, you may find forgiveness and life in the Lord. "Thus it is written," Jesus explains in our Gospel, "that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." You are witnesses of these things" (24:46-48).

It is in this context that we give thanks this morning. One week ago on Holy Thursday, we celebrated the first Eucharist which was inseparable from the memorial of the Lord's passion and death "for you" on Good Friday, also inseparable from the celebration of the Lord's resurrection for you on Easter Sunday. In life, which through Jesus ends not in the darkness of a tomb in the light and glory of eternal life, this is what we ultimately give God thanks for.

But today we also give thanks for your college graduation. And give thanks you must, for this has been a long and difficult journey for you. You are the first batch of graduates who have experienced the full effects of the K-12 reform. Before your time, 10 years of basic education was considered sufficient for college. But all over the world basic education required 12 years. So in the Philippines we added two years. Those two years we now call senior high school. Here at ADDU, we began SHS at the Jacinto campus. But we finished it in our own brand new dedicated senior high school. Those were years where you had to do a lot of adjustment – to academic programs and formational activities that were new, exciting and exacting. Your SHS ensured that when you entered college you were a mature 18 years of age. Your maturity and intelligent participativeness in classes were immediately noticeable. In 2020 however the COVID 19 pandemic struck. It was totally unexpected. It upended many of our lives. It adversely affected many of our parents' and relatives' businesses, livelihood and jobs. In the beginning the lethal virus was far away. In time, however, many people we knew got very sick from COVID; many people we know, some of them our relatives and friends, died. Alone. Isolated from relatives and friends. In this context the University shifted to online learning. No matter how difficult that was, we were blessed to be able to do that. We had the infrastructure. Our teachers and staff and students came together to ensure the continuation of your education. It was not always a smooth ride. There were many bumps along the way. You had to cope with difficult teachers, with isolation, with poor internet access, with less than ideal learning conditions. You missed the interaction, the learning together, the singing together, the dancing together. But the shift allowed you to achieve, if not surpass, minimum learning outcomes. That is why we are here today, giving thanks to God for your graduation.

This Mass is an occasion for thanksgiving. For your parents and relatives who sacrificed much that you might graduate today. For your teachers, your administrators, your friends. For the God who creates you, redeems you, and loves you in Jesus Christ, walking with you on your journey of life. The journey included your pioneering the K-12 reform. It included swimming through the murky waters of the pandemic. The journey does not end today. It continues not only in the fresh hopes that your academic achievements bring, but in the hope of his death and resurrection embraced for you in love. As Jesus said, remain in that love. God is love.

Comment