Academy of the Immaculate Conception - Pax Yearbook (Ferdinand, IN)

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ommencement A A Graduation Day June 4 at 2:30 the Senior Class entered the Convent Chapel for the last of its ceremonies. A very beautiful and inspiring address was given which will linger long in the thoughts of these graduates. After the Act of Consecration, the Seniors received their diplomas. Benediction with the Most Blessed Sacrament followed and the Hymn, Holy God, closed the Senior cere- monies for the class of 1939. Address by Father Cornelius Waldo, 0.S.B. If there is anything striking about Trinity Sunday, it is the emphasis placed on the teaching phase of Holy Mother Church's activities-an emphasis easily detected in the Gospel of today's Holy Mass. The question may well be asked on this your graduation day, What is the precise definition of Christian education? Verily, the proper function of any system of education, worthy of the name, is to bring about a change for the better in human kind. In short, it is simply a process of conversion, whereby rudeness yields to culture, the immature is replaced by the mature, and the individual is progressively freed from the domination of this lower nature and gains the mastery over himself, by reason of the fact, that his will becomes accustomed to deciding, not at the mere behest of immediate selfishness, but rather in strict accord with the dictation of a reason enlightened by Christian thought. The tiny babe, standing bewildered at the very threshold of life, is certainly not capable of caring for himself in human society, in spite of the fact that he is definitely a social being, the infant and the growing child learn to adjust themselves to the standards of the modern and complicated civilization in which they are forced to live. This implies that a complete revolution, deep and vital changes, must needs be wrought in the mind and heart of youth. You ask, what is educa- tion? The answer is simple, for the sum total of these drastic changes can be styled education in the strict sense of the word. Sooner or later in the life of every mortal there comes a perplexing question. Why does man exist? What is his nature, just what sort of a being is he? These are the questions upon which the very universe hinges, they are the first and last questions of life. Out of his own consciousness man must ask these questions. What is more, he must find an adequate answer, otherwise his life becomes sterile and fruitless. There is no answer sufficiently adequate, Catholicism maintains, except it be in the doctrine taught, revealed, and actually lived by that Man among men Who was in very truth a God Hinislelf, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the wor . Even to the layman the implications of this particular view of life are indeed incalculably manifold. They do positively extend back- ward and forward through all time even to the gates of Eternityg in more or less detail they touch upon every aspect of life. What does it matter what a man believes, one hears day in and day out in this age of alleged pragmatic sanctions. There must needs be but one answer. It is the only thing does matter, unless essential lunacy is the very part and parcel of man's intellectual process. The stream of belief flows into the sea of action, determines and directs action, only by an act that abdicates reason can it be set aside. Man's entire scale of values is placed at stake. For the moment consider the answer to the first question under discussion as founded upon Catholic belief. Why does man exist? Man exists simply because God made him to know Him, to love Him, to serve Him on earth and to be happy with Him for all eternity in heaven. Every Catholic child learns this truth very early in life, and as life goes on, this thought takes on a much deeper and fuller meaning. It is only in the mind of the Creator that the secret of human destiny can be ascertained. Man exists pre- cisely because his Creator wants him to do so, and God wants man to exist for purposes that, even without aid, reason can faintly grasp, as did the great mind of Plato and Aristotle, but which the Almighty conde- scended to show us more completely through Divine Revelation, and in due time through His own Divine Son. Our Saviour established the Church to be as it were the living witness