My Fiftieth High School Reunion
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2026 Blog #37
October 19, 2026
Last Saturday I attended my high school fiftieth reunion. I haven’t seen most of these people for ten years, since our fortieth reunion. I haven’t seen some classmates in fifty years. These were those who did not attend the fortieth reunion. Some of us wonder if this might be our last reunion. Could we possibly have a sixtieth reunion? We all will be quite old then and who knows how many of us will be alive and/or able to come.
Seeing others at the reunion was like holding a mirror up to myself. None of us look young anymore. We shouldn’t, because we are not young. We are all pushing against seventy years old. Many of us were in good health yet others appeared to be struggling with mobility. Some classmates were easy to recognize while in greeting others, we depended on name tags. They had changed facially over the years, some more than others.
Many of us, I found out, are still working. We seem to be a rather elite class of lawyers, financial and corporate people. A lot of us, are now retired. Many have retired out of the area and very few of those snowbirds came to the reunion.
The class gave me the honor of giving the invocation. Despite being a Catholic High School, no one pursued ordination or the religious orders. Me, one of the few Protestants in the school, was the only one ordained.
I enjoyed catching up with old friends and getting to know people that I never knew well in high school. We must have traveled in different circles with different friendships. Yet, everyone was interesting and worth meeting and worth re-meeting. We have become quite an accomplished class because we received a wonderful education.
In the corner of the room was a table with the pictures of people who had died since our graduation. There were twenty of them, approximately 10% of our graduating class. These folks were deprived of living a full life span of 70 years and we mourn them. I had known about the deaths of a number of these classmates, but others caught me by surprise as I had not known of their passings. I was sad that they could not join our reunion. None of us is guaranteed how many years of life that we will have.
I am reminded of Psalm 90 verse 10: The years of our life are threescore and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone and we fly away.
Our lifespan is limited. We need to take every minute to celebrate the friendships that God gives to us. We need to rejoice and celebrate our good moments. We need to care for one another, those who have received less of the worldly blessing than we have received. Let use the years that we are given to be God’s shining lights in the world.
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