Lent 2015: A Message from Dr. McLean

Lent, 2015

Dear Friend of Thomas Aquinas College,

On February 2 we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation. We read in Luke’s Gospel that Mary and Joseph, in fulfillment of the law, brought the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord; and we heard the praise offered to God by Simeon and Anna as they recognized the Messiah. From Simeon’s acclamation of “a light to the Gentiles,” we take the tradition of blessing candles on this feast, and thus we arrive at its alternate name: Candlemas.

St. Athanasius, in commenting on this Gospel passage, notes that Christ had no need Himself to be presented to God, with Whom He is always united, but “for our sakes is He presented to the Lord, that we also might learn to present ourselves to the Lord.”

Less than three weeks later, we find ourselves moving from the light of the Presentation into the darkness of Lent. From seeing the child in Simeon’s arms, we now come to contemplate the bloody figure on the Cross, offered in fulfillment of the law.

Lent teaches us what it means “to present ourselves to the Lord.” While we are right to rejoice in the birth of our Savior, we cannot forget the price of our salvation. We are called now to accept the truth of the Cross — in our Lord’s life, and in our own.

At one level, the truth of the Cross is so obvious as not to call for acceptance. Suffering is a simple fact of existence, proven many times a day. What requires acceptance — what requires faith — is the idea that suffering has meaning. That is why, before Good Friday, we are given Candlemas. We are first shown the light so that we can endure the darkness.

We are called not only to believe in this light, but to be light: to be what Christ calls us in the fifth chapter of Matthew, “the light of the world.” To do that, we must, with St. Athanasius, first present ourselves to the Lord and learn from Him.

It is the mission of Thomas Aquinas College to help our students to present themselves to the Lord. We know, of course, that no one can ever force another person to do this. But our program — in particular, the Discussion Method practiced in our classrooms — gives students the primary responsibility for their own education, and thus encourages them to take the primary responsibility for their own lives. And by wrestling with the ideas contained in the great books, they think deeply about what that responsibility entails. They learn to view the present in the light of eternal truth.

This year as we begin the devotions of Holy Week, we will also begin the fourth and last quarter of our fiscal year. As much as I would like to focus only on the eternal, this juxtaposition reminds me that we cannot neglect the present. The simple fact is that most of our students require financial aid — $4.2 million total this year — to continue our program, and we need your help to provide that aid. So please, above all, join us in prayer during this holiest of seasons; but in that prayer, please also consider whether you are able to make a sacrificial gift in support of our students. Please help them, by your prayers and your generosity, to do the work of becoming “the light of the world.”

In the darkness of Lent, may you remember the light of Candlemas and look ahead to the light of Easter.

Sincerely,

Michael F. McLean, Ph.D.
President