Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

ARISE, REJOICE, GOD IS CALLING YOU (Cardinal Arinze's Commencement Address at Georgetown)
Georgetown University | 17 May 2003 | Francis Cardinal Arinze

Posted on 05/29/2003 7:05:14 AM PDT by eastsider

ARISE, REJOICE, GOD IS CALLING YOU

(Commencement Address at Georgetown University,
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 17, 2003)




God be praised for this major event today in the life of Georgetown University. Near a thousand young people are graduating. To you, dear young friends, I say: Allow serious religion to lead you to lasting joy. Happy parents and friends surround their loved ones. With them I say: Let us thank God for the gift of the family. The Company of Jesus, the Jesuits, initiated and nourish this University. With them I rejoice at the patrimony of St. Ignatius and especially that the Catholic Church is God’s gift to the world. To all I say: Arise, rejoice, God is calling you.

1. Serious Religion leads to lasting Joy.

My dear graduands, at this turning point in your lives, it is helpful to keep to essentials. One of them is to locate in what happiness consists. Everyone wants to be happy. Every human being desires lasting joy.

True happiness does not consist in the accumulation of goods: money, cars, houses. Nor is it to be found in pleasure seeking: eating, drinking, sex. And humans do not attain lasting joy by power grabbing, dominating others, or heaping up public acclaim. These three things, good in themselves when properly sought, were not able to confer on Solomon, perfect happiness. And they will not be able to confer it on anyone else! (cf. Eccles1:2-3; IIKing11;1-8; Mt20:24-28; IJn 2:15-16).

Happiness is attained by achieving the purpose of our earthly existence. God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him in this world and to be happy with him for ever in the next. St. Augustine found this out in his later age after making many mistakes in his youth. He then cried out to God: "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (St. Aug. Conf. I, 1). My religion guides and helps me towards this. My Catholic faith puts me in contact with Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life (cf. Jn14:6). God’s grace helps me to live on earth in such a way as to attain the purpose of my earthly existence.

My dear graduands, allow your religion to give your life its essential and major orientation. In our lives. religion is not something marginal, peripheral, additional, optional. My Catholic faith gives meaning and a sense of direction to my life. It gives it unity. Without it my life would be like an agglomeration of scattered mosaics. It is my religion, for example, that inspires my profession, that teaches me that there is more happiness in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts20:35), that helps me to appreciate that to reach the height of my growth potential, I must learn to give of myself to others as I practise my profession as lawyer, doctor, air hostess, congress member or priest (Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes, 24).

Allow your religion to give life, joy, generosity and a sense of solidarity to your professional and social engagements. In a world of religious plurity, you will of course learn to cooperate with people of other religious convictions. True religion teaches not exclusion, rivalry, tension, conflict or violence, but rather openness, esteem, respect and harmony. At the same time you should keep intact your religious identity, your distinction as a witness of Jesus Christ.

2. Thank God for the Gift of the Family.

As I see joy and just pride reflected on the faces of the parents and friends of these graduands, I think of God’s goodness in giving the gift of the family to humanity.

It is God himself who willed that a man and a woman should come to establish a permanent bond in marriage. Marriage gives rise to the family. In this fundamental cell of society, love grows. There the exercise of sexuality has its correct locus. There human maturity is nurtured. There new life utters its first cry and later smiles at the parents. There the child is first introduced to religion. Is it any wonder that the Second Vatican Council called the family "the church of the home" (cf. Lumen Gentium, 11)?

In many part of the world, the family is under siege. It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce.

But the family has friends too. It is nourished and lubricated by mutual love, strengthened by sacrifice and healed by forgiveness and reconciliation. The family is blessed with new life, kept united by family prayer and given a model in the Holy Family of Nazareth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Christian families are moreover blessed by the Church in the name of Christ and fed by the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. It was beautiful that at the beatification of Mr. and Mrs. Luigi and Maria Beltrame-Quattrocchi in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City on October 21, 2001, three of their children were present.

May God bless all the families here present and grant our graduands who will one day set up their own families his light, guidance, strength, peace and love.

3. The Patrimony of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

We rejoice with the Jesuit Community that set up and keeps up Georgetown University. In the patrimony of St. Ignatius of Loyola, love of the Church is prominent. It is a joy, an honour and a responsibility to belong to the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church. This Mystical Body of Christ, this largest of all religious families that ever existed, is the divinely-set up family for all peoples, languages and cultures. This Church has produced Saints from every state of life, men and women who, open to God’s grace, have become signs of hope. But this same Church also has sinners in her fold. Far from discouraging and rejecting them, the Church offers them hope, wholesome Gospel teaching, saving sacraments and the invitation to abandon to food of pigs, make U-turn and return to the refreshing joy of the Father’s house, like the prodigal son (cf. Lk15:14-24).

