From the Desk of the President
Farewell to the Class of 2006, President's Dinner
(Summer 2006 Newsletter)[Index
of Past Articles by President Dillon]
It is my distinct privilege tonight to be able to congratulate
you, the Class of 2006, on behalf of the entire faculty and staff,
for having formally completed the College’s academic program.
In these past four years, you have put your minds upon very difficult
matters, from the Elements to the Principia, from
the Organon to the Metaphysics, from the Confessions
to the Summa. You have made a good beginning in what
should be a life-long pursuit of wisdom, having honed your intellects,
cultivated your judgment, and refined your moral sensibilities.
You are indeed to be commended for your perseverance and for your
achievement.
You should be grateful to all those who have made your education
here possible, including your tutors, your parents, and the College’s
benefactors. And you should give special thanks to God for an opportunity
that very few have—four years set apart from the cares of the
world to develop your minds and pursue the truth.
A Light to a World Stumbling into Darkness
You are now leaving the peaceful campus of Thomas Aquinas College
with a rare and precious gift—a true Catholic liberal education,
wherein your reason has been elevated and illumined by your faith.
Accordingly, you also have a great responsibility not to hide your
light under a bushel, as Our Lord says, but rather to bring that
light to a world stumbling more and more into darkness.
When Frank Shakespeare, the former American Ambassador, was here
for Presidents’ Day, he pointed out to me in our dinner conversation
that we are living in epochal times. Why? All around the globe there
are great and unpredictable shifts and changes taking place, changes
that may mean that the world will look entirely different even in
a very short 50 years from now. In Africa, a struggle for the soul
of that continent is taking place between Christianity and Islam.
In Russia, though it has now seen the fall of Communism, the replacement
rate of the Slavic people is nevertheless in steep decline, while
the increase in the Muslim birthrate there is the highest in the
world.
Even in our own country, there is increasing polarization among
our citizens about our future direction as a nation, with deep division
as to whether we ought to live up to the principles of our founding
and whether we should be shaped by our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Most significant of all, however, may be the situation in Europe,
where, for example, Spain and Italy have the lowest birthrates in
the world, followed closely by the native population of France—despite
the fact that these three countries were once bastions of Christianity.
For over 1,000 years Europe has been both the center of Christianity
and the exporter of Western civilization worldwide. Now, however,
we see throughout Europe an explicit repudiation of its Christian
patrimony and a disdain for the good to be found in the bearing
and raising of children. A strong case can be made that Christian
Europe is dying, and with it the nurturing source of Western civilization,
even as Islam, at least by way of demographics if nothing else,
is on the rise.
Seek Out Lives of Sacrifice
Now what does all this mean for you? In my view, it means that
you cannot bury the treasure you have been bequeathed here, but
you must be both emissaries for what is good in Western civilization—particularly
the good of right reason as a guide to action—and you must
be missionaries for our Catholic faith, missionaries first here
at home, where the Faith must be built up even as our beloved Church
is assailed both from within and without. You cannot be content
with lives of comfort; you must seek out lives of sacrifice. All
of us are challenged to serve Christ daily, and the challenges for
you in the coming decades will be tremendous.
Now, I don’t want to paint too bleak a picture. For one thing,
we know that the Holy Spirit will always be with us, and we know
that in the long-run the gates of Hell will not prevail against
the Church. Nevertheless, I do think that we are truly living in
epochal times, that the Church is more despised worldwide now than
it has ever been in my lifetime, and that the cult of materialism
and self-gratification threatens us on one side, as does fanaticism
in the name of religion on the other. Clearly, there is the need—and
the opportunity—for a new evangelization. Given what God has
provided you with here, you cannot stand on the sidelines and watch—you
must do your part in bringing Christ to a needy world.
Ventures of Faith
The readings for Mass just today are particularly instructive.
In today’s Gospel, Our Lord says the following:
I came into the world as a light, so that everyone who believes
in me might not rest in darkness…I did not come to condemn
the world but to save the world…The Father who sent me commanded
me what to say and speak, and I know that His commandment is eternal
life. (John 12: 46-50)
In short, in today’s Gospel Christ tells us Himself that He
comes into the world to be its light and to bring eternal life.
