Margaret Margeton
NDGS Graduation Speech
August 2, 2003

When Dr. Burns called me at home on Friday of last week to tell me that I had successfully passed my comprehensive exams, I was pleased, to say the least. However, when she then went on to tell me that I had also been selected to speak at graduation, my first thought was, "Oh, dear, I prayed too hard!" So be careful what you pray for. You may receive more than you expected!

Theology has been described as "an inventory of the blessings which God has conferred upon the human race." (Edward J. Gratsch, et al. eds., Principles of Catholic Theology, New York, Alba House, 1981, p.23) I would like to take that idea a step further and say that the opportunity to study theology is also a blessing.

I know that it has been a blessing and a great joy for me to have had the opportunity to study theology at this institution at this time in my life. And before I go any further I would like to thank my family for their support and encouragement during the past several years. In addition I am sure I speak for all my fellow graduates in expressing my heartfelt thanks to our professors who have worked so hard to open our minds and hearts to the truth and beauty of our Catholic faith.

Of all the things I have studied during the past several years, one of the most meaningful has been the universal call to holiness so eloquently proclaimed by Vatican II in Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

Simply put, the Council taught that "all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love . . . Each one," the Council said, "according to his own gifts and duties must steadfastly advance along the way of a living faith, which arouses hope and works through love" (LG, no. 40-41).

Although this concept of holiness for all may seem like something new, it actually can be traced all the way back to the Old Testament, when God says to Moses, "Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Lv. 19:2).

In the New Testament Christ Himself tells us in the Sermon on the Mount, "you must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt. 5:48).

Furthermore, St. Paul says, "It is God's will that you grow in holiness…" (1 Thes. 4:3) and he also writes, "[God] wants all men to be saved and come to know the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4).

In the history of spirituality, one of the outstanding proponents of holiness for all was St. Francis de Sales. In his classic work, the Introduction to the Devout Life, published in 1609, St. Francis plainly states: "My purpose is to instruct those who live in town, within families, or at court, and by their state of life are obliged to live an ordinary life as to outward appearances. Frequently, on the pretext of some supposed impossibility, they will not even think of undertaking a devout life" (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, trans. and ed., John K. Ryan, New York, Doubleday, Image ed., 1989, Preface, p. 33) . However, he insists, devotion can be exercised in a variety of ways and must be, as he puts it, "adapted to the strength, activities, and duties of each particular person. …Wherever we may be, we can and should aspire to a perfect life" (DL, Pt. I, chap. 3).

Aspiring to a "perfect life" may seem to be beyond the capacities of most of us, to be sure, and yet, the vocation to holiness, the perfection of charity, the love of God and neighbor, is somehow what we are called to.

Pope John Paul II has taken up the theme of the universal call to holiness and he asks us to reflect upon it again, at the beginning of this third millennium of Church history. He says, "The Council Fathers laid such stress on this point, not just to embellish ecclesiology with a kind of spiritual veneer, but to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of their teaching on the Church" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 30). All pastoral initiatives and planning, he insists, must come "under the heading of holiness" (NMI 31). He says we must have the conviction that "Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit …" He continues, "To ask catechumens: 'Do you wish to receive Baptism?' means at the same time to ask them: 'Do you wish to become holy?' It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: 'Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Mt. 5:48)" (NMI, no. 31).

The Holy Father continues, "As the Council itself explained, this ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few…." Rather, he says, "The time has come to repropose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction. It is also clear, however," he maintains, "that the paths to holiness are personal and call for a genuine 'training in holiness,' adapted to people's needs" (NMI, no. 31).

"Training in holiness" according to the Holy Father involves, among other things, a renewed sense of the primacy of grace in our lives, an attentiveness to and study of Sacred Scripture, an appreciation of and recourse to the sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist, and a Christian life distinguished above all by the art of prayer (NMI, no. 32-39, passim).

And how do we pray? Our Holy Father tells us very simply: "Contemplate the face of Christ." In fact, he says, in his latest Encyclical on the Eucharist and Its Relationship to the Church, "To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the 'program' which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium. . . . To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize Him wherever He manifests Himself, in His many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of His Body and His Blood….Whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the faithful can in some way relive the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: 'their eyes were opened and they recognized him' (Lk. 24:31)" (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, no. 6).

Contemplation, as we learn in spiritual theology, is not just a theoretical, speculative knowledge of Christ. Rather it is a knowledge transformed by love, an intuitive experience of the presence of Him who we know loves us and to whom we wish to respond in faith, hope, and love.

So how do we, as graduates of this school of theology, put all of this into practice? It seems to me that we have made an excellent beginning. Thanks to our dedicated professors, we have been given a solid foundation in knowledge. We have studied the central mysteries of our faith-the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Redemption. We have pored over Sacred Scripture and the Catechism. We have studied creeds and councils, sacraments and morality, philosophy and the virtues.

Now, I would say, we are called to take all of this knowledge and integrate it into the very fabric of our ordinary lives, using the gifts we have received-our personalities, our talents--to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And, when we have contemplated the face of Christ in prayer, we will, in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit, be prepared to contemplate Him in the face of our neighbor, as well. What we will be doing, in other words, is striving to put into practice the beautiful truths we have received. In this way, I think, we will be responding to the call to holiness that is addressed to each one of us personally.

Near the end of his encyclical on Faith and Reason, Pope John Paul quotes St. Bonaventure who makes a powerful statement about the relationship between knowledge and love. St. Bonaventure insists that we must "recognize the inadequacy of 'reading without repentance, knowledge without devotion, research without the impulse of wonder, prudence without the ability to surrender to joy, action divorced from religion, learning sundered from love, intelligence without humility, study unsustained by divine grace, thought without the wisdom inspired by God'" (Fides et Ratio, no. 105).

And so, by way of conclusion, I go back to my original thought-the opportunity to study theology has, indeed, been a great blessing. My prayer for all of us today is that we will be able to take this blessing, this gift we have received, and use it for the glory of God and the good of the Church. In the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians: "I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name; and I pray that he will bestow on you gifts in keeping with the riches of his glory. May he strengthen you inwardly through the working of his Spirit. May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, and may charity be the root and foundation of your life. Thus you will be able to grasp fully, with all the holy ones, the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love, and experience this love which surpasses all knowledge, so that you may attain to the fullness of God himself. To him whose power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine-to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end. Amen (Eph. 3:14-21).