This Church has inherited from Christ, the Apostles and her living tradition, a non-negotiable body of doctrine on faith and morals. The tenets of the Catholic faith do not change according to the play of market forces, majority votes or opinion polls. "Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever" (Heb13:8). This is the Church which St. Ignatius invites all his spiritual children to love and cherish. This is the Church to which we have the joy to belong.

My dear graduands, parents and the Jesuit Community of Georgetown, arise, rejoice, because God is calling us. And may God’s light, peace, grace and blessing descend on you and remain with you always.

Frances Card. ARINZE
May 17, 2003


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholiclist
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-48 next last
It is interesting that, in the copy of Cardinal Arinze's speech that I received from the Dean of Students at Georgetown, the phrase "mocked by homosexuality" had a strike line through it (the only such strike-through in the speech).
1 posted on 05/29/2003 7:05:14 AM PDT by eastsider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Polycarp; victim soul
Ping.
2 posted on 05/29/2003 7:06:59 AM PDT by eastsider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Pardon the typo at the end. That should be Francis Card. Arinze, not Frances. : )
3 posted on 05/29/2003 7:15:30 AM PDT by eastsider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: eastsider; sinkspur; ELS; BlackElk; Aquinasfan; american colleen; NYer; Catholicguy; Desdemona; ...
What a beautiful speech! Thank you so much for posting it. I am bookmarking it as well.

God has blessed us with Cardinal Arinze.

"the phrase "mocked by homosexuality" had a strike line through it "

So much for free speech and the American way! I'm sure you've heaerd (as I have) that you are closeminded and narrow and a lemming because you espouse what the Magisterium teaches. But the "strike through" done by the Dean of Students at Georgetown shows that there is only one school of thought permitted by the liberal/heterodox mind and there is no room for what the Church has always taught if it is not in line with political correctness --- in fact, you can't even read what the Church teaches!

I wonder if this speech is going to be published in the Georgetown student newspaper or various Georgetown publications... and if it is, will the speech be doctored or printed honestly and in its full content?

4 posted on 05/29/2003 7:25:12 AM PDT by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
Quite frankly, I'm not sure how to interpret the strikethrough. Although I received the text in an envelope from the Dean of Students, I can't say for sure that the Dean is personally responsible for the strikethrough. In fact, I can't even say for sure that Cardinal Arinze actually delivered the line. It sure is curious, though. : )
5 posted on 05/29/2003 7:33:47 AM PDT by eastsider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: eastsider
Arinze used the phrase "mocked by homosexuality" - did a google search and it comes up in the context of the speech from all the major news outlets.
6 posted on 05/29/2003 7:36:48 AM PDT by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: eastsider
Just thinking... has any other major Cardinal given as hard hitting and Catholic speech as Arinze did? And at arguably the biggest name Catholic college in the USA, too.

Arinze has either been applauded or excoriated for this speech - but not excoriated as much as he might have been if he was white, I think. Put Bruskewicz or maybe Egan in this situation and given the same speech in the same school, I think the outcry would have been much larger.

7 posted on 05/29/2003 7:41:46 AM PDT by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: sandyeggo
LOL!

In truth, I don't mind the extremes except when they denegrate the Chair of Peter, selectively, of course!

Speaking of religious plurality... last night I had a meeting with the VOTF pastoral nun at my parish regarding a baccalauriate breakfast the parish is doing for the 50 members of the graduating HS class who are also parishioners (I am the cook & bottlewasher for this event). As an aside, out of that 50, only 6 are coming and the pastoral nun can't figure out why. You know I keep trying to tell her in a nice way ;-)

Anyhow... she asked me about my husband (who she's never met because he of course doesn't go to Mass) and I told her that he is an agnostic brought up Lutheran and I hope and pray that he will someday join the Catholic Church and discover the fullness and truth of Catholicism. I told her I say a lot of rosaries and pray for him and try to be a "shining light" and all that. She thought for a moment and advised me to tell him that there is a nice Evangelical Lutheran parish in the next town over that he might be interested in! She said she has been there and they have a nice congregation.

In keeping with this thread, I have a real strong feeling she probably would have walked out on Cardinal Arinze's speech!

9 posted on 05/29/2003 7:58:55 AM PDT by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: eastsider
It is interesting that, in the copy of Cardinal Arinze's speech that I received from the Dean of Students at Georgetown, the phrase "mocked by homosexuality" had a strike line through it

Very telling.

