Fr. Silouan Rolando 2002 Salutatorian Address

Your beatitude, our God-loving Bishops, reverend Fathers, faculty, staff, family, friends, students, and graduating class of 2002!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

I wake each morning with many questions.  One constant question, and perhaps a common one, is “why should I try to do the best I can today.  Why should I go two miles when I am only forced to go one mile.¹

Why should I try to do my best when there is no guarantee of success, gratitude, or gain of any kind?  Moreover, doing one’s best can even be perilous, especially if your best effort is actually noteworthy.  People will notice and expect more:  Direct well, and you might be asked to be ecclesiarch.  Serve well, and you might be asked to be sacristan.  To those graduating today, as you continue to serve Jesus Christ and His kingdom, you will daily have to face this question since you will be called to account for your efforts to Christ.  For those who remain here, the question is also ever before you:  Why should I try to do my best in dogmatics, liturgy, church history, Biblical studies, Greek, Hebrew, conducting, serving, reading, shelving books, cleaning toilets, coming to chapel, singing, and so on.

A further peril is that the temptation of vainglory and her daughter pride will be very close at hand.  Utterly perilous!  

And lastly, say that you conform your whole life to the Gospel by taking up your cross daily,² you will no doubt be thanklessly crucified for the good you do.  So why try?

I can think of one outstanding reason.  Love.  You do your best as a response to the love God has given you.  Your best effort is an act of love towards God.  We know that every sin, no matter how small or private, pollutes the cosmos and damages all of us.  If this is true, then a good act must have the same power.  No matter how small, hidden, or seemingly unimportant the good effort you make is, it benefits someone else.  

For example, this building is the fruit of many people trying to do their best.  Every check written, detail agonized over, meeting held was an act of love; No matter how small the check, short the prayer, or long the meeting, everyone involved tried to do his or her best, and we who study here have benefited immensely.  And nobody had to give a dime to this building.  Nobody had to visit donors across this country.

You know the distance between the point of a pen and a checkbook can be only a few inches, but there are an infinite number of points between that checkbook and that pen.  In that distance, there are an infinite number of temptations to not do anything.  But to try and do something, when maybe nothing is required, is an act of love.

Here today we have men and women graduating who are examples of trying to do their best.  It was act of love every time you directed the choir and shared your talent with new directors, every time you served as sacristan and made a bunch of unruly seminarians and altar boys serve the altar with dignity, every time you stayed up late writing a matins sermon that made God’s word present even at that early hour, every time you were a good neighbor, friend, or critic, every time you watched our children, and every time you tried to pray for us even when we never said a prayer for you.  This was all love, and we thank you for it.

Now there is one particular group of people in this graduating class who are extraordinary at trying to do the best every day in very tough circumstances.  They are models of love and most are not students.  They held down jobs, went to the WIC office, went to the doctor, had children, raised children, loved children, grieved the loss of children, proof read papers and speeches, typed papers, gave up careers, took up new careers, and sacrificed so that someone else could get a degree.  These are outstanding people who tried valiantly, and I promise you they got little thanks but were grateful when any of it was shown.  So I would like to thank by name, Kamilla, Robin, Jennifer, Jenny, Amber, Masha, Jenny, Merilynn, Dennise, Diana, Sherry and Tara.  And lest you think it is just wives, we also thank you, Nate, for doing your best to make it possible for Rachel to graduate today and for putting up with all those endlessly dull conversations that other male seminarians think are so important.  To all the spouses, we thank you for all your best efforts, and we will miss you.

May God bless the graduating class of 2002; we will try our best to pray for you everyday of our lives.

CHRIST IS RISEN.

¹ Cf. Matthew 5:41.

² Cf. Luke 9:23.

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