Commencement Address

Commencement Address
St. Mary's Academy
June 12, 1981

It’s good to be back among friends!  I missed all of you.  I missed your Class of 1981.   I’m very grateful for this opportunity to share in this celebration of your academic achievement.  In fact, I wanted to be here.  Even though my knees would shake and my voice would quiver I wanted to speak to you tonight.  Why?  Because you made my stay, my leaving, and tonight my return to St. Mary’s memorable.  Because all of you are special people.  But special people are not pre-determined.  They are created.  Created in the family - the crucible of personal development.  So I must congratulate you the parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, and uncles - all relatives.  For it is you who have created an environment that brought about these admirable characteristics exemplified by the young people seated on this stage.

Class of 1981.  Although I didn’t share your senior year with you, I hope this past year was a time of growth.  Tonight, I would like to talk to you about the future, your future, the future you can build for yourselves and your loved ones.  I’m sure all of you want it to be filled with happiness and success.  In order to build this future you will need some tools.  Tools that when used bring happiness and success.

First.  Doing the best you can

I grew up on it.  And I’m a firm believer in it.  Whether it was in school, athletics, or occupation, I can still hear my mother’s voice - “Do the best you can.”  In a way, that’s what I was telling my cross country runners when I would exclaim; “No regrets.”   For when you have finished the race and you reflect on what you have completed, if you have done the best you can - you will have no regrets!  Whether you have one talent or ten talents - that’s not what’s important.  It is what you do with that talent that counts!  For some of you, that which you decide to do may seem small compared to other’s achievements.  But remember your task done well is better than some ambitious task done poorly. 

Second.  Self-Discipline

Whether you to go college, start working and move away from home, or even if you stay at home, one graduation present you will receive is more freedom.  More freedom to do what you want, when you want, how you want.  But to be honest with you, and if you are honest with yourselves - some people can’t handle it.  They misuse it.  With the external discipline gone the result is sometimes disastrous.  The solution - discipline yourself.  The price of freedom is self-discipline.  For many freedom is to do what one pleases.  The freedom that we Americans cherish can be dangerous if we choose the wrong things.  To be free does not mean freedom from suffering, hardship, discipline, duty, the pain of self-sacrifice.   If you really think a moment, it is the disciplined person who has the greatest freedom.  A pianist, who has mastered his instrument, has much more freedom on the keyboard than the undisciplined person.  In the realm of character, it is likewise the person who has mastered himself, through discipline, who finds more, rather than less freedom in the decisions he must make. 

Third.  Continue your education

You must not neglect the development and refinement of your minds.  Get into the habit of reading and study.  Don’t let the TV be your only source of information.  A priest friend at college gave me a piece of advice that I’ll never forget.  He defined success in three words - read, read, read.  It is your duty as citizens of the United States to make informed decisions when you vote.  It is your duty as citizens of the world community to rid yourselves of prejudice, hatred, and fear that is caused by ignorance.  Learn to listen to people.  Parents, especially, come to mind.  It’s funny, but the people who threw advice at you when you were growing up now become people your seek advice from.   For those who choose college - begin serious study immediately.  There are many students who reach their junior and even senior years in college before they realize what they are there for.  Work hard.  High school places too much emphasize on raw intelligence.  College affords the opportunity to combine average intelligence and hard work to equal academic success.  When in college, don’t let your studies get in the way of your education.  Do volunteer work, participate in sports, clubs, plays, go listen to college sponsored speakers.  Even though I had a full year of statistics, I couldn’t tell you the difference between the mean, median or mode.  But I could talk for hours about my work with emotionally disturbed children.  Continue in your religious education.  As Christians, you will be challenged by non-Christians, agnostics, atheists.  A Catholic Christians, you will be challenged by other denominations.  Perhaps the biggest challenge of all might come from the Church itself.  Not long ago, the Church underwent a great redefining of who she is, what her mission is.  Many could not meet this challenge brought about by change.  The Catholic Church is a church of the living.  It grows, evolves, changes.  If you aren’t prepared to grow, evolve, change, your relationship with her will wither.

Fourth.  Set goals/Know your limits

This is what I call the “can do- can’t do” dichotomy.  By setting goals, you will give yourself direction in life.  Goals prevent people from wandering aimlessly through life from one thing to another.  Make lofty goals.  Shoot for the stars for if you fall short you’ve at least made it to the Moon.  Be persistently patient with your goals.  For it is when you give up that impossibility begins.  By knowing your limits you are relieved of impossible burdens.   It is just as important to find out what you can’t do as what you can do.  Just as much potential is lost banging one’s head against a wall as is wasted by not achieving one’s potential.  One way to be happy is to learn to live within one’s limitations, whether they are personal, physical, financial or circumstantial. 

How can you reconcile these two seemingly irreconcilable pieces of advice?  The answer to this question is wisdom.  Reinhold Niebuhr, a 20th century Protestant theologian, envisioned both the dichotomy and the answer in his prayer, “Oh Lord, grant me the strength to change things that need changing, the courage to accept things that cannot be changed and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Fifth.  Serve others

Service is doing something without expectation or reward;  it is doing something that does not have to be done; and possibly will not be done, unless you do it.  This is hard advice to follow.  People today tell you to watch out for number one.  The way you get ahead is stepping on others not serving them.  Albert Schweitzer said, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know; the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”  In order to serve.  In order to become like the Good Samaritan, we must be people of compassion.  Compassion is putting oneself in the place of others.  I sighed because the day was dark and then I met a child who was blind.  I complained because the walk was too long - until I met a man on crutches.  I was sorrowful over the death of my grandmother until I realized she was my father’s mother.

Sixth - Grow in your faith

Always cherish the faith that has been entrusted to you.  Never take it for granted.  Your faith must be constantly nourished through communal worship and personal prayer.  Seek God’s guidance and strength.  This will not be easy.  Your beliefs and values will clash with the world’s beliefs and values.  But as it was once said - a religion that does nothing, gives nothing, that costs nothing, that suffers nothing - is worth nothing.  St. Augustine asked “Do you wish to be great?  The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.”  Build your future upon the foundation of faith and it will weather the mightiest of storms. 

Do the best you can; practice self discipline; continue your education; set goals/know your limits; serve others; grow in faith - this has been my advice to you.  I would like to close with St. Paul who expresses my prayer for you.

May God strengthen you inwardly through the working of his spirit.  May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and may charity be the root and foundation of your life.  Thus you will be able to grasp fully, the breadth, and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and experience this love which surpasses all knowledge… To him whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine - to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end Amen!

Thank you. And may God be with you! 

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