Class Speaker: “The Wisdom of the Cross”

Dear faculty, chaplains, Board of Governors, staff, donors, parents, on behalf of the Class of 2023, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude for all you have done to give us this education. Thank you.

For myself, I would like to thank my dear Father for raising me in the faith and in love of the good, true, and beautiful; and my dear Mother, who educated me for years and prepared me for this education and a life of pursuing virtue.

Dear classmates,

Thank you for choosing me to speak here today; I am honored to be able to speak to a group of truly excellent people. Thank you for being my dear friends and helping me to learn in our classes at Thomas Aquinas College.

We have received a very ennobling and precious gift in our time at this college. Plutarch says that just “as that colour is more suitable to the eye whose freshness and pleasantness stimulates and strengthens the sight, so a man ought to apply his intellectual perception to such objects as, with the sense of delight, are apt to call it forth, and allure it to its own proper good and advantage.”[1] Here in our classes at the College, we have pondered on such objects: things most perfective of our most godlike capability: our reason. We have seen how the whole natural world is directed toward the Creator, and, what is more, we have seen how reason finds its perfection in being directed by faith. We have done the best thing with our best part.

We have also done it in the best way. Aristotle says, “We ascribe universal education to one who in his own individual person is thus critical in all or nearly all branches of knowledge, and not to one who has a like ability merely in some special subject.”[2] This college has given us a good beginning in being discerning in nearly all the sciences. The wise man, through coming to know the most general things, comes to know all things. We who have studied the principles of all the sciences in a way know all these sciences and have become able judges of how the sciences should be carried out. We have obtained a little of the most authoritative science: wisdom. For this great gift of liberal education — true education — we give thanks to the Lord, Who has deemed us worthy to receive such a gift. Praised be Jesus Christ.

Dear classmates, I would like to recommend to each of you a higher wisdom: the wisdom of the Cross, which seems like folly to men, but which contains the secret to obtaining Divine Wisdom Himself.

“Christ gives us a share in the Cross in order to raise us to sanctity: the greater the saint, the heavier the cross.”

Every single one of us will bear crosses in this life — some more, some less. Fr. Garrigou Lagrange says that crosses “in Christian terminology (by analogy with the sufferings and death of our Divine Master) are the physical and moral sufferings of daily life which arise from our relationship to the exterior world and to those around us.”[3] Christ gives us a share in the Cross in order to raise us to sanctity: the greater the saint, the heavier the cross. Through the cross we will lose our self-love and our pride. We should, therefore, receive the cross not only with resignation, but also with love and gratitude. We should have absolute faith that the crosses that we endure are sent from a loving Father Who knows exactly what we need to come closer to Him.

We believe that God is all-powerful, meaning that He can control perfectly what happens to us. We also believe that He loves us perfectly. It follows, therefore, that every single thing that happens to us, is exactly what will make us saints.

So although we have a great responsibility to be great and invest our talents, have no fear. God will provide every circumstance necessary for our sanctity and happiness. If we want to carry our cross well for the rest of our lives, we must come to love the Divine will that provides these sweet crosses of our salvation. I will share with you this beautiful prayer written by Fr. Caussade:

My God, I desire with all my heart to do Your holy will, I submit in all things and absolutely to Your good pleasure for time and eternity; and I wish to do this, Oh my God, for two reasons; first: because You are my Sovereign Lord and it is but just that Your will should be accomplished; secondly: because I am convinced by faith, and by experience that Your will is in all things as good and beneficent as it is just and adorable, while my own desires are always blind and corrupt; blind, because I know not what I ought to desire or to avoid; corrupt, because I nearly always long for what would do me harm. Therefore, from henceforth, I renounce my own will to follow Yours in all things; dispose of me, Oh my God, according to Your good will and pleasure.[4]

We do not know what is good for us and so we must surrender ourselves to the holy will of our savior. Our class’s patron saint, St. Pachomius, says: “Be ever more obedient to God, and He will save you.” On earth we are here not to do our own will but God’s will. Once we learn how to love God’s will, we will always have peace of soul; we will be undefeatable because we know that all things work for the good for those who love God.

As we leave this college, we are embarking on a great odyssey. Like the hero Odysseus, we must leave the island and turn our ships to the open ocean. There will be great storms and great adversity. The world will try its best to destroy our boats; now, more than ever before the dark storm clouds conspire against us. But have no fear: All things work for the good for those who love God.

In this storm we need a guide; we need a beacon to reach our homeland. The Blessed Mother is this beacon. If a sailor cannot see the shore due to the dark and storm, he will take the lighthouse as his surest guide to home. And so every one of us must take Mary for our guide. If we aim for her, we will not stray from the course that leads to Christ. We must take Mary as our mother. If we do, we will also take St. Joseph as our father. St. Pachomius says: “Take as an example the wisdom of Joseph and his submission. Do battle in chastity and service until you make yourself a king.”

Amen. Thank you!