May 5, 2026 // Bishop

Bishop Rhoades Tells Graduates to Go Forth as Witnesses of Christ

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades

Bishop Rhoades delivered the following homily at the Commencement Mass for the University of Saint Francis at the university’s North Campus Auditorium on Friday, May 1.

The Gospel passage we just heard is from the conclusion of the Gospel of St. Luke — his account of the risen Jesus appearing to the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. Jesus eats with them and issues them instructions. He then led them out to Bethany, lifted up His hands and, while blessing them, He departed from them and ascended into heaven.

In just two weeks, we will be celebrating the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, but today we can reflect on this mystery in light of your graduation from the University of Saint Francis. When you think about it, Jesus’ last appearance when He gave instructions to His apostles and then departed from them into heaven was kind of like their graduation. The apostles were Jesus’ disciples, His students. They addressed Jesus as “Rabbi,” which means “Teacher.” Their studies with Jesus physically present with them were ending. They were graduating. But their graduation, like yours, was really a commencement, a beginning. With their graduation, they were beginning a new stage in their life’s journey. With their graduation, the Church’s mission would commence.

It’s important that we understand the meaning of the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Jesus did not depart into a remote region of the cosmos. It wasn’t a journey to the stars. With His ascension, Jesus entered into a different dimension of being that is beyond space. He was taken up into God’s very being. He entered into “communion of power and life with the living God, into God’s dominion over space” (Pope Benedict XVI). He now sits at the right hand of the Father, which means that in His glorified body, He is now exalted in glory and His Kingdom has begun. And now, “through His power over space, He is present and accessible to all — throughout history and in every place.” He is present and accessible to us today. “Because Jesus is with the Father, He has not gone away but remains close to us.”

Notice that the Gospel tells us that after Jesus blessed the apostles and ascended into heaven, they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God. Why would they be filled with great joy and praise God when Jesus departed from them? We would expect them to be deeply saddened and perplexed. It’s because they knew that Jesus had not departed from them to some distant galaxy or to an inaccessible heaven. They understood that He would still be present to them, but in a new and powerful way. He would still be close to them “in the way that only God can be close to us.” There would be a new form of closeness, an inner closeness, a closeness that is linked with joy and peace, because Jesus, the eternal Son, took our humanity with Him to the presence of God.

“Thanks to the fact that Jesus is with the Father, He is close to each one of us forever,” and we can be close to Him. We can live in His presence through the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul wrote, “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” “The Holy Spirit is the force through which Christ makes us experience His closeness.” Ten days after His ascension, on Pentecost, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, giving them strength for their mission of spreading His Gospel and His Kingdom. They became His witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Every one of us who is a disciple of Jesus shares in this mission to be His witnesses through our words and deeds. Of course, this requires our closeness to the Lord, not something merely emotional, but in “a communion of thinking and willing” in which we share in Christ’s one mind and will. The Holy Spirit helps and guides us to put on the mind of Christ. He also enables our prayer. And He helps us to face suffering with Christ’s own strength and confidence in the Father.

I hope that during your time at the University of Saint Francis, you have grown closer to God and have become more equipped for your mission as disciples of Jesus in the world. If perhaps you haven’t, you still can grow closer to Him, become more active in the practice of the Faith and in a life of prayer. Of course, we all can mature in our lives of prayer and grow as faithful witnesses of Christ. We have so many means to do so. We have the wonderful gifts of the sacraments in which we receive the Lord’s grace. We have God’s word in the Scriptures. We can grow in our Christian lives because the Lord is close to us and accessible to us. We only need to turn to Him, repent of our sins, believe in Him and open our hearts to a true friendship with Him.

Dear graduates, I offer my sincere congratulations to all of you as you celebrate your graduation. I thank all who have helped you to attain the degrees you will be awarded — your parents, teachers, friends, and mentors. You have majored in various fields of study in preparation for various careers: in health care, business, education, fine arts and other disciplines. You have had accomplishments perhaps in sports or other extracurricular activities. I hope that what has been paramount in your education here at Saint Francis has been your exploration of the nature of the good life. “The good life involves real friendship, the cultivation of the life of the mind, a savoring of beautiful things, falling deeply in love, finding satisfying work, etc. But at the heart of the good life, my young brothers and sisters, is a relationship with the living God, who is properly called the highest good, the summum bonum” (Bishop Robert Barron). He alone satisfies the deepest longings of our hearts. As St. Augustine famously prayed, “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and therefore our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

As you probably know, there have been increasing numbers of young adults suffering from anxiety and depression. Maybe you have struggled with stress or other mental and emotional health challenges. Some young adults today struggle with hopelessness because of a lack of meaning and purpose in their lives, taught in our culture that there are no objective moral values, no ultimate truth to build their lives on, no ultimate good beyond their own pleasures, wealth or power. Christianity has a different vision. We believe in God, the God revealed by Jesus Christ, His eternal Son. We believe that God is love, the eternal communion of life and love that is the Most Holy Trinity, whose life we are called to share in. When we conform our lives to love, which is God’s gift to us, we find true happiness and peace for which our hearts yearn. “This is the pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field, the great Secret of the Kingdom of God” (Bishop Barron).

Whatever your career choices, you can make your life a gift. You can strive to love one another as Christ has loved us. This is the path to holiness and true human fulfillment. It is the path to heaven to which Christ has ascended and prepared a place for us. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “Don’t worry inordinately about doing great things; do even the littlest things with great love.” Graduates, may you live your lives connected to the deepest source of reality and truth and joy, as St. Francis of Assisi did — that source is God. Allow yourselves to be loved by Him and then seek to love Him in return. This is the mystery of the Eucharist we now celebrate, the sacrament of Christ’s love for us to the end, the sacrifice of His body broken for us and His blood poured out for us. Here, we experience the most beautiful closeness to Him since He gives Himself to us in holy Communion, nourishing us with the grace to live in His love and to spread His love in the world. That’s our mission.

Graduates, I hope and pray you will go forth from Saint Francis to live this mission with joy. May God bless you and may St. Francis of Assisi intercede for you always!