Great speech.

10 posted on 05/29/2003 8:00:11 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
Just thinking... has any other major Cardinal given as hard hitting and Catholic speech as Arinze did?

It's sad that this speech has to be characterized as "hard hitting" when it's unremarkable, orthodox, Catholic doctrine.

11 posted on 05/29/2003 8:04:04 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
I must learn to give of myself to others as I practise my profession as lawyer, doctor, air hostess, congress member or priest.
I found this particular phrase amusing. First, it sounded to me as though the Cardinal was trying to be PC by avoiding the sex-specific "stewardess," but used the sex-specific "hostess" instead. On the other hand, based on the spelling of "practise" and "honour" elsewhere in the address, it may be that "hostess" is the English term and "stewardess" the American. I'm am certain, however, that "congress member" is totally PC.

On a more serious note, I enjoyed the parallelism between the second paragraph under No.1 of the Cardinal's address and Book I of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics.

[From the Cardinal's address:]

True happiness does not consist in the accumulation of goods: money, cars, houses. Nor is it to be found in pleasure seeking: eating, drinking, sex. And humans do not attain lasting joy by power grabbing, dominating others, or heaping up public acclaim." These three things, good in themselves when properly sought, were not able to confer on Solomon, perfect happiness.

[From Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics:]

To judge from the lives that men lead, most men, and men of the most vulgar type, seem (not without some ground) to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure; which is the reason why they love the life of enjoyment....

A consideration of the prominent types of life shows that people of superior refinement and of active disposition identify happiness with honour; for this is, roughly speaking, the end of the political life....

The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else. And so one might rather take the aforenamed objects to be ends; for they are loved for themselves. But it is evident that not even these are ends; yet many arguments have been thrown away in support of them. Let us leave this subject, then.


12 posted on 05/29/2003 8:11:58 AM PDT by eastsider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
It is interesting that the nun did not consider that your husband had a reasons for walking out of the Lutheran Church, Maybe what attracted her is what repelled him. Somehow I don't think that Martin Luther would like it either.
13 posted on 05/29/2003 8:20:39 AM PDT by RobbyS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: eastsider
Cdl. Arinze is Nigerian; English may well be his native language. That is, English with a definite British twist to it. In Britspeak, the people they elect to their chief legislative body are "Members of Parliament". I think he is carrying that usage over to form the term "Congress Member", rather than being PC. I've observed similar seemingly strange constructions when working with Indians. English is their native language, but not quite the same as in USA.
14 posted on 05/29/2003 8:22:00 AM PDT by ArrogantBustard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: eastsider
Thank God for the Gift of the Family.
15 posted on 05/29/2003 8:24:17 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ArrogantBustard
In Britspeak, the people they elect to their chief legislative body are "Members of Parliament". I think he is carrying that usage over to form the term "Congress Member", rather than being PC.
I think you're on to something there. Thank you!
16 posted on 05/29/2003 8:24:31 AM PDT by eastsider
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: eastsider; NYer
** In fact, I can't even say for sure that Cardinal Arinze actually delivered the line**

Does anyone have an audio or video recording? Did this appear on EWTN?
17 posted on 05/29/2003 8:26:21 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
**I told her that he is an agnostic brought up Lutheran and I hope and pray that he will someday join the Catholic Church and discover the fullness and truth of Catholicism. I told her I say a lot of rosaries and pray for him and try to be a "shining light" and all that.**

Keep praying. Prayer works. I have several friends whose husbands converted after some twenty plus years of Rosaries and prayer! God bless you.
18 posted on 05/29/2003 8:29:39 AM PDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: RobbyS
She's one of those "ecumenical" types that has it all wrong - in her lack of faith in the Catholic Church, she espouses universalism in her own way. Which is why only a few of the 50 parish member 2003 HS graduates don't find attending a parish breakfast and Mass for them necessary or even mildly pertinent to their lives. Youth Group was a failure as well - nothing Catholic about it. And as I pointed out to her, the kids can get the same lesson in school or in the local non-Catholic Church that you are giving them. So why bother duplicating the effort?

Cardinal Arinze got it right: "True religion teaches not exclusion, rivalry, tension, conflict or violence, but rather openness, esteem, respect and harmony. At the same time you should keep intact your religious identity, your distinction as a witness of Jesus Christ."

19 posted on 05/29/2003 8:30:08 AM PDT by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
***True religion teaches not exclusion***

YET...

"I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me." -- Jesus

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." -- Peter
20 posted on 05/29/2003 8:33:46 AM PDT by drstevej
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-48 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson