Bishop Szkredka’s Matriculation Remarks at Convocation 2025

Audio / podcast

by the Most Rev. Sławomir Szkredka
Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles
Convocation 2025
Thomas Aquinas College, California
August 25, 2025

In my homily, I used the example of St. Francis of Assisi to show how the Word of God continues to grow within us. When the Lord called Francis to “rebuild My Church,” the saint discovered that this command deepened and expanded as he listened, year by year, to Christ’s word. I am convinced that this experience — the growth of God’s Word within us — is a fitting illustration of what Catholic education is all about. It is about the Word of God reaching its fulfillment in us. Catholic education is not merely a transfer of knowledge; it is our participation in the activity of God’s Word. 

Two moments in the life of St. Francis stand out in this regard. The first is when he composed his well-known hymn of praise, the Canticle of the Creatures, Laudato si’. Looking at the created world, St. Francis knew himself to be addressed by the Lord, and so he responded with praise. It could not be otherwise. Creation bears the imprint of God’s Word. It is, in the words of St. Bonaventure, a ladder by which we can ascend to God.

Every scientific study of Creation — whether physics or biology — is a noble endeavor, not merely because of its technological or practical applications. To study science, and to do science, is noble because, from a Christian perspective, it ultimately brings us into contact with the Logos, Who informs the world. As Pope Benedict XVI often argued, the rise of modern science was made possible by the Christian conviction that the world is founded upon a rational structure: the Logos.

For St. Francis, the response to the Word resounding through Creation was praise. For Catholic education — where faith and reason advance in mutually enriching harmony — the final response is the same. Addressed by the Logos, Who resounds in the mysteries of the natural world, we respond with praise to the One who spoke the world into existence. To move from classroom or laboratory to chapel, from exploration to worship, is entirely fitting and just within the Christian educational vision. 

 “Catholic education is all about. It is about the Word of God reaching its fulfillment in us. Catholic education is not merely a transfer of knowledge; it is our participation in the activity of God’s Word.”

But there is a second — and indeed deeper — moment in the life of St. Francis: his reception of the stigmata. St. Francis heard God’s Word resounding in Creation, but he recognized its fullness in the healing and redeeming Word spoken through the Cross. He embraced poverty and cared for lepers because he felt himself embraced by Christ crucified. 

Catholic education cannot ignore the Word of the Cross. The mystery of the human person and the drama of human existence have only one ultimate explanation: the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Only the Word of the Cross (ho logos tou staurou, 1 Cor 1:18) can open the paths to human reconciliation and flourishing. If the last among us — the rejected and crucified — is recognized as the Lord, then the proper ordering of society can at last take place. The human sciences, too, achieve deeper and clearer perceptions of the human person when they open themselves to the wisdom of the Cross. The true grandeur of literature and arts can be discerned. 

In its Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis, the Second Vatican Council teaches: “For a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end and the good of the societies of which, as man, he is a member, and in whose obligations, as an adult, he will share” (Gravissimum Educationis, 1). 

True education entails formation toward the ultimate end. If that ultimate end, as I have argued, is to allow the Word of God to grow within us — the Word of Creation and the Word of the Cross — then worship and loving outreach to those who suffer are not a distraction from study but rather its authenticating mark.

May Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, in whom the Word of God reached complete fulfillment, lead us on the path of listening to God’s Word. Then every scientific and academic endeavor, every struggle and hard-won discipline, every failure and every success, will whisper the Word. She will help us ponder, “What sort of greeting this might be?” (Lk 1:29); she will help us say, “Let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). The Word of God will grow within us. 

Immaculate Mother, Sedes Sapientiae, pray for us.

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