65th Class Reunion

65^th Class Reunion

 

             
We have these two great prayer texts of grief and lamentation before us to ponder today from the Book of Tobit. Tobit, who was blinded by bird droppings, is praying the type of prayer we often do in times of adversity. He is suffering so much that he wonders whether life is worth living because there is no longer any joy in it. He wants to see his son, Tobias, marry Sarah, who is Raguel’s daughter, and yet he lives in torment and darkness. How many times have we prayed, “Deliver me from anguish.”

Miles away, Sarah is abused and ridiculed because she is not able to successfully marry, not being able to consummate any of the marriages. She provides the setting for the Gospel question about marrying seven times and not being able to provide an inheritance for the family or tribe. Her community regards her as an embarrassment as she is held up to scorn. As Tobit is wailing in his misery, Sarah resolves to trust in the Lord. She honors God’s name and authority over her life and blesses God. When she is at her lowest, God’s messenger appears to her, and at the same time to Tobit, to heal them. The archangel Raphael heals Tobit’s blindness and Sarah’s curse from the wicked demon Asmodeus is lifted, and they can rejoice. Each was able to place one’s trust in God and find healing and consolation.

We gather in this chapel to honor God’s name and to give thanks for the many times and ways God has stood by us in our lives. There were many times we went to Church to praise God and to say thanks; and many other times when we offered our prayers because we stood at the absolute limits of our love, like Tobit and Sarah. We recognized God’s sovereignty and our inability and powerlessness to control much of anything in our lives.

Consider the range of prayers the walls of this chapel and your school have heard. Though this chapel was built a few years after you first arrived here at Morrissey Blvd but consider all the prayers uttered in this school. Look at the side chapels that were in use before Vatican II arrived when a mass was also being said at the main altar. Special moments have been held here: baptisms, masses, weddings, anniversaries, helmet and team blessings, retreats, commissionings, and even funerals, plus all those prayers of hope and grief. Also consider the times, students came her to make a life decision, like choice of university to attend or one’s life’s partner or whether to enter the priesthood, or even to ask a girl out on a date. Not only that, so many teachers and staff came here to pray for their students and families out of concern, out of care.

The key to all of this is the line in the Gospel where Jesus says: Our God is the God of the Living, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is a God who has been with us for our entire lives and has abided by us through daily life with its ups and downs. This is a God who there at our beginnings and who promises to be with us to the end, the God who is always creating and is eternal youth, the God who is always reaching out to us to let us know that – we are not alone, that God’s work in our lives is constant, and that we were lovable as children and are even more lovable in our maturity. God delights in the reality that you have stayed in touch with one another over the years and that you have remembered God, who recalls all the joys of your youth, and that you have returned to God often in your need and thanksgiving. This is a moment where we can stand before God and to realize God is warmly, proudly, looking upon you in astonishment and wonder, after all these years, to say: I’m so proud of you. Look at who you are! I created you. I walked with you. I formed you. And all I want to do at this moment is to take in all you who are. You take my breath away, and there is nothing else I want to do with my time today than to gaze upon you in wonder and joy. You are my cherished ones.