Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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Go into the city NTENT upon uncovering troublesome Christians and taking them to Jerusalem for punishment, an intelligent, energetic young man named Saul was traveling through the Syrian desert nearly 2,000 years ago. Suddenly, he was thrown to the ground and blinded by a bolt from heaven. Trembling and amazed, Saul, who was to become the great St. Paul, asked, Lord, what will you have me do? The Lord said to him, Arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. Although we may not be struck by a lightning bolt as was St. Paul, it is also in the city - our own society and individual surroundings- where we learn what we are to do with our lives. Since each man's mission in the world is defined by the particular opportunities that he receives, our duties as students in a Catholic university are distinct from those of other men and other scholars. What are our precise opportunities which de- fine these certain duties? All students, in their search for truth, study many of the same aspects of reality and share in the opportunity to acquire ideas.

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and you will he fold what you must do As history testifies, it is through ideas that the world is fashioned and changed. When St. Paul accepted Christ's idea of heroic sanctity, he used it to transform the Gentile world and to become a great leader of men. Newton's theories of physics recast international scientific thought. Marx's economic and social ideas have disfigured the face of the earth and have placed millions in bondage. As the world of the past was molded by ideas, so also will our own world be fashioned. We Marquette students cannot deny, in view of this, that we will have a share in shaping the world through the ideas we now have the opportunity to grasp. It is not the acquisition of ideas alone, how- ever, which marks for us a definite part in re- fashioning the world. Nor is it simply the oppor- tunity to study and grasp those revealed ideas. The revealed truths of Jesus Christ can be studied by students anywhere, but in a Catholic uni- versity, they are not confined to a certain number of credit hours. Rather, they are correctly re- garded as the light in which all other knowledge is understood. Thus, our distinguishing oppor- tunity here at Marquette is that of acquiring ideas illuminated by the truths centering around our creation, redemption and eternal destiny. In addition to this most important academic opportunity, the many facets of the vibrant world of Marquette offer us the chance to develop our individual abilities and interests. There is the social wealth of activities and organizations, the pleasure and excitement of athletics which. while being enjoyed in themselves, help to mold and train us for that other, larger world of the future. Awaiting each of us who has these opportuni- ties is the definite responsibility of disseminating Christian ideas, of leading others according to rightly ordered principles, and thus transforming our particular surroundings to help make a Chris- tian world. Acts 9:7 These duties do not await our graduation. They began when we chose to study at a Catholic university. By our choice, we committed our- selves to the mission of making a Christian world which can only be realized if we are adequately prepared. Preparation. however, is an individual accomplishment and no amount of opportunities will benefit the student who refuses to seize them. Just as the master in the Gospel parable de- livered a certain number of talents to his servants and called each one to an account of them, so we students with the opportunity of a Catholic edu- cation will be held to an account of the time spent here. lf we take advantage of our oppor- tunities, we will grow with them to become truly Christian thinkers, able to assume our duty to make a Christian world. We will be able to say as did the good servant, Master, thou didst de- liver to me five talentsg behold, I have gained other five over and above. The faults and inequalities of human be- havior. the emptiness of human lives around us. and the loss of moral values in our society stand as warnings to prepare ourselves well. They im- pel us to gather eagerly. with serious and deter- mined purpose, a great store of knowledge and ideas rightly ordered by revealed truths while we may do so. Before we choose to waste the time we spend at Marquette, let us remember how the master punished the servant who spent his talents fool- ishly: As for the unprofitable servant, cast him forth into the darkness outside where there will be the weeping and gnashing of teeth. The task awaiting us is tremendous. The late Archbishop of Paris, Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard. described it in a pastoral letter Growth or Decline. For the problem is to build a new world. to de- fine and prepare the structures which will permit man to be fully man in a city worthy of him. to transfigure all things in order to make of them a Christian worldf'