This is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Mark Tannock, Principal of St Aloysius’ College, Milsons Point, at the recent Valete Assembly.
I want you to know that this is how I view Catholicism and what I consider a Catholic worldview. To be authentically Catholic is to love. It is a state of being that, like you, is deeply passionate about the human condition. Deeply passionate about who we are and what we are capable of. It considers life as a gift, a gift that must be responded to with gratitude. A gratitude that manifests itself in generosity. A generosity that ‘eats’ life.
That orients itself to the belief in the inherent goodness of everyone – especially children and the promise they hold for a hope-filled future. A Catholic worldview holds in tension our sinfulness and our inherent goodness in that we are made in the image and likeness of God. A Catholic worldview seeks the individual and collective Magis whilst accepting our flaws. That we are all works in progress. This is its mystery.
More than anything else, a Catholic worldview situates Jesus as the model for human life. Not because he is God. But because he is both God and man. He is our brother. He knows what it is to feel joy and he knows what it is to suffer. He suffered for us. He didn’t have to, but his Father sent him for this purpose. Ours is a God who is one of us. For the world and of the world. Just like Jesus of Nazareth.
This is my interpretation. My Catholic life. But it is imperfect. I can’t do my faith justice. It is best not explained, but lived. Experienced in the slums of Manila. In the dust of Arnhem Land. In the classrooms of Wyalla. It is best read in the great novelists. In the great poets. Shakespeare. Proust. Hopkins. Greene. Waugh. Winton. Auden.
Tomorrow night at the Valete Mass in the Boys’ Chapel, look up at the stained-glass windows. Witness all those heroic Jesuit saints including our own Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. Some of them martyrs. Observe that their orientation in the windows is towards Jesus. Then, look at Jesus offering you a faith that is the keys to the Kingdom. The path to the Good Life.
Then, when you leave the Chapel, observe Saint Ignatius to your right with his palm out as if asking you, ‘So now what are you going to do about it?’ That is the gift of Ignatian spirituality. It is a way of proceeding with our faith. For the world because we are of it.
The values that we have formed in companionship with your parents will give you the moral, ethical and spiritual compass you can draw upon as you find your way. We have offered you a way of proceeding that lives inside your heart forever. You only need draw on it. It’s the gift from Saint Ignatius and the Jesuits to all of us.
And you will need it. The challenges in life are inevitable. It is the nature of the human condition. The nature of the world. When those tough times arrive, it is your faith, your family and your friends that will be what is most valuable to you and where you will be comforted.
And you will be a source of comfort for others. Let this be your commitment today. That you will use your gifts in the service of others and, through them, to God. That you are known as a man for others.
I suggested earlier in my speech that we need good teachers. We especially need good Catholics. Young women and men who claim the Church as their own, who embrace the ancient truth of its apostolic teachings; and who challenge the Church to be better than it is. I will pray that you might remain faithful. That you might remain in communion with the Church.
We pray that especially, in the coming weeks, you are able to use your intellectual gifts, that you remain committed to the end, that you feel a well-deserved sense of accomplishment after your HSC and that you use the opportunities your success offers to serve others. But my greatest prayer is that you have a life that is loving. A truly Catholic life. That your relationships are deep and authentic and forgiving. And that God’s love for you shines through your love for others.
The full speech was originally published on the Jesuits Australia website. You can read it here.