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Show mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn EDUCATION, WISDOM AND CHARACTER Baccalaureate Sermon. By the Reverend John T. Creagh, D. of the Catholic Iniversity, Delivered n'ty College, Washington, Washing-ton, , May 28, 1905. Wisdom VIl vv. 7-1!. Wherefore I wished, and understanding w.:- given me; and I called upon God. and the spiii: of wisdom came upon me: And 1 prei'i rred her before kingdoms and ,' thrones, and esi . e::i: d riehes lmihing in comparison of her. Xcither did i compare unto her any precious stone; for all geid in comparison of her is as a '', little sand, and silver in respect to her shall be counted as clay. ; I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light; for' her light cannot be put out. Xow all good things came to me together with her, and innumerable riches through her hind'. - And I rejoieed in all these: for this wisdom went before me. and I knew not that she was tin mother of them all. Which I have learned without guile, and com- ," ' municate without envy, and her riches I hide not. For she is an infinite treasure to men: which they that use, become the friends of God, being commended for the gift of discipline. An occasion such as the present must always be one of significance and feeling. Kvcn those. who are not personally and intimately concerned f in it must be moved at the thought of the great possibilities which lie in youthful souls that have been trained to love what is noblest and highest in. life; must look on prayerfully as a company of such souls goes forth from the peace and proteetoin of academic retreat into the struggles and danger. of modern existence, must wish thoni heartily a happy and successful and an unclouded career. But the profoundost meaning of these ceremonies cere-monies touches the hearts and stirs the sensibilities of "those for whom they mark an important term in the course of life's journey. Four years of holiest experience in which the soul has tasted th fulness of all purer, higher goods and joys; tho close daily association with ennobling influences, which at the romantic and impressionable period when they exert themselves, have much ineffable efficacy and power; the intimate communion in thought and deed with things and persons that make for everything that is good; the tasks that arc so serious and yet so pleasant; the guidance which controls and yet is never irksome: the care and love and helpfulness of an institution which is in truth an Alma Mater; all these cannot come to an end and leave the soul unmoved by mingled feelings of content and sadness: content at what has been and shall never cease to be; sadness at the thought that this part of our journey which was so full of happiness and blessing mu.-t become only a, memory. At such a time student and college address to each other a final, endearing, impressive message; in a few words and a few moments they recall what college life has meant and say what it must mean. The thoughts that well up today in the minds of the graduates of this school, as also the last me mento of Trinity to her daughters, may, it seems to me, be symbolized in ie beautiful passage which I have just read from the Book of Wisdom. These words express in brief the spirit of this institution; institu-tion; they also give us the true philosophy of life. Yearnings for good, tendencies towards what wilJ benefit and uplift are the motive of all human activity. Because man is not satisfied with hi? condition, with what he is or has. he stretches for- t ward in the pursuit of real or fancied good. He may be mistaken in his concept of what is desirable, desir-able, but because there is something which he lacks, which he desires, he expends time and thought and energy. To encourage these yearnings and desires of nature, na-ture, to enlighten them and direct them ariglrt, is ' to confer the highest benefit on humanity, it is to enable it to fulfill its destiny, to lead it to the great ideal proposed by the Creator of man. When God looked on the original voidness and darkness of ' earth and deep, He was not satisfied. Each day i-of i-of the Biblical narrative of creation brought pro-gress, pro-gress, addition, improvement. The primordial darkness first relied back before the waves of lisrht I and "God saw that it was good." With the second i ' I day came the orderly distribution of land and I water, "and God saw that it was good." On the '; I third, the earth brought forth the green herb and f the fruit tree yielding fruit according to its kind, . and "God saw that it was good." Tho fourth saw S ; great lights set in the firmament of heaven to rule : I the day and night; on the fifth and sixth days ap- ' i peared animate creatures; again with the divin decree of complacency. God stayed not His omni- . potence until He crowned His creative labor with ; man, "and saw all the things that He had made '. that they we're very good." Then, only. He rested; f with His ideal stamped upon the works of His ' ' hand, the ideal of goodness, of the perfection of 1 each being according to its kind. Goodness. ! beauty, perfection are the destiny of all things ' ' animate and inanimate. Towards them all creatures ! tend; for them all sentient creatures yearn. To i : fall short of them is to mar the divine plan, and to j disappoint God's approving decree. . I The echo of that original divine judgment j " sounds in every human heart. Hence those yearn- t ings which give life its value and its meaning: nay, . : which make possible existence, material and moral; s yearnings for health and strength, for truth and honor and goodness, for those thirds which we ; have not, but which our strivings will bring to ns; yearnings for ideal and practical perfection. Without With-out these mysterious longings life would lose all its worth, the great achievements of art and litura- ture, of science and government, even of sanctity, i would be unknown. The soul would ceasa to ba