|
|
|
|
Archives |
|
| Bishop DiNardo
congratulates graduates
Dear graduates, It is again a great pleasure for me as your bishop to send to all the Catholic graduates of our schools, universities and centers of learning in the 24 counties of the Diocese of Sioux City my sincerest congratulations at this time of commencement. The year of your graduation is also a special year for this local church. It is the celebration of the centennial of the diocese. In both cases any sense of personal achievement is profiled against a most grateful recognition of the help of the Lord and his grace. Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, stated the point succinctly: "None of us lives as our own master... We are the Lord's." Education is most necessary since each human being is not just a "something" but a "someone," a radically new "someone." The human person requires teaching and formation so that he or she can really manifest to the world this uniqueness and newness and realize the same reality is true in other "someone's," other human persons. Education is also crucial in helping us understand that we are beings that can responsibly say: "This is so," or "This is the way I should judge and act." Such matters sound so elementary but they are essential in allowing us to be truthful and free human beings. Though all of us have biological and psychological structures that can be counted and measured and analyzed and predicted, we are also aware that there is something "more" than this when it comes to human beings, to ourselves. We are also "centers" of reason and judgment, of choice and affection. Through guidance and teaching, those "centers" can grow and blossom. It is such blossoming that we celebrate at graduations, a typically human personal event. It is a good time to praise graduates and their teachers, to thank parents and families for their support, to set out challenges to all the "new ones" entering the world so that they see how much hope is being placed in them. It is a wonderful and exuberant time. As Catholic Christians, however, we also carry an awareness that in addition to our talents and aspirations, of our personal gifts and scholastic accomplishments, there is another gift that has been given, the gift of faith. That gift also needs to be "educated," to be expanded and developed so that our lives in the world bear witness to the one who has shown us the deeper truth, who has made us stewards of a singularly important message and moral witness. That "someone" is the Lord Jesus. From the day of our baptism when we were called by name and brought by grace into God's life, we have been asked to make known the power and energy of Christ's Good News. Simultaneously that Good News, that light from Christ, has become our deepest source of comfort and assurance. It is my hope and prayer that as graduates you will remember both your accomplishments and the gift of faith from the Lord. It is my hope that you will rejoice in that living memory and enter this new time in your lives with enthusiasm and love. May the Lord Jesus stay at your side every step of the way in the journey that lies ahead. The diocese is counting on you to make a splendid new difference in the next 100 years! I am convinced that the Lord can help you. Be assured of my prayers. Counting upon the prayers of the Mother of God, |
