As I mentioned Sunday, Cardinal DiNardo's commencement speech at St. Gregory's University was a great exploration of the importance of a Catholic liberal arts education. Toward the end of his speech he says:
The rise of Universities in the 11th and 12th Centuries A.D. is a Christian phenomenon and is not strange at all. What is strange is what the fundamental Christian belief in the Doctrine of Creation and the Doctrine of Redemption does when these teachings enter into dialogue with classical pagan thinking. The little engine chugging along and keeping the dialogue going has produced some real explosions, fireworks, useless combustion, and intense light! You are heirs of that dialogue in this Catholic Benedictine University.
To bring Christian Faith into the heart of the University is to say that it is of momentous importance, as momentous as many other necessary and significant aspects of the human condition. For pagan and even now for sympathetic secular thought, the religious dimension may have significance but it is part of the whole picture. For pagan thought the gods and religious necessities reflected necessities in the universe that human beings should appreciate. The gods can be demythologized, the sense of the sacred given its rank, and a sense of the divine can be appreciated. But the whole cosmos is greater than these; in fact, the divine principle is frequently seen as something aloof, uncontaminated by nearness to human things. This is what makes Christian Faith and the belief in Creation and providence, a providence that is not oppressive, so startling, even unsettling. In the obedience of Faith we come to an understanding of God who reveals, but who could have remained silent. We come to an understanding of Creation ex nihilo, from nothing. God could be all there is and there would not be any lessening of being and goodness, but de facto, the world is and is there as the result of limitless and unforced generosity. This is not just belief but a revelation, an illumination. God is infinitely transcendent but closer to every part of creation and closer to each one of us than we are to ourselves. For details, read the astounding CONFESSIONS of Saint Augustine, the masterpiece of wonder about the God of Christian Faith. This affects the way everything is viewed and understood, and yet each thing now regains a sense of its own beauty and excellence by itself. It is as though every creature could say, however tiny or insignificant, “LOOK AT ME!” The whole creation and everything in it becomes a “university.”
Those who come to study at a university that is founded on such principles are fortunate to have this bigger picture and can be even more dedicated to the particular part or region of creation to which their particular talents or interests lead them.
Beyond the teaching about Creation, the Catholic University is simultaneously centered upon Redemption, or, in shorthand, on Jesus Christ, the greatest figure who made his own the reality of abiding with God, of filial obedience, and of the meaning of the human person. His life and teaching call for understanding and interpretation; but more so, they call for discipleship. One is not left neutral when approaching him. As the Misfit says in one of Flannery O’Connor's stories: “You got two choices. Either follow him or do some meanness.” A Catholic University tries to unpack all this significance in light of the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Church. It is a daunting but exhilarating challenge. Those who come to study at a university founded on this principle, aligned with the principle noted above about the doctrine of Creation, are doubly fortunate to have this reality opened up to them. Jesus is the, masterpiece interpreter of the human person and of the human heart. To be astonished and drawn to him while at a university is a gift and a blessing, not an awkward and lukewarm concession to outdated pieties.
The complete speech, which is well worth the read can be found by clicking "Continue Reading DiNardo at St. Gregory's"
Continue reading
In an essay, posted on Public Discourse this morning, I weigh in on the immigration law recently enacted in Arizona, putting that problematic law in the context of a quarter century of failure by the federal government to stem the tide of illegal immigration. Recognizing the dignity of every human being and the duty of the state to protect the common good of its citizens, I then offer a three-pronged solution to our current immigration mess.
Comments are welcome!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the commencement exercises at St.Gregory's University in Shawnee, Oklahoma, one of the best kept secrets in Catholic higher education. Houston's Cardinal DiNardo gave the commencement speech, which was one of the best accounts of the importance of a Catholic liberal arts education that I have heard. The music for the ceremony was provided by a quartet from Oklahoma Baptist University down the street. When the Cardinal was introduced, these four clapped politely while remaining firmly planted in their seats as the rest of the audience stood to welcome the Cardinal. After his talk, they too joined in an enthusiastic standing ovation in response to the Cardinal's explication first of the philosophical basis for a Catholic liberal arts education followed by the difference Jesus Christ makes in our whole lives, including the life of the mind. I look forward to sharing the speech with you when I get a copy or a link.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Jeremiah Wooten, a student in my seminar exploring Catholic Perspectives on American Law writes:
If there is a change in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will release from the panels above your seat. Pull the mask over your nose and mouth and breathe normally to start the flow of oxygen. If assisting a child or other passenger, secure the mask to yourself before helping the other passenger.
Anyone who has ever flown commercially has heard this phrase or some variation of it, and if you are like me, you have felt uneasy about being instructed to save yourself before you save someone else. How selfish is this? If I was traveling with my children and the masks dropped, my first instinct would be to help them get set up before doing anything else, yet these are the instructions before every flight. Perhaps it is reiterated before every take off because it is so counter intuitive. But the idea is simple, if you can’t breathe, then you pass out and can’t help others in need, and then they pass out, and in the end everyone loses. However, if you take care of yourself first, you will be able to assist others in need, and in the end, everyone benefits.
But does this scenario have deeper meaning? Could these instructions provide insight into the human experience? Catholic social thought instructs every person to live a life of solidarity, the selfless giving of oneself in order to help your neighbor. But if you don’t take care of yourself first, how much do you have to offer? Conversely, in our ultra-individualistic society, we often spend far too much time taking care of our own needs and desires. Where is the line drawn? How can there be a balance? Perhaps the airlines have it right: before you help others, make sure you can “breathe” on your own.
I hope to find the time later to address the Arizona Immigration Law directly. For now I want use a Chesterton quote to reflect briefly on a potential motivating factors behind the law. To be clear, I think the new Arizona law is terrible and terribly mistaken at many levels. But, I also don't want to fall into demonizing the common person who supported it. In his essay, The Common Man, Chesterton opines:
To put it briefly; it is now the custom to say that most modern blunders have been due to the Common Man. And, I should like to point out what appalling blunders have in fact been due to the Uncommon Man. It is easy eonugh to argue that the mob makes mistakes; but as a fact it hever has a chance even to make mistakes until its superiors have used their superiority to make much worse mistakes. It is easy to weary of democracy and cry out for an intellectual aristocracy. But the trouble is that every intellectual aristocracy seems to have been utterly unintellectual. Anybody might guess beforehand that there would be blunders of the ignorant. What nobody could have guessed, what nobody could have dreamed of in a nightmare, what no morbid mortal imagination could ever have dared to imagine, was the mistakes of the well-formed....
After Jimmy Carter appointed him to head a blue ribbon commision on immigration reform in 1979, Notre Dame President Fr. Hesburgh concluded that the United States needed to close the back door (illegal immigration) in order to maintain a healthy front door (legal immigration). Amnesty for four million or so undocumented aliens followed the passage of immigration reform in 1986 with the promise by our government that the back door was effectively shut. But, of course it wasn't and now we face a situation where the number of undocumented persons in this country is as much as four times what it was in 1986. While I vigorously oppose the Arizona law, could that law be a "common" reaction not so much to those illegally in the country but toward our federal government's inability or unwillingness to fulfill its promise made 24 years ago? In short, could the "common" person's terrible mistake in Arizona be a reaction to worse mistakes made by their governing "superiors" in Washington?
Cross posted on the LRE blog.
