8th Grade Graduation

Think of the very first day at Holy Family School – the anxiety, the dream, the surprises and ambitions. This day is certainly different in some sense but the same in other sense. It is the same because your next venture is still clouded with anxiety, dreams, surprises and ambitions. It is different because your anxieties have been changed into a sense of achievement, and your dreams are made reality and your surprises and ambitions are accompanied by the wealth of gratitude to God and people at school.

President Obama spoke to the graduates in Notre Dame, “Your class has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation that require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age. It is a privilege and a responsibility afforded to few generations - and a task that you are now called to fulfill.”

“That’s it young lady, your grounded! No TV! No Computer! No IPod! No Mobile Phone!” But Mom, I can’t live without those things.” When you get home from school what do you do? In the last 20 years technology has come very far and has become even more popular to the youth today. Approximately 90% of youth use computers, and 59% of them are online. With the world at their finger tips, the youth of today rely on technology too much.

An average teacher wants to see you get through your exams; a good teacher wants to see you being successful in life; a very good teacher wants to see you what you do with the education that you got from them; and a great teacher want to see you when others see you a source of education – a place where people can learn the lessons to not just success but true happiness. George Santayana said, “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” You can get all the A’s and still flunk life.

You walk out of Holy Family with a rich background of the synthesis of all those significant people in your life at this stage. Your parents, your teachers and friends shaped you and molded you to who you are today for a bigger stage. Every step you take from now on will have imprints on all the hard works and sacrifices of all those significant people in your life. I hope you still remember the four areas of challenges that we talked about on Saturday – those dark areas could be tackled only by the light of enlightenment that you received from these significant people in your life.

Like the moon that depends on the light from the Sun, we all need the light from God to be the same light for others. So as Robert Frost would say, you have miles to go and promises to keep. Don’t let pride rule you, your good looks deceive you, your tiny brains fool you, rather let God put you on top. It is God who wants you to be the light and salt. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved everywhere. Amen.