do Jayhawks fight?

Homily

5th Sunday of Easter C2

Graduation Weekend

15 May 2022

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

Do Jayhawks fly?

Heck if I know.  On the one hand, the answer seems a hard no.  Have you ever seen a Jayhawk fly?  Certainly not the dozens of Jayhawks affixed to pedestals all over campus.  There are vulgar legends on what it would take for those Jayhawks to fly, that we won't get into here.

On the other hand, Jayhawks sure seem to fly through the air at Allen Fieldhouse.  I dare anyone to tell me that Ochai Agbaji doesn't fly, and he's a Jayhawk!

So do Jayhawks fly, or don't they?  Heck if I know.  Maybe it's a question best left to the Aerospace Engineers in our midst.

Actually, there's a better question than whether Jayhawks fly.  That question is this.  Are Jayhawks fierce?  If you know the history of the Jayhawk, our mascot was created to be meaner than hell.  The Jayhawkers were the ruthless fighters ensuring Kansas came into the Union in 1865 as a free state.  Two feisty birds, ferocious actually, the blue jay and the sparrow hawk were combined into a singularly nasty hybrid known as the Jayhawk.

So the best question for our graduates is not whether you're gonna fly, but whether you're mean, whether you're nasty, in a good way.  Is that you, class of 2022?  You'll always be known as the class that won the 'natty.'  Will you also be known for your tenacity  As you graduate from Jayhawk U, do you know what you're gonna fight for?

Our dream for all of our graduates is that your capacity to write a great story with your life has been greatly enhanced through your education and experience at KU.  Thank you for trusting us here at the St. Lawrence Center to help guide your story.  It has been a great privilege!  We love you, believe in you and will miss you!

I pray that you all have a fierce capacity for commitment, communion, risk, vulnerability, self-gift and contagiosity! These are the hallmarks of a great story.

Jesus personally desires even more for you.  He prays that his disciples will fiercely pursue their capacity to love, as He has first loved us.  Look at the St. Lawrence cross one more time.  See His trust in you.  He believe you can do THAT!  Love one another as I have loved you.  

If you education and experience at KU has freed you to fight for your capacity to love to the end, then you are not only a Jayhawk, you're also a true and real disciple!

So I don't care if you fly.  I just want you to be meaner than hell, and to defeat many evils by the love stories you're gonna write from here.  

Be tenacious, Class of 2022. Give 'em hell Jayhawks!

Your last pivotal question from me is this - do you know what you're fighting for?