At last. I've graduated. Diploma is in hand. The three years of hard work have paid off. And what a beautiful day it was for a graduation, sunny and 80 degrees, puffy white clouds, flowers blossoming all over the place. Lovely. I didn't want it to end, we were all enjoying ourselves so much.
Here I am with the director of my thesis, Dr. Edward (Ted) Sri, author of several very respectable books:
And here I am at the reception afterwards with our commencement speaker and mass celebrant, none other than EWTN's Fr. Mitch Pacwa. Talk about an exciting day!
And here, if anyone is interested, is my valedictorian address. Enjoy!
VALEDICTORIAN ADDRESS
Augustine Institute
May 17, 2008
Twenty-four years ago I woke up and realized there is a God, and I had to find him. That became the great desire of my heart, to find God, know him and love him, and share him with the world. It took me a long time to find him in Christ, and longer after that before I entered the Catholic Church.
But once I entered the Church, I knew that I wanted to write, and speak, and teach, and help spread this beautiful Catholic faith in the world, because so few people really know anything about it. But I also knew that in order to do so, I would need training in theology, but there wasn’t a program for that in this area, and due to family reasons I didn’t want to leave and have to go someplace else to study.
So, I prayed. I prayed that God would found a program here in the Denver area, so I could study. And after a few years, God answered my prayers by founding the Augustine Institute.
And when I came here, I found out that I wasn’t the only one who had been praying. Lots of people had been praying, lots of people want to help teach and spread the Faith. So, I ask you, faculty and founders of the Augustine Institute, how does it feel to be an answer to prayer?
I also realized, after I came here, that the desire I felt at the beginning is the same desire we all feel, and we feel it because it is not our own desire, but truly God’s desire that we feel, God’s desire that we are sharing in. God’s heart is a fire of love, and He called us and all creation into being, has entered His own creation in the Person of Christ, and is in the process of drawing us and all creation through Christ into the fullness of His Trinitarian Heart, so we may share in all the love and life and power and glory of God, which is our destiny, the destiny of creation.
And we are supposed to help and participate in this great work of God. And we here at the Augustine Institute have been called in a particular way, to help in a particular way, as teachers of the Faith, which is a very blessed and awesome responsibility and privilege.
In the history track of this program, we saw how Christianity began with a small band of Apostles who spread Christianity throughout the Mediterranean world. And then under the influence of the monk Benedict, we saw the rise of the religious orders and the building of Christendom and sending out of missionary priests and religious. And now, thanks to mass communications, we are embarking on a truly global era. Fr. Pacwa, the priest celebrating our mass this morning, is an example of that, as a representative of EWTN, a worldwide Catholic television network. I’ve been experiencing it for myself through my blog, communicating and sharing the Faith with people all over the world through my blog.
And this is not only a global era. It is also the era of the laity. The laity are now being sent out, so now the whole Body of Christ, Apostles, priests, religious, and laity, are being empowered to help teach, evangelize and spread the Faith around the globe.
And we who are graduating today are going out to help. We’re being sent out in all directions, into all different kinds of places and jobs. But we all have the same exciting prospect: to help form and lift God’s people, and all God’s creation, up into His Heart, soul by soul, person by person, place by place, calling and evangelizing and helping sanctify every person we meet, every place we go, even time itself.
And we will not be alone. Christ goes with us, is always with us. His right hand holds us fast. As our late great and Holy Father Pope John Paul II said so many times, “Be not afraid.” There is truly nothing to be afraid of if we have Christ with us. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
One of my favorite old hymns is “Lift High the Cross.” I’d like to make it the anthem of every graduating class of the Augustine Institute. Listen to the words of the refrain:
Lift high the cross, The love of Christ proclaim
Till all the world adore His sacred name.So as we leave here today, let us lift high the cross of Christ, carry it into the world, proclaiming His love, so that all the world may know Him, and adore Him, and so be raised up into and through Him into all the fullness of the Trinitarian Heart of God, and so share in His life and love forever, which is what we were created for.
It has been a privilege to make this journey these past three years, with all of you gathered here today, with classmates who graduated last year, those who graduate today, and those who will graduate next year that I’ve been privileged to get to know. And I am grateful especially to the faculty and founders of the Augustine Institute. I thank you for helping make it possible for us to fulfill our desires, for they truly are God’s desires, the desire of God for us. As our great patron saint, Saint Augustine, said, “You created us for yourself, oh God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Thank you.
