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Papal Nuncio urges Aquinas grads to be peacemakers

By R. W. Dellinger
The Tidings

(May 19, 2006)

Photo by R. W. Dellinger. GREAT GIFT --- In his commencement address, Archbishop Celestino Migliore told Thomas Aquinas graduates that besides human wisdom they had been given a "personal communal and ecclesial relationship with God."

At Thomas Aquinas College's 32nd annual commencement on May 13, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, papal nuncio to the United Nations, urged graduates to be peacemakers by joining with Christians, as well as members of other religions, and all humankind by spreading truth and love.

"The leaders in Christ are impelled to become convincing witnesses of the God who is inseparable truth and love, placing themselves at the service of peace in broad cooperation with other Christians, the followers of other religions and with all men and women of good will," he told the 79 graduates, sitting under a tarp on the green rolling campus near Santa Paula.

Archbishop Migliore, who joined the Holy See's diplomatic service in 1980, compared the education at Thomas Aquinas, where students follow a liberal arts program based on the study of great books, to the Greek Archimedes' famous observation that with a long enough lever and place to stand he could move the Earth.

"Any successful Catholic college such as Thomas Aquinas strives to give its students the lever long enough in the form of the highest level of education," he said. "In addition, you have been given the most important element --- the place to stand to use the lever.

"That is your personal, communal and ecclesial relationship with God. Now it's up to you to make good use of that lever, and to treasure the transcendent place to stand, which I hope will be for you a source of personal and social creativity."

Photo by R. W. Dellinger. "FOLLOWING THE LORD" --- Graduates listen to their classmate Thomas Waldstein during commencement. "Let us not be sluggish in following the Lord," he said.

In his address, senior Thomas Waldstein also noted that human wisdom was finite and could only take human beings so far. He reported that during his time at Thomas Aquinas College, however, human wisdom was not an end in itself. Instead, students used it as a tool to "gaze together at the astonishing surprise," which was Christian faith.

"In his incarnation, Our Lord has revealed to us truth far surpassing the natural power of human reason," the native of Austria declared. "This is the wisdom that we have sought in these past four years."

Waldstein said the class of 2006 had made a good beginning by studying the works of the greatest masters of human and divine wisdom, and being tutored by scholars who had dedicated their lives to understanding works by masters such as Homer, Aristotle, Euclid, Kepler, St. Augustine and Aquinas.

He reminded his classmates they must spend the rest of their lives continuing this pursuit of wisdom in their graduate studies, work, family and parish. But he cautioned them to follow the example of their patron, St. Thomas, and seek it with humility, not pride.

"Let us not be sluggish in following the Lord," Waldstein said. "But in whatever state of life we enter, let us pour out our lives in love of neighbor for the love of God. That our lives may be united to the sacrifice of Christ, an acceptable offering to the Lord."