Now consider the first reading from today’s Mass, which is
taken from the Acts of the Apostles. The first line is “The
word of God continued to spread and grow.” How did this happen?
From the text of today’s reading, we see that, guided by the
Holy Spirit, the first Christians took the initiative to travel
about and courageously proclaim the word of God. Moreover, before
they went on their missions, they “fasted and prayed”
and “worshipped the Lord.”
As it turns out, those early Christians were also living in epochal
times. They, too, had no sense of what exactly the future would
bring, but they were willing to “put out into the deep,”
to make, what Cardinal Newman calls, in a slightly different context,
“ventures” of faith, without knowing whether their immediate
endeavors would succeed or fail.
So, too, let me urge you to make “ventures of faith”
to do what you can to bring Christ to a darkening world, without
worrying whether any particular venture will succeed or fail in
the short-run. As Newman also makes clear, such ventures, to be
genuine, always entail risk and sacrifice, but this is precisely
what demonstrates a real commitment of faith.
Remember, too, that the early Christians did not rely wholly upon
themselves, but looked for guidance from the Holy Spirit and prayed
and fasted to that end.
Expressions of Hope
As you may know, I have recently returned from a trip to Europe
where I was able, in an extremely brief conversation with Pope Benedict,
to obtain his blessing on our chapel project. My wife and I also
had dinner in Vienna with our friend Cardinal Schönborn, the
editor of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as
dinner in Rome with Fr. Giertych, the Dominican priest who has been
newly appointed as the theologian of the papal household, where
we talked about the importance of the thought of St. Thomas for
the Church. We also had extended visits with, among others, Cardinal
Arinze, Cardinal Grocholewski, and Cardinal Martino, all prefects
of important Vatican congregations, and an hour’s visit with
Cardinal Szoka, the president of the Vatican State.
What was very edifying to me was that no matter with whom we visited,
we found great respect for Thomas Aquinas College and heartfelt
expressions of hope in you and in what you can contribute toward
the good of the Church.
Keep Your Thoughts and Aspirations High
Now, as you know, the best way to evangelize and bring Christ to
others is to exemplify Christ in our own lives. It is especially
by tending to our interior lives, by advancing in personal virtue
and faithfulness, that we can best bear witness to Our Lord.
Your class quote from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians
presents very practical counsel for this interior development of
soul:
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever
is gracious, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
these things. (Phil. 4:8)
You are so right to want to keep your thoughts and aspirations
high to keep yourselves focused on what is pure, just, honorable,
and true. In fact, there is additional inspiring advice to be found
elsewhere in St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. In verse
27 of Chapter 1 we read, “Let your manner of life be worthy
of the Gospel of Christ,” and verses 3-8 of Chapter 2 advise
the following:
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count
others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to
his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this
mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though He
was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form
He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on
a cross.
Especially Humility
Now in order to help you acquire the humility of which St. Paul
speaks, allow me to offer you one more piece of advice, which I
offer to graduating seniors every year—that you make the prayer
after Communion of St. Thomas Aquinas your own.
n that prayer, he says of the Holy Eucharist, “May this sacrament
perfect me in charity and patience, in humility and obedience, and
in all other virtues.”
This fits so well with what we have just seen in the Letter to
the Philippians, and it is my hope that these four explicitly-named
virtues—charity, patience, obedience, and especially humility—will
be the distinguishing marks of graduates of Thomas Aquinas College
and that you will always keep in mind that what you have achieved
here is not wholly your own doing, but is very much a gift from
God.
Lastly, may I ask you, as you take your places in the larger world,
to please remember your alma mater in your prayers, that we always
remain faithful to Our Lord and do His will, as best we can. I promise
to pray, in turn, that God will bless you all, that He will keep
you in His grace, and that He will guide you on your way.
May He be with you always.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Summer 2006
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