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Giving Thanks for Our Founding Fathers

 

By Rev. Hildebrand Garceau, O.Praem.
Head Chaplain, Thomas Aquinas College
Homily from the memorial Mass for Edward N. Mills
Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel
May 20, 2015

 

Rev. Hildebrand Garceau, O.Praem.
Rev. Hildebrand Garceau, O.Praem. “The grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God” — words of St. Paul in our second reading today (2 Cor. 4:15).

Yesterday’s Feast of St. Joseph reminds us of the importance of a father. A father provides for his family in two ways. First, a father provides for the material welfare of his family. He works to provide a home and whatever is needed to assist his family in a material way — food, clothing, and shelter. Secondly, the father and mother are called to provide spiritual formation, the education of their children. By extension, those who provide for the education of the young participate in fatherhood because they look after the intellectual and spiritual welfare of the young.

The founders of our college can be considered founding fathers. They engendered an idea to bring Catholic education to Southern California. They brought it to birth back in the early 1970s as Thomas Aquinas College. And since that founding they have provided for its development. What we see here today is the fruit of their labors.

The Thomas Aquinas College Choir, joined by members of the e

The Thomas Aquinas College Choir, joined by members of the extended family

But they could not have achieved their goal of providing a truly Catholic liberal education without the material means that actually built this college from the ground up, literally. As this second reading reminds us, God bestowed His grace on more and more people through the years, and they have responded wondrously in sharing their personal expertise and personal resources to build up the College.

They are the fathers of the TAC family in more than one sense. First, they had faith in the small and humble beginnings of the College. They sent their own children here to receive a Catholic liberal education because they saw this education as truly formative of good and solid Catholic men and women, as forming good citizens. Besides their faith in the College, in the second place, these persons, men and women, became convinced of the value of truly Catholic liberal education, having seen its positive effects in their children. And so, with the material benefits God gave them, they gave generously of their time and treasure, thus assuring the future of the College.

Now, more than 40 years after the founding of the College, our thanks should overflow, as St. Paul reminds us, for the good works and the generous gifts of men and women like Ed and Dolores Mills. In their spiritual parenting of us, they have contributed to the building up of the Church, which has St. Joseph as her patron.

Members of the Mills family after the Mass

Members of the Mills family after the Mass

The passing of Ed and other founding fathers from this life reminds us of our own mortality, that we, too, must pass from this life. But as our first reading says, “The souls of the just are in God’s hands” (Wis. 3:1). We pray that Ed and all of our founding fathers and benefactors will be justified and, in turn, glorified, for their generosity, because they have helped many students to benefit from this education.

Let our thanks to them be expressed in prayers offered for the repose of their souls. And by God’s mercy, may Ed and all of our benefactors rest in the peace of Christ.