The following is the Reflection given by Jeanine Jensen, Pastoral Associate at St. Julie Billiart Parish, San Jose, at the April 20 graduation ceremony of the Institute for Leadership in Ministry in St. Joseph Cathedral Basilica.

Tonight we gather in this sacred space to give “Thanks and Praise” to God for all of God’s blessings and gifts. God has blessed our Church, and in particular the Church of San Jose, with you, tonight’s graduates, and your decision to live out your vocation.
Do you know the secret of a vocation? It’s personal. It cannot be handed down from generation to generation. It can only be passed on through the Gospel, and then, it will begin all over again.
Thus, every year we celebrate each one’s vocation, one’s calling, a call that was given to us in Baptism, to be fully alive in the Spirit of God. Tonight we thank you for saying “yes” to your call.
Just as God called Mary, James, Peter, Mary Magdalene and all those who have gone before us in faith, so too, does God call us to give the people an impression of who Christ is.
This is a pretty tall order! Yet, Isaiah relieves some of the pressure by saying, “The Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple’s tongue.”
Therefore, we do not have to bring our own message, our own thoughts and we do not have to impose ourselves on others. We have only to speak the word of the Lord, to become transparent for the Lord.
To convey the Gospel is a creative work. We have first to give it shape in our own lives. Only in this way do we communicate the message of God. We teach who Christ is by living Christ.
The reading (James 1: 18-25) that you graduates chose, offers us a road map as to how to convey our passion to communicate the message of God, to teach who Christ is by living Christ in a world that is fragile and broken.
The first step is to recognize and name our gifts and talents. Have you ever asked someone to name their gifts and they say, “I really don’t have any? I’m just your ordinary person.”
They are surprised when others begin to name the gifts they see within them and the ways in which they share these gifts. Just think, here we are tonight, a bunch of people coming together with all of our gifts, named and un-named.
The gifts of understanding, reasoning, organizing, visioning and faith sharing, these, and so many other gifts, have been recognized in you by the communities from which you come.
They have sent you to develop your gifts through prayer, study and reflection. Now you are being sent to use these gifts even more fully in your own unique ways.
James makes it clear in his teaching, KNOW that these gifts come from God alone. Then he speaks about how they are to be shared.
I love the first one. Be quick to hear, slow to speak. That is sometimes difficult when we live in a culture that is full of words. We are anxious to get our point of view across to others.
Sitting back and listening is not always our first choice of sharing the “Good News.” Yet, Jesus, our greatest teacher, listened as he ate at the tables of tax collectors, lepers, religious authorities, outcasts; as he walked with his disciples on the road to Emmaus and ate fish with them on the seashore.
He listened to their stories of struggles and dreams, and then he spoke, not with judgment or anger, but with wisdom, love and compassion. Are we not asked to do the same?
Next, James instructs us to humbly welcome the Word that has taken root in us. Isaiah says, “Each morning Yahweh wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple. The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear.”
Prayer is essential on this journey. Prayer is the stillpoint, the axis around which all other activity rotates. God will accomplish the work God has begun if only we surrender ourselves to him and allow God his way each and every day.
Finally, James calls us to act. For most of us here we find God and exercise our response to God’s call in our workplace, in our families, neighborhoods and marketplace.
Some of us share our gifts as catechists, musicians, ministers of the Word, ministers of the Eucharist, within pastoral care, parish administration, within our parishes. A smaller number of us serve as full time lay ecclesial, Religious and ordained ministers.
Most of us minister as secretaries, mothers, fathers, teachers, hotel workers, nurses, social workers, care givers, child care providers, students, maintenance workers in homes and gardens, to name but a few.
We understand that to be a Christen minister is to be called to share in the mission of the Church itself, which is to be hope in a world that cries out for peace, justice, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love.
It is at the Table of the Word and of the Eucharist that we are given roadmaps and food for this journey.
May our journey be one that is filled with passion for a God who never sends us out alone, who picks us up when we stumble and fall, and who madly loves us for who we are.