THOMASIANS SHOULD be prepared to face setbacks as they face life outside the portals of the University, the Secretary General of UST said during the second day of the Baccalaureate Mass, which was delayed and extended because of bad weather.
In his homily for the first batch of the rescheduled event, UST Secretary General Fr. Louie Coronel, O.P. urged the students to walk with Jesus as they begin their post-graduation journey.
“The storm that postponed the celebration is but a symbol [that] there will be many storms ahead, delays, detours, disappointments. But your task is not to fear them. Your task is to carry Christ through them,” Coronel said at the Quadricentennial Pavilion (QPav) on Saturday, May 31.
A persistent downpour yesterday had dampened the hopes of the 6,968 graduates for a celebration at the UST Grandstand and Open Field. They were split into two groups for the rescheduled festivities as the QPav could not accommodate the entire 2025 batch.
Those who already had their Mass, lighting ceremonies, and precessional walk were the UST-Alfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy, Faculty of Arts and Letters, College of Fine Arts and Design, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, College of Information and Computing Sciences, Conservatory of Music, College of Nursing, Faculty of Pharmacy and College of Rehabilitation Science.
Coronel recalled seeing Thomasians dance as the storm drenched them at the UST field, commending the students’ positivity in the face of unexpected crises.
“The Thomasians, ‘when there is downpour in your life, do the rain dance.’ That’s what they did,” the secretary general said.
If plan A, B, or even C fails, the secretary general urged the graduates to see that “there are many other letters in the alphabet.”
The secretary general called on graduates to emulate the willingness of Mary to fulfill her mission as the bearer of the son of God, even in the face of uncertainty.
“She (Mary) had just received her own world-shaking news from an angel that she would bear the son of god and yet, what did she do? She moved in haste…This is not the haste of anxiety or panic. This is the haste of mission.”
Coronel noted how this year’s graduates were the only batch to have experienced two Baccalaureate Masses, saying it was a “preparation” for their exit through the Arch of the Centuries.
“Mary did not know what the road would be like but she trusted in the one who walked with her and the lord will walk with us through that arch,” he said.
The challenge for Thomasians Coronel said, lies in their ability to remain in joy and in love with a “Christ-like” heart despite the darkness in life.
He compared the much-anticipated fireworks display, which is part of the send-off rites, to the “inner fire” of UST graduates, who he said are called to be missionaries.
“May they (fireworks) not just be a spectacle for your eyes, but a symbol of what is meant to happen in your soul, that you must light, that you must illuminate, that your life must speak to the world,” the University official said.
“Let the world see not just a graduate, but a missionary. Not just a student who finished a course but a servant ready to begin a new visitation,” Coronel added. F
