Do you want what’s behind door number one, door number two
or door number three? Do you want to keep the new kitchen appliances that you
have already won or would you like to trade them for what’s behind the curtain
on stage? Some of you may remember the long-running TV show, “Let’s Make a
Deal.” Contestants in ridiculous costumes were offered choices between “a bird
in the hand or two in the bush,” between what was certain and what was
possible. Sometimes people would trade something like a plastic comb for a
choice of doors. Sometimes they would end up with a Hawaiian vacation, a room
full of furniture or a booby prize. The biggest winners were confronted with a
second, more difficult choice. They were asked whether they wanted to trade
their Hawaiian vacation for what was behind a curtain. They could win a shiny
new car or they could end up with a live jackass.
The program was popular, I believe, because it was symbolic
of the human predicament. We, especially you graduates, are faced with a world
of choices and sometimes those choices produce great blessings and sometimes
they bring disasters. Sometimes we will be better off because of our good
choices and sometimes we will have to live in a hell of regret because of our
bad choices, knowing that we brought ruin on ourselves because of those bad
choices.
In the first reading chosen for this Mass, the Israelites
are about to enter the “promised land” after an arduous trip across the Sinai
desert. Before they start their exciting new lives in the land of plenty, Moses
lectures them about the necessity of make good choices in a land filled with
blessings and curses as well. Their happiness will depend, in a great measure,
on how they choose to choose.
In many ways you graduates are entering a “promised land
flowing with milk and honey” after having survived the arduous journey of
college and you, too, have choices to make. Your choices will affect you for
good or for bad. You need to know that your freedom to choose does not
guarantee that you will make good choices. Making good choices requires, not
just knowledge and freedom, but wisdom. You live in a world of unprecedented
knowledge on one hand and unprecedented lack of wisdom on the other. The ability
to choose from many choices does not guarantee that you will choose wisely. The
world you are entering is full of smart people doing a whole lot of dumb
things. You know a lot of facts and you have been pumped full of information,
but at the same time you are entering a world knee-deep in the fall-out of
people’s bad choices. The freedom to choose from a smorgasbord of choices does
not guarantee that you will choose wisely.
It is important that you are not just smart, but wise. It
is important that you choose wisely because your choices will bring blessing on
you and those around you or they can bring ruin on you and the rest of us as
well.
This brings me to another point. You were not created nor
have you been educated merely for your own good. As Jesus says to his followers
in the gospel reading today, “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel
basket or under a bed; he puts it on a lampstand so that whoever comes in can
see it,” and in another place, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of
the world. Your light must shine.”
I would like to end this short homily by quoting Nelson
Mandela, who quoted Marriane Williamson, in his first inaugural speech. I can
think of nothing better to leave you with than these challenging words.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are
inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our
light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. There is nothing enlightened
about shrinking so that other people won’t feel secure around you. You were
born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some
of us. It’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
Graduates, make good choices and let your light shine - for your own good and the good of the world in which you will live, work and raise your children, and, yes, the world the rest of us will be living in as well! We need you to be good and good at what you do. God is there to help you and we are here to support you. Congratulations, good luck and may God be with you!
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