SOUL SEARCH

"Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night"
Fr. Guy Guibelondo, S.J., Campus Minister

Photos courtesy of Joseph Cheng (H2D), Stallion Photographer

Posted Wednesday, 11-Jan-2006 10:13 AM

      Homily delivered by Fr. Guy Guibelondo, SJ during the High School First Friday Mass last January 6, 2006.

      Today we celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, on the waning days of the Christmas season, when the work of Christmas begins.

      The gospel starts with the story of John the Baptist, of his role. His role was to introduce the one coming after him more powerful, so awesome that he wasn’t even worthy to untie his sandals. Jesus of Nazareth, the Gospel reads, is the one. Jesus is the one, who after baptism came out of the water and heaven broke open. The Spirit descended and a voice was heard: “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests.”

      We gather for the first Friday mass of the New Year, of the last grading quarter of the school year. And the gospel reading might as well be read to you, that part which says “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests.” Because for many reasons you are beloved, and for a lot more reasons, and you can look at the lives you live, and say you are “favored.”

      But despite being beloved and favored, if we look at the time that has gone since the start of the school year, we see a confusing picture. It is an image full of fun and challenges and learning and friendships, and at the same time a field littered with broken promises, dashed hopes, unfulfilled dreams and dimmed faith.

      And some of us have given up trying. They have thrown in the towel.

      This last quarter of the school year – and the H4 have a countdown of 44 days left – what is there to hope for? What can we fight for?

      A poem by Dylan Tomas, “Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night” classifies people into four types.

      They are the good, the grave, the wild and the wise.

      The good man went about doing good deeds, he sought and did what was right. The grave man took life seriously, perhaps never smiling, never enjoying, working earnestly. The wild man enjoyed the day, watching it pass by. And the wise man thought, reflected, and thought again before acting, watching, observing and telling people to do the same thing too.

      The poem describes the men in their old age. In his old age the poem says that the good man cried how his good acts should have been a shining example for everyone to see and praise, but these did not. The grave man found out that there are brighter things in life and that it is actually possible to be happy, and he was not. Meanwhile the wild man saw that he has enjoyed the day, yes, but at the end of his empty and wasted life, enjoy some more he cannot. And the wise meanwhile, saw that despite his wisdom he could not bring light, not even a spark to brighten up his world.

      But despite this, the wise man has resolved that he will not just resign and give up. He will do what he can to achieve what he has started out in the beginning, to share his wisdom and hopefully will, in the end, bring even a little light into the gloomy life of people, to make sense of the nonsensical. The cause is not lost. He will rage against the dying day.

      And so the invitation is true for all the other types of persons, for the good man not to be disheartened and continue to do what is right. For the wild man to find meaning in the last rays of the sun he has enjoyed throughout his life; for the grave man to see that his toils and troubles are not useless and futile even as he finds time to smile.

      The invitation holds true for all of us gathered here. Whether we are good or grave, whether we are wild or wise, as the end of the day – the end of the year – is approaching we are challenged to look back at what we have done, to see if we have achieved what we started out to do. Check ourselves what we did wrong and what went right. Reinvent ourselves if we must. But never give up. The poet Dylan Thomas says it more dramatically, “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

      My friends at the beginning of the end, at the start of the fourth quarter let us struggle some more, let us strain to right what went wrong, to pull those grades up, to change the destructive habits we have developed, to develop the habits we need to be good persons, better Christians, and the best Xaverians. “Do not go gentle into that good night.”

     Luceat Lux, we said at the start of the year, for we believed and we still do that this is what God is calling us to do. So we fan the flame, angrily if need be so our light will not go out.

      The gospel echoes the truth to us of what was said about Jesus: “You are my beloved Son. On you my favor rests.” We are beloved. We are favored. And so with courage, we also declare “Do not go gentle into that good night… rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

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