f I truly human, it would sink to the level of the brute; man and woman would how down unaspiring- brows under the weiprht, 'not of centuries, but of their own sluggishness and inertness. In commerce or in letters, in the hard battle of temporal life or in the sterner stern-er struggle of the supernatural, what a dull and useless and unsuccessful being is he who knows no aspiration for bslter things, no longing for progress pro-gress or improvement. The great power of man's longing for physical good, for heaith and :beauty and comfort of material existence, exist-ence, fills a. large place in human history. his-tory. It is in answer to this primitive primi-tive cry of our nature that men plough the land and sail the sea; and that our facorties teem like hives with their multitudes of human bees, our streets' resound with the strident clamor of commerce, mr vessel? and our quays are laden with the riches of every clime. For this men court danger and woo death and watch and labor and Irai Yet not for this alone. Man allows 1 the salutary urging of his nature to carry him on beyond his real needs and his legitimate wants. His appetite appe-tite grows -by -what it feeds on, until Jt becomes abnormal. He will have )iot only possessions sufficient for his security, but ample enough to give liim pre-eminence and .power. He becomes be-comes a ruling force in financial circles, cir-cles, one to be reckoned with in the great game where fortunes are the c ounters; he has palatial residences in town and country, he enjoys every luxury that material tastes can demand, de-mand, his name is in the newspapers wnd on -all men's lipa; and he is con-lent. con-lent. His content only proves him all the less a man. Not ty bread alone doth man live. The beauty and dignity and perfection of life are not to be bought in the markets of the world, nor can lands or money satisfy the highest find most urgent needs of the human soul. The cleverness and ability of one who devotes himsvlf successfully nnd entirely to answering this first, jiatural need, are but little different from thos of the strong animal wresting wrest-ing the prey from its weaker fellow. The desire of material things has a necessary place in life, but it' is not Jt high place; it belonged to the cave man equally with his modern descendant, descen-dant, and its fruits and its rank are truly typified in the rude ornaments orna-ments and heaps of bones which make interesting the aboriginal dwellings of our race, as in the luxurious possessions posses-sions which gratify those whose souls ere dead today to what is most worthy wor-thy of human striving. Xot man's material being and desires, de-sires, tout his spiritual nature, is his , distinguishing characteristic. Man and woman were created iu the image and Jikeness of Godk they were givn intellects in-tellects and wills capable of knowing and loving all truth and all beauty; they were endowed with spiritual, immaterial im-material cravings which blow over life as did the breath of God over the emptiness emp-tiness and gloom of original matter, and which impel in the pursuit of intellectual in-tellectual and spiritual progress. To ihese higher impulses man must give i heed, if he ivo-uld make his life real ly human, and more than animal. No conventions, no artificial canons can ennoble a life which in. aim and act is the lowest that we can know, and which ignores' those faculties and jieeds that evidence a man's humanity. human-ity. "I wished, and understanding was given me." Tn every soul is a demand for intellectual growth. To realize how fundamental is the need for the bread of doctrine, we have only to look at populations whose common heritage is- I ignorance; we see how much of the I beauty and wholesomeness of life is I absent where there is no wish for knowledge or no gratification of that I wish. Intellectual poverty is more de- i grading than physical. Mental food must be supplied according to man's needs and opportunities, or he. will car- I ry a starved, a djing soul in a living I body. I The more generous is the satisfaction of man's wifh for learning, the greater meaning comes into life, the richer blessings to ourselves and to others, ihe fulier realization of the perfection of being. Think what knowledge means even in the way of material benefits. , f advanced surgery and medicine, of intercourse with distant lands, of the relief and prevention of misery and pain. Think, too. of itg. greater blessings bless-ings in the inspiration that comes from communing with great minds and high thoughts and heroic examples; In the subtle delight which sustains and renders pleasant the severest intellectual intel-lectual labors. Think of the culture and refinement which are the fruit of ii high thinkingand whichmakes thename !of scholar one of honor and pre-emin-f nee in every society. When we realize what knowledge means and always has meant for man, and how today it has become a necessity, we can readily agree with Catiyle that for one to be ignorant w ho has a capacity for knowledge, knowl-edge, is tragedy. I But, high and. ennobling and neces- I sary as is human knowledge, is It the I supreme good of life in which man's I desires are to find quiescence and con- I tent? Is it not true that there is no 1 nbsolute incompalability between the! I profoundest learning and a dwarfed I mid an unsightly Soul? "Will mere! knowledge, even of the law and the j I prophets, banish . hypocrisy and greed' ! r.nd lust? Though the very nature of learning would seem to Imply wml-! progress, may it not at times be the companion and the instrument of soul-degradation soul-degradation ? Have not genius and tal- j " clit been employed time and time again I for purposes unholy, and made the in- I strument of attacks on institution? the 1 most Facred and the most necessary !for man's spiritual and temporal well-being? well-being? Knowledge is power, but that this power be savingly felt and exercised, exer-cised, that it may work to the