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Senior Class Speaker Characterizes the Class of 2008

Joseph Thompson ('08) Exhorts Graduates to Continue Growing in Wisdom and Charity

(Summer 2008 Newsletter)

Joseph Thompson of Encino, California, was elected by his classmates as Senior Class Speaker. He will begin a Masters in Southern Literature at the University of Mississippi in the fall.

Good morning. On behalf of the Class of 2008,
I would like to welcome to our commencement His Eminence Cardinal Pell, the chaplains, all priests and members of the religious, the Board of Governors, President Dillon, all faculty and staff, and all of our friends and family.

The Heart of Our Accomplishment

For those of you who only know in general what the past four years here entailed for us as a class, allow me to briefly summarize our accomplishment. Of course, you may be familiar with the general outline of courses and texts, and the prestige of their authors. You may also be familiar with the Catholic reputation of the College and its living Catholic community made up of young people who are pious and sincere. But these characteristics provide only an incomplete notion of the College and, in particular, our class.

Yes, the aforesaid are certain molds that support the College's philosophy, and every student who completes four years here takes part in these. But each class, and indeed each student, receives the mold in different ways according to the particular disposition that marks them. In order to complete this summary, then, it would be useless to tell you about things said in books. To get at the heart of our accomplishment, I want to give you a sense of the manner and mode of our time here, the ways in which we dig deeply into questions and ideas, as well as into the Christian life, in private and in practice.

The character of our class was not so subtly hinted at during the first tutorials in which most sections came out with all guns blazing, overzealous and eager to jump in and get in over our heads. In my own section, I witnessed this quickly happen. But a tenacious vivacity and ardent thoroughness served us in staying afloat, and soon we were equipped to press onward, slightly more carefully.

Alongside this intellectual beginning, a strong affection was being formed among a plethora of unique individuals. We had always heard about what the College social life would be like, but I don't think anyone was prepared for the characters who first congregated here four years ago. But amiable from the start, we have developed friendships and established a community of kindness and joy.

Moving through the curriculum, we were faced with more serious fare, replacing milk with meat. Soon issues gained new relevance and began to hit closer to home. Predestination, the soul, scepticism, and the like became pressing matters for some, while others took these in turn, tarrying with these questions and wisely storing them in their hearts.

The questions got harder, but we dug deeper, not ignoring the difficulties posed by Hume, Kant, Hegel, Newton, Einstein, and Nietzsche. We recognized the important questions behind each subject, never discounting the insight of these authors and eager to hear them out. However they proceeded to whatever conclusion was not as important as the questions they posed: In what way do we know that we know? What is the field of activity in the world? How much should we credit our knowledge to our beliefs? Is there such a thing as an honest philosophy? These questions did not bear on us lightly, but neither did they crush us under their weight.

At the end of these four years, we are much like we were at the beginning. Our zeal is still alive, and our minds are still open to knowledge. I hope this gives you a better idea of what these four years have meant to the Class of 2008.

A Preparation for Wisdom

So, if there was any expectation at the start of a comprehensive exhaustion of the problems and solutions in the Western world, starting from the Ancients to the present day, producing an infallible certainty about things deep in our souls, then we have certainly disappointed you. For this is not what we have accomplished. But neither was it ever our goal.

If on the other hand, you expected that this education would cultivate wonder in us, making it flower and unfold from the outset, and that this education would prepare us for wisdom-which requires the ability to oversee and judiciously account for many things with prudence, patience, and silence-then you will be pleased to hear that we have not disappointed you. For we confess that we do not know so assuredly. But we take heart in being well-equipped to continue the pursuit at the moment of this new beginning.

Trust: Hallmark of the Class of 2008

Allow me, then, to take this opportunity to speak to my classmates directly. Dear friends: It is my hope that the character you have shown will endure and be preserved throughout the many developments of your life. What I have recognized in our class is a quality described by Cardinal Newman in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine concerning the method of inquiry in a science. He lays down a unique principle of method for those subjects which make up the heart of our studies here, subjects like ethics, metaphysics, history, and theology. He says this:

Antecedent probability may have a real weight and cogency in these sciences, which it cannot have in experimental science, and a mature politician or divine may have a power of reaching matters of fact in consequence of his peculiar habit of mind. Surely sciences there are in which genius is everything, and rules all but nothing.

Michael Hodgins of Marysville, Washington, led the Pledge of Allegiance. He has accepted a position as a Business Process Analyst at Wellpoint, Inc., a health benefits company.

This antecedent probability that Newman mentions has its foundation in the trustworthy, great tradition of thought concerning these subjects, a tradition with which we are now familiar. Inquiry in these subjects requires an intuitive mind that can take up thoughts in trust concerning their content and cogency and relying on the soundness of its [the mind's] judgment.

This is the mark that I see in our class. Our inquiry begins appropriately with receptivity, doing our best with what is given us, and looking about for aid from any quarter, as Cardinal Newman says. With generous trust, we follow the lead of those who have come before in order to see where they will take us. It is marvelous to me to see this quality of mind in our class, which gives itself over to-or holds back from-these things based on the intuitive movements of the soul. This quality bespeaks wisdom, and it will be more marvelous to see how our love of her will move us toward greater and more beautiful things.

Now, it may sound like I am calling our class geniuses…but that's because I am. However, here I don't mean that we are wunderkinds or prodigies. Rather, I want to emphasize that what qualifies us for entering into a community of those who know, and that the way we gain a title like "genius," has little to do with what propositions we hold and the like and has a lot to do with how we approach the problem of knowing.

To be a knower is not to have amassed a surplus of synthesized concepts. It is to have the ability and disposition to work well with the character of your soul and to capitalize on those antecedent possibilities in order to eventually reap matters of fact.

A Gift to Be Recalled and Relived

At this new beginning, then, let us keep in mind that we do not yet know all we have experienced here. Our limited treatment of these subjects does not give any of us the right to say that we know them strictly. But neither have we been cheated, nor did we achieve less than we ought to have after running the course. For we have been given such a gift as to be recalled and relived in practice and in contemplation. Yet that presses us on toward the application of good insights and the development of germinating ideas. This, too, should be the mark of our faith, which grows in the exercise of charity and kindness, strengthened by the hope of final and eternal illumination.

Finally, in light of that hope which will bring us together again, let me impart words to you that have resonated deeply within us before, reminding us of our past experiences, recommending our ongoing duty, and assuring us of our promised inheritance. Dear friends, let us first of all, and for all, be kind, then honest, and then let us never forget one another. I say it again: I give you my word that, for my part, I will never forget any one of you. Each face that is looking at me now at this moment I will remember, be it even after 30 years. And certainly, we shall see, and gladly, joyfully tell one another all that has been.

-- Qtrly Newsletter, Summer 2008