The past two weeks, I have had the pleasure of attending graduations at our Catholic high schools in the diocese. It really has been a pleasure.

You can see the joy on the faces of the students. Graduation is one of those days that most all of us remember for the rest of our lives. It brings to culmination years of work, of growing up, of laughing, and, at a Catholic high school, of learning about God, the Church and how our Catholic faith is essential for us to get to heaven.

The parents, too, exhibited tremendous pride during those ceremonies, and rightly so! The successful completion of all the work, and the deepening of the faith of those graduates are so often conditioned and reinforced by the example at home given by mom and dad. High school, and those years of spiritual and human formation, is hard work for parents too!

There were so many memorable moments in each of those ceremonies. But there are two that were particularly notable. 

First, at the beginning of one of the graduation ceremonies there was a very moving moment in which, a candle was lit and there was a moment of silence. The action was to remember those students who were not part of the class of 2012 because they had been victims of abortion. We often think about abortion as an action, as the moment when the right to life given by God is not respected. But it was very powerful to ponder, for just a moment, the absence of those who were not born. What a wonderful reminder to the students, the teachers, the families and to all of us of why we continue to struggle in support of respect for the gift of human life.

At another ceremony, the students were being introduced before receiving their diplomas.  Each introduction concluded with the student’s plan for the coming year. At one point, it was announced that the young man about to receive his diploma would be entering the military service in the army.  The ceremony stopped because, spontaneously, the gymnasium broke into loud and extended applause.

Of course the applause represented a moment of gratitude.  The young man is about to embark on a sacrifice for others that he feels called to give. He will enter training and a lifestyle concentrated on the cause of serving and protecting our country and our citizens. He will do so learning to carry out and respect the authority over him that ultimately flows from us as citizens through our president and the commander-in-chief. 

What a noble undertaking.

But as the applause died away, it occurred to me that we need to be applauding another sacrifice by our young men. That of course would be their following of the call to the priesthood. If the call to serve our country is noble, how much more so is the call to follow Christ in order to continue his work and his teaching among our brothers and sisters? That calling is not just for our protection in this life, but for the sacramental means to bring us to eternal life with Christ, and his Father and the Holy Spirit.

Blessed John Paul II once said that a sign of the health of a community of faith is the vocations that it produces. Please, keep praying for vocations to the priesthood. Parents, talk to your sons about this. The rest of us also need to encourage any young men who might be called. Above all, we need to pray without ceasing to the Master of the harvest to send workers.

I look forward to the future when a graduation ceremony is halted by another lasting round of applause … this time for those young men answering the call to follow Christ.