"Men on a Mission"

On the morning of Sunday, May 31—the day that would have been Gonzaga’s 199th Commencement Ceremony—the Class of 2020 and their families, teachers, and friends tuned into Facebook to watch a Virtual Mass and Celebration in their honor. Printed on these two pages is Gonzaga President Father Stephen Planning’s homily on that bittersweet occasion.

"Graduates of the Class of 2020, you don’t need me to tell you that you are graduating in a time of great adversity. Every day the news is filled with stories of the challenges all around us. Our country, and indeed our world, is facing some of the greatest challenges we have ever faced in modern times. This is indeed a time of extraordinary adversity.

While people have used many adjectives to describe the difficulties that we are going through, the one adjective that I do not agree with is ‘unprecedented.’ While the challenges that face us are unique to this time, Class of 2020, you are not alone among your fellow Eagles for graduating in a time of great adversity.

Next year, our school will celebrate its bicentennial. When you look over the extraordinary expanse of our school’s existence, you will see multiple examples of Gonzaga students graduating during times of tremendous adversity and facing uncertain futures.

In the hallway outside my office, you can see photos of our students that date back to the 1800s. In those days, Gonzaga had a Cadet Corps. There are photos on the walls of our Eagles in their Civil War era cadet uniforms lined up in formation.

During the first half of the 1860s, many of our graduates found themselves at war with their own former citizens in a country that had been ripped apart. It’s hard to imagine this kind of adversity today.

The beginning of the 20th century found our graduates confronting both the First World War and the global influenza pandemic of 1918, an illness which in the course of one year would claim almost 600,000 American lives. During the early 1930s, our graduates found themselves leaving Eye Street and stepping out into a world ravaged by the Great Depression.

In the late 1960s, the neighborhood around Gonzaga would explode from the race riots resulting after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The graduates of that era found themselves entering a world of civil unrest, cultural upheaval, and the Vietnam War.

Class of 2020, you are not alone in graduating during a time of great adversity.

Some of the greatest examples of our Eagles graduating during one of the most extraordinary times of adversity are found among our alumni who graduated during the Second World War. I hold in my hands the yearbook from the Class of 1943. The very first pictures you see inside the yearbook are not of student life, but rather of the war that marked this class’s entire time at Gonzaga.

The forward to the yearbook is deeply moving. In it, the senior class recounts what it was like to have their four years of high school completely overshadowed by one of the greatest wars in history. Within eight days of starting their freshman year in 1939, the war in Europe had begun with England and France declaring war on Germany.

By the fall of their junior year, the United States was at war. In their yearbook, the seniors write, ‘On December 7, 1941, our own fathers, brothers, and friends went forth to do battle… Draft age was lowered to include us—and now our graduation was merely a stepping stone to military life.’

In talking about what awaited them after graduation, they write, ‘As dawn breaks over the horizon of our lives, we behold not a glorious sunrise of bright prospects,… but a grim one, overshadowed by clouds of war and hate. We plunge into the midst of a tremendous conflict, many to play the role of active combatants. But we do not march forth alone. We are accompanied by many former teachers now serving both as chaplains and fighters…’

Most Gonzaga students who graduated during this time did not go to college until years later. In fact, every single graduate of the Class of 1944 entered the armed forces immediately after graduation. That is why we honor them with the stadium portal along Eye Street.

Graduates of the Class of 2020, you are not alone in graduating during a time of great adversity. Rather, you join the company of some of our most distinguished alumni who have graduated under most difficult circumstances and who have always risen to the occasion.

What does it mean for you to step out from the comfort of Eye Street into a world of adversity? I would suggest to you that there are two basic mindsets that people have when confronted with adversity. Some view adversity as a curse, while others see it as a calling. Some men are confronted with adversity and they ask the question, ‘Why me?’ While others ask, ‘What can I do?’ A Gonzaga man who has truly internalized the values of our school falls into the second class of men. He asks himself not, ‘Why me?’ But, rather, ‘What can I do?’ He approaches adversity and struggle not with the attitude of the victim, but rather with the enthusiasm of a man on a mission.

Today, as a church we celebrate the extraordinary moment of Pentecost. There could not be a more fitting celebration to mark the day of your official graduation. The parallels are extraordinary between what those early apostles were living, and the place you find yourselves today.

After the crucifixion of Christ, the disciples found themselves disillusioned and demoralized. The high hopes and dreams that the apostles experienced for more than three years following Christ were dashed and imploded when their leader was executed as a common criminal. Afraid and depressed, they went into hiding for 40 days. They behaved not as men on a mission, but as victims. They hid themselves from the world, licked their wounds, and asked themselves, ‘Why me?’

When the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost nothing had changed in the world around them. It was still the same dark, scary place that had sent them into hiding. What changed, however, were their own minds and hearts. The Spirit of God which rushed upon them freed them from their sense of fear and victimhood, and transformed them into men on a mission. Gradually, they would emerge from the place of their seclusion, and over time they would transform the world.

Graduates of the Class of 2020, we know that there is a special spirit in the Gonzaga community. You can call it camaraderie, you can call it brotherhood, call it what you like. However, I have always believed that the spirit of Gonzaga is special because it is ultimately rooted in God’s Holy Spirit. The reason Gonzaga is special is because it is a place where God’s Spirit is allowed to roam free.

Graduates of the Class of 2020, you have been recipients of that extraordinary spirit, not today on Pentecost, but every day during your four years on Eye Street. Gentlemen of the Class of 2020, your Pentecost moment has taken place gradually since the first day you entered the halls of Gonzaga. You have heard the call of Christ not to be a victim, but rather to be a man on a mission.

Open your hearts again to that extraordinary and real presence of God’s Spirit as you have experienced it over these years. Let the Spirit of God into your hearts as you step forward from Gonzaga and ask yourself not, ‘Why me?’ But rather, ‘What can I do to heal and transform my broken world?’

Do this, and you do not graduate a victim. Rather you will take your place in the long line of heroic graduates from Gonzaga who have graduated during times of extraordinary adversity and who have gone forth with the mindset of Christ to heal our broken world.

Graduates of the Class of 2020, congratulations on all you have accomplished. We celebrate you for all that you’ve achieved during your amazing four-year tenure on Eye Street. We have done our best to prepare you for the challenges that lie ahead in these uncertain times. Now go forth with our blessing, and in the power of God’s Spirit, as men on a mission, to serve and heal our broken world.”

The forward to the 1943 Aetonian features photos of the war that marked the class’s entire time at Gonzaga.