Editor's note: the following commencement handle changed into given on Saturday, June 1, 2019, at Trivium faculty, in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
The undeniably smart twentieth century French political thinker Bertrand de Jouvenel as soon as unironically cited that "the wise man knows himself for debtor." Gratitude should still be the primary response of the human grownup, now not grievance, indignation, or some false sense of our radical independence or autonomy from all limits or restraints.
We are not gods. we're created to live virtuously, in loving relation to throughout us. every body—wealthy or bad, philosopher or day laborer, scholar or trainer, statesman or citizen, cleric or layman, folks or little ones—have assorted reasons to be thankful for the gifts of life, love, family, and knowledge. We even have intent to be glad about being fortunate ample to live in a free nation the place the unimpeded pursuit of certainty, advantage, and authentic happiness continues to be possible.
may you, the long run era, make certain that our freedoms don't seem to be sacrificed on the altars of political correctness and a hostility to the actual moral foundations of our extremely good Republic. We may still be grateful. however we also ought to be bearers of the serious accountability to offer protection to our civilized inheritance from succumbing to facile self-indulgence, inconsiderate relativism, and the ideologically inspired repudiation of "the most suitable that has been thought and talked about." happily, you, the newest graduates of Trivium, have an brought motive to be grateful to teachers, parents and, specially, to the windfall of God: you have been gifted with the beginnings (and an outstanding deal of the substance) of a classical and Christian education. it is a rare reward, indeed.
You were taught to open yourselves to the realm round us as well as to the wealthy interiority of each human soul. An education like the one Trivium offers reminds us that rational reflection, love of wisdom, and the complete latitude of the cardinal virtues—braveness, prudence, temperance, and justice– are at all times and far and wide the standard virtues of a smart, free, and respectable man or woman.
both awesome wings of faith and purpose teach us this and there is no need to cower earlier than a trendy relativism that tells us that we are powerless to differentiate appropriate from wrong. Such cowering is the easy method out and it is the direction of perdition. a very good character in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's in the First Circle, Innokenty Volodin, step by step liberated himself from the dual servitudes of Marxist ideology and the Epicurean reduction of the respectable to the total latitude of pleasures. turning out to be in braveness, this man got here to conclude that reality, beauty, and ethical integrity are a lot more essential than vigor, material riches, and even self-protection.
The decent existence, now not merely a existence devoted to survival and pleasure, is open to the riches of the created natural order and the grace and goodness of God. Volodin tells us in Solzhenitsyn's exceptional anti-totalitarian novel that he had once believed in the "exquisite reality" that "we are given only 1 life." Sound common? but "now, with the brand new feeling that had ripened in him, he grew to become privy to one other law: that we're simplest given one conscience, too." Volodin, who commits treason against a murderous Communist tyranny in the america, goes off to the camps along with his soul intact. despite every little thing, he attains serenity or happiness in his personal way.
We Catholics aren't masochists. We justly have a good time the items of the temporal order, of the typical world round us. The Catholic is not just like the Puritans of historic, who shunned festivity—even going as far as to ban dancing at Christmas time! As St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us in his terrific and enduringly smart dialogue of happiness within the Summa Theologica, wealth, honors, reputation or glory, and even pleasure in its numerous forms can play some function in our temporal felicity or happiness.
youngsters, proper happiness subsequently requires cautious and persevered care of the soul—not some ghost within the desktop, however the whole man or woman: body, soul, and spirit. care for, and cultivation of, the soul is most likely grounded in nature. but it is finally perfected by using the triune God who creates and redeems, who exhibits himself in Scripture and in the person of our incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ. You must on no account forget that there is not any true happiness without attention to our souls.
One final piece of assistance. Be open to human greatness in all its varieties: remember the extremely good saints, now not just St. Francis or mom Teresa but also the holy and spirited Joan of Arc, the wise and learned Thomas Aquinas, and the prudent, principled, and courageous Thomas more. ("In my Father's house are many mansions," as the Gospel of St. John tells us.) be trained to admire first rate statesman such as Cicero, Washington, Lincoln, and Churchill, men who fought at no cost executive in opposition t Caesarism, chattel slavery, and the evils of Nazism and Communism. each and every, in his own way, embodied the entire range of moral and intellectual virtues.
Our modern world increasingly embraces a self-convinced "lifestyle of repudiation", a negative (even nihilistic) ethos and ethic that goals to tear down every thing high-quality, noble, and enduring. This tradition of ingratitude teaches us to hate our country and to have contempt for classical and Christian, that's Western, civilization. As you flow into the realm, don't do anything to make contributions to this bitter rejection of greatness, holiness, and nobility. Don't succumb to sophistic arguments that tear away at your soul. live 'naïve' and continue to admire all those that deserve our admiration. fortify yourself in the charity that lies at the coronary heart of the Gospel.
at the same time, on no account forget that prudence, moderation, justice, and fortitude must proceed to inform human thought and motion (as they've from the times of King David, Pericles, and Saint Paul). lookup to virtue in all is amplitude, in the person of the hero, the authentic statesman, and the saint. within the modern world, heroes and saints stand or fall collectively towards effective currents that need to degree every little thing in the name of a dehumanizing thought of equality and openness. on no account be convinced with mediocrity or a resentment at anything else that's truly satisfactory, noble, fair, or surely captivating. reflect the proper, the decent, and the attractive for your personal souls whereas having a healthy recognize for human frailty and sin, that of ourselves and others. Stand adamantly for the correct but have mercy and compassion on people that falter.
you will learn to get that steadiness correct. genuine or complete happiness, unsullied by evil and imperfection, St. Thomas reminds us, can best be present in the most direct communion with our Creator God. That 'beatific imaginative and prescient,' awaits us in everlasting existence. meanwhile, be aware that there is not any heaven on this planet. I believe you can also have realized that at Trivium, too.
On a joyous note, nowadays is a day for festivity and celebration. have fun with classmates, and household and chums. Go forth on this planet with full self belief within the powers of faith and motive that have been revealed to you here at Trivium. Be of good cheer and always be grateful for the presents bestowed on us by way of a gracious God and by using our forebears who under no circumstances forgot that great Triunity which is the true, the good, and the pleasing. Congratulations, graduates! The event will undoubtedly continue. You had been well prepared to movement ahead with that mixture of self assurance and humility it truly is the hallmark of our Catholic religion. .
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