From the Desk of the President
President's Dinner, Wednesday, May 7, 2008
(Summer 2008 Newsletter)
[Index
of Past Articles by President Dillon]
It is my distinct privilege, on behalf of the entire faculty and
staff, to congratulate all you members of the Class of 2008 for having today successfully completed your studies
at Thomas Aquinas College. Your achievement is substantial. To work
through Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Newton, Einstein, and St.
Thomas is not easy, and you are to be commended for your diligence
and docility. You have spent four years studying the works of those
who have thought most deeply about nature, man, and God, and you
are becoming serious and accomplished thinkers yourselves.
Keep in mind that your advancement in learning at this college has
been made possible by the sacrifices of many. You certainly owe
thanks to your parents, your tutors, the College's benefactors,
and, of course, to God Himself for the blessings you have received
here.
Society and Its False Gods
Now that you have spent four years away from many of the distractions
of the world, let me remind you that you are returning to a society
that is more and more explicitly rejecting its Judeo-Christian heritage
and is more and more openly hostile to Christ and the teachings
of the gospels.
Of course, there has always been sin in the world, and we must guard
against being too quick to identify the sins of others lest we be
too slow to recognize our own. Nevertheless, a change I've seen
in my lifetime is that our various public and civic institutions,
at least in general, no longer uphold the moral ideals that are
rooted in Christianity. The common institutions that nurture our
customs and shape our aspirations as a people are now so thoroughly
corrupting from the inside that it is no longer a question of whether
we are living up to our ideals-those very ideals themselves are
in question.
Government, education, medicine, the arts, journalism, civic organizations-these
were, for the most part, built in our country on the bedrock of
sound moral principle, but for too long they have been living off
the capital of their Christian patrimony and are now gradually going
bankrupt. With the increasing denigration of Christian ideals in
American public life, even the few vestiges of Christian morality
and custom that have been helpful in rightly forming our imaginations,
cultivating our sensibilities, and influencing our habits of conduct
are disappearing. The shapers of our contemporary culture-which
is being exported worldwide-are increasingly worshiping at the altars
of the gods of materialism, sensuality, and self-assertion. But
as you well know, these are false gods, and our civilization cannot
finally endure without the virtues of piety, self-restraint, and
generosity of soul.
Hope for the Challenge Ahead
What I am saying, then, is that as you re-enter the larger world,
if you are serious about your Faith, you will be continually challenged
to abandon it-perhaps not challenged in the way the martyrs were,
but rather through so many of the little things that are part of
everyday living in our corrosive culture. However, the stakes are
just as high for you as they were for the martyrs, because, as Our
Lord indicates, no man can serve two masters, and you must make
a choice.
The good news, of course, is that we already know which is the winning
side, and we know that we shall receive God's help if we ask for
it. This is why the Holy Father exhorts us to have hope and to have
the courage to live out our Faith in a world that increasingly rejects
it. In fact, he continues to call on all of us to be witnesses to
Christ in the world and to evangelize-to bring the gospels to souls
who, in the desert of relativism and scepticism, are thirsty for
truth and goodness.
Uphold Reason and Truth
Now the particular gifts you have been given at Thomas Aquinas College
pertain especially to the development and perfection of your intellect,
which itself is ordered to truth. Do not be afraid to seek out and
speak the truth; strive to point yourselves toward wisdom, and do
what you can to help others pursue that exalted goal.
In his encyclical Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II spoke
of faith and reason as two wings on which the human spirit rises
to the contemplation of truth; he said that God has placed in the
human heart a desire to know the truth-to know Him-so that in knowing
and loving God we can also come to the fullness of truth about ourselves.
As you are well aware, the world desperately needs this fullness
of truth, and both Pope John Paul and now Pope Benedict have warned
that in our times not only is faith under assault, so, too, is reason.
If reason is neglected or disdained, however, it is not long before
it becomes nearly impossible to make progress toward the truth.
Eventually, truth itself ceases to be our goal, and we distort our
nature as rational beings, leaving reason to be ruled by appetite.
Grow in the Love of God and Others
Our task as educated Christians is all the more difficult, however,
because in our very effort to uphold reason and truth, we can easily
become enamored of our own intelligence and think that our intellectual
prowess and achievements are of our own doing rather than gifts
from God. After all, if Lucifer, the "light-bearer," can
succumb to pride, how much easier must it be for us men, already
weakened by original sin. Your own class quote from the First Epistle
to the Corinthians is a helpful caution here. "And if I have
the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge…but
have not love, I am nothing."
We must avoid the snare of thinking that because we hold the right
positions we are morally superior to those around us-rather, we
must make every effort to proceed with humility and charity, recognizing
our own intellectual and moral deficiencies, and trying always to
grow in our love of God and to help bring others to Him.
And even if our own souls are rightly ordered, it will not be easy
to uphold the truth of Christ in a hostile world. The gospel read
at Mass today says as much, "I gave them Your word," says
Our Lord to His heavenly Father, "and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to
the world."
But we cannot be daunted-we must still strive for love of God and
love of neighbor. We must make ventures of charity whatever the
consequences. And we can take comfort in the second part of today's
gospel: If we are followers of Christ, we are consecrated in the
truth of Christ.
Be Marked by Charity and Humility
It is my practice to direct the graduating seniors each year to
the prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas for after Holy Communion, since
it contains great wisdom about the Christian life. St. Thomas prays
"May this sacrament perfect me in charity and patience, in
humility and obedience, and in all the other virtues." Notice
the virtues he singles out among all others: charity, patience,
humility, and obedience. It is my constant hope that these virtues
will be the mark of graduates of Thomas Aquinas College, especially
charity and humility, understanding that patience will intensify
our charity and obedience will intensify our humility.
As you leave the beautiful confines of our campus and head out
into the world for greater challenges under the protection of your
class patron, St. Michael, may I ask you 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 2008
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