150th Anniversary Mass
Notre Dame Preparatory School
September 22, 2023
Formed to Lead
It is a great joy for me to be here today at Notre Dame Preparatory School, and to offer this Mass as you celebrate your 150th Anniversary Year. From your beginnings down on Charles Street, this institution has held an important place in the Church and in Society. For over 150 years, under the direction of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, this venerable institution has formed and educated women to lead and to serve. Today this legacy is strong as ever as your school is indeed as strong as ever. Times may have changed, but the core mission remains the same: to empower young women to use their God-given gifts to be the women God created them to be. Indeed the education you are receiving in this institution is a tremendous gift. It is a gift made possible by the support of your parents and by the generous service of the women and men who work here at NDP, women and men who have dedicated their lives to your education.
Use What You Were Given
Here at NDP you are being given tools for life, tools that can be used in many different ways. The readings we have today remind us how we are called to use those tools: what is it we are called to do; how it is we are called to live; what is we are to seek.
The first reading from the Prophet Micah reminds us that, while our abilities may be great and while we may have much to offer, what the Lord truly asks of us is quite simple: to do justice, love goodness, and walk humbly with God. Yes, we should strive to achieve great things. Indeed throughout the history of this institution, many of your alumnae have achieved great things, many of them blazing a trail for women in society. Like them you too are called to greatness, called to seek after what is good, true, beautiful and just; called to seek to do justice, to give to each person what is owed to them; called to defend the most vulnerable and defenseless in our midst; called to love goodness, to seek after the truth and what it is that helps you and those around you to flourish. And in doing these things and living in this way, we are to walk humbly with our God. To be humble is not to think less of ourselves but to think rightly of ourselves, to see ourselves as we truly are. God wants us to do great things, yes, but to do them for his glory and the good of others.
Fruits of Humility: Gratitude and Generosity
So what keeps us humble? How do we think rightly of ourselves? How do we seek after great things while not falling to the temptation to become self-seeking or self-obsessed? How indeed do we live up to St. Paul’s challenging call to put on “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another”?
I think the answer is to be found in the Gospel for today’s Mass. Jesus tells us “You are the salt of the earth” and “you are the light of the world”. But where does salt get it’s taste? Looking at the light that dwells in our heart, from where does light get its brightness? It comes from the Lord! The gifts and abilities that we have – all that is ours to give was first given to us by the Lord. All we have is the gift of a God who loved you into being and who sustains you in love. Humility comes when we realize that we don’t have anything to give that wasn’t first given to us. What then is our response? I would suggest two:
First is gratitude: When we are blessed with a gift, the response we were taught to make as children is to say “thank you”, to acknowledge the goodness of the one who gave you this gift. An occasion such as this is a wonderful opportunity to say “thank you”, first and foremost to the Lord whose grace has sustained this school over 150 years and whose Spirit is still active and alive in this community calling it to more. But this is also an occasion to say thank you to all those who have carried on the work of this school, who have helped to offer the tremendous gift of an NDP education to generations of young women: to the School Sisters of Notre Dame who founded and guided this school from the beginning; to the educators, administrators and staff who have dedicated themselves here to the work of Catholic education and who carry on that vital mission today; and to the parents and benefactors who have made all of this possible. To the Lord and to all of these people through whom the Lord has worked and is working – we say thank you!
The second response we have is generosity. A tremendous gift is being given to you, and this prompts in your heart a spirit of generosity. When we are blessed we want to bless others; when we are helped we want to help others; when we are empowered we want to empower others. The education you receive will serve you well, but it will also allow you to serve well. Many in our world and here in our own city of Baltimore are in need of those who will help them to be able to achieve their God given potential. Still others may have all the material prosperity in the world but experience a deep loneliness and a sense of meaninglessness in their hearts. How will you share with those who are in need? How will you put your gifts at the service of those who most need your help?
The Scriptures tell us that “by their fruits you will know them”. Over the past 150 years this school has yielded tremendous fruit in the women who are proud to call NDP their alma mater. I pray that the Lord in his goodness will continue to pour out his Spirit that you might one day go forth from this place to bear fruit, through lives of faith, hope, and love. And may God bless and prosper NDP for years to come, ad multos annos!