PROVO, Utah — As graduates of Brigham Young University prepare to disperse across the country and around the globe, they must courageously live their beliefs while fully engaging in their communities, said Elder Clark G. Gilbert, General Authority Seventy and Church commissioner of education.
In offering this year’s commencement address, Elder Gilbert issued a charge — “Hold up your light that it may shine unto the world” (3 Nephi 18:24).
“As you leave BYU today, have the courage to stand up and be that light to the world,” Elder Gilbert told graduates. “Maintain your spiritual integrity even as you engage as an ambassador and the peacemaker that our Prophet has asked us to be.”
Close to 7,200 graduates — along with their friends, family and mentors — filled nearly each of the 19,000 seats within the Marriott Center for the commencement ceremony held on a mild spring morning on Thursday, April 24.
President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency and former president of the university, presided at the event and represented the First Presidency in congratulating J. Clifford Wallace, who was bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Law and Public Service by BYU during the commencement.
Wallace is the longest-serving federal judge in the United States and was the first member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve both in a U.S. Court of Appeals as well as its chief judge.
Said President Oaks: “Speaking from our commitment to the divinely inspired principles of the U.S. Constitution, which applies to all men, we believe in the rule of law. We honor Judge Wallace as a worthy example of that rule of law and commend his example to lawyers, judges and citizens worldwide.”
In accepting the honorary degree, the 96-year-old Wallace looked down from the lectern at the roughly 250 doctoral graduates and jokingly apologized “to those of you who received your doctorate through much work here.”
He then quipped, “But I’m not going to turn it down.”
His success in life, Wallace said, could be attributed to advice given to him by the late Elder LeGrand Richards, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
As a young trial lawyer trying to establish his practice and with a young family at home, Wallace was told to first prioritize his family, then his Church service. “And if you have any time left over, you can earn a living,” Elder Richards told him.
“I found that if I carefully and prayerfully made the most important parts of my life consistent with their eternal worth, I accomplished much more of real value in my life’s endeavors,” Wallace said.
BYU President C. Shane Reese both conducted the proceedings and offered a brief address. Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Jennifer Kearon; President Oaks’ wife, Sister Kristen Oaks; Elder Gilbert’s wife, Sister Christine Gilbert; and Sister Wendy Reese, the first lady of BYU, were also in attendance.
During the ceremony, the university bestowed 7,286 degrees — 5,885 bachelor’s degrees, 1,146 master’s degrees and 255 doctorate degrees.
‘Go forth to serve’
Graduates will need to learn to balance the expectation for professional distinction with integrity to faith, or the call for excellence and a call to discipleship, said Elder Gilbert.
“If you let the call for excellence supersede your call to discipleship, you will risk mimicking the world and in some ways eventually apologizing for your faith. If you let the call for faithfulness cause you to isolate yourself from the secular world, you may preserve your faith, but you will miss the opportunity to be a light to the world,” he cautioned.
Be excellent in professional and community engagement, he said, but never let others’ agendas replace or subordinate discipleship. At the same time, “preserving faith should never be the catalyst for isolation,” he added.
He encouraged graduates to build friendships with others of differing beliefs and invite them into their lives, “always representing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with courage, faith and dignity.”
The Lord has promised, “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88).
“This is our hope and our charge for you today,” said Elder Gilbert.
Other speakers during the commencement — including Hillary Nielsen, president of the BYU Alumni Association, and Amy Ortiz Sanchez, a graduate — echoed the invitation to influence the world for the better.
“You’ve entered to learn, now go forth to serve,” said President Reese.
Reiterating President Russell M. Nelson‘s call for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to become agents for peace in this divided world, President Reese promised graduates that “using your BYU education to serve will inspire greater peace and goodness in this world.”
The ceremony also included a musical number by the BYU Men’s Chorus, “Welcome Home.”