good Jof individuals and of society, it must go hand in hand with other powers that sanctify and uplift it. Something more than mere book learning is need- I cd to enable us to rise to the perfec- lion of our nature, something more I must go to the making of noble men I and noble women. I There is a higher good than human I knowledge; there is a purer and more I necessary appetite than that of science, j f - .hove the brute and his cravings I stands man with his intellectual aspi- ; I rations: but above mere humanity 5 j I ihe divine, to whose image and likeness we have been made and for the repro- duction of whose similitude we must 1 I f strive. And the divine likeness is a soul I ! unselfish, pure, noble, lofty in ambition I and act, clear In its perception of the I i r-eat realities of life and unwaveringly j fithful in their pursuit, loving, honor- I f. ile and just. In a sense of the neces- s!.y of this divine likeness lies the wis- I dom of life: for a personal vision of it we must all yearn. This is the supreme good for which the inspired author of our text calls upon Ood. and which he I places above all material values and ! holds more illuminative than human instruction. For this higher good our nature yearns; without it, full peace of soul is impossible. We are all swayed by the conviction that, lacking finer spiritual spirit-ual qualities, our life falls short of its worthiest destiny. So fixed is this conviction con-viction that it has passed into an axiom that no wealth, whether of temporal possessions or of genius, can redeem a character that is mean or vicious; it leads the mnther. who desires all bless- ings for her child, to aim first at devel- oping and strengthening conscience; it causes those who have specl.il responsi- j! bilities to souls to feel it their sovereign jj duty to preach the higher life, the life t of truth and Justice svnC service of oth- I ors. It is this same conviction of the j excellence and necessity of soul-perfec- ; tlon that inspires the profound venera- j Hon which all men pay to those who are genuinely good, which enshrines in every heart the heroic sacrifice of a Fa- ther Damlen, and makes the religious garb of our sisterhoods a title to uni-l uni-l versal respect. It lends to literature its I finest charm, it enhances the beauty of the greatest masterpieces of paint- t lr, id sculpture. It thrills the heart as w read a tale of daring, and dims the as e catch a glimpse of the mar- t ' tyrdom of saint or patriot. Xot money, not strength of body, not learning have our final allegiance, but virtue and character. Who would deny that it is better for one. to be honorable and good and at the same time poor in a material sense, than to be simply rich or clever? The paramount need of higher qualities quali-ties of soul is not. less evident when we turn from a consideration of individuals to a study of society. What confers a real dignity on a state? What justifies the hope that its institutions will weather the gales and escape the rocks that menace national existence? Not the wealth of its citizens; wealth is the companion and the cause of luxury and social unrest, and these infallibly presage pre-sage weakness and disintegration. Not their learning: culture of the highest degree, and eminent progress, even in those sciences which are most intimately inti-mately related to political well-being, the sciences of law and government, have not preserved nations from ruin in the past. Not even the strong hand of power acting through a large and disciplined army. The wrecks that mark the ways of history teach the sig nificant lesson that a society may noi rely on wealth or intelligence or material ma-terial power and hope to live: that moral dec-ay means physical death; and that hope of permanency must be justified jus-tified bv simplicity and honorableness of life, bv purity and integrity, by heroic, he-roic, unselfish devotion. The well being of a state, as well as that of the individual, in-dividual, demands the pursuit and the attainment of moral good. Our w isdom will, therefore, be manifested mani-fested in our quest of soul-riches. By striving for whatever can strengthen and ennoble character, we shall 'l9 proving our humanity, which is to prove our divinity; for divine in a true sense we are. made in the image and likeness of God. destined to b?-cotne b?-cotne partakers of His divine nature. To live as befits this lofty degree of 'being, means more than the satisfac tion of cravings which we share w ith the lower orders of creation, it implies a. higher and wider vision of life than can be had in library or laboratory, it means the cherishing of divine longings long-ings for divine ideals, the lifting up of all other yearnings and pursuits and objects to a loftier plane, until all life's hopes and purposes and acts conspire in the production of true men and true women, who know the fullest full-est and most perfect joyg of human existence and are satisfied only with the real prizes of life. Evident as Is the subjection of all individuals and societies to this great universal, beneficent law, it must be seen to urge in a special way any institution that sets itself up as a force in education. Our tendencies, our desires, our yearnings, are influenced influ-enced largely toy our environment, and they feel especially those forces which act upon them during the plastic period pe-riod of youth. As the twig has been inclined, bo the tree' grows. Aspirations Aspira-tions can be developed and trained, as well as muscles and cells. We seek as our supreme good, that toward which we have been taught to direct our principal energies. Unspeakable, then. Is the power, but awful also the responsibility of the individual i w ho undertakes to form the minds and characters of the young. According to the teaching given, thv soul will be noble or base; it will develop or de-generate in proportion as the educator edu-cator deals with it wisely or unwisely. (Concluded Next Week.) I i m - |
