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The culmination of this education is wisdom itself. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the knowledge of the causes of everything; of the highest causes of things generally, not immediate causes of particular things. In other words, wisdom contains the answers to the question “Why?” for everything. And because wisdom is this knowledge, it gives order to all other knowledge. Just as knowing why something needs to be done enables you to direct your actions toward doing that thing, so knowing the answer to the question “Why?” for everything lets you give order to everything else.

What is the answer to the ultimate question, “Why?” Spoiler alert: it’s God. So, wisdom becomes first and foremost a knowledge of God. And, under the Catholic Church, we can come to know not only more about God than any non-Christian philosophers ever did, but even what they were able to discover becomes more certain to us, as Pope Leo XIII implies in his encyclical Aeterni Patris, read by us seniors not yet a month ago. Pope Leo states:

Those, therefore, who to the study of philosophy unite obedience to the Christian faith, are philosophizing in the best possible way; for the splendor of the divine truths, received into the mind, helps the understanding, and not only detract nowise from its dignity, but adds greatly to its nobility, keenness, and stability (Aeterni Patris, paragraph 9).

Our education here at the College aims to give us this wisdom, or at least a beginning of wisdom. And how can we not say that this wisdom is part of loving God? It is knowing God Himself, and from this knowledge springs forth love and joy.

“Love and joy spring forth from wisdom. And this love and joy affect our neighbors.”

But what about my neighbor? Have I loved him as myself? Have I helped him get to Heaven? I suspect most, and I sincerely hope all, of you have begun to experience here some of the deepest friendships of your life. Ask yourselves: Have my friends here actually helped me get closer to Heaven? I, for my part, can answer that yes, they in fact have.

But we’re speaking specifically of wisdom, intellectual sciences. How do these help me love my neighbor? How do they, being in me, help my neighbor get to Heaven? Perhaps, you think, after this education, you have been empowered with knowledge. You will, therefore, reenter society with a keen, discerning eye, watching out for neighbors in error and instructing and correcting them whenever you meet. If this is your plan, then I am here to crush your dreams.

That is not how we make saints of ourselves and others. Of course, in the rest of our time on this earth after today we may have occasions where it is our duty to instruct our fellows in some way; but it may be — and for many of us, will most likely be — the case that such occasions are not at all an everyday occurrence. An exception to this is those who live around small children. I understand that 25 of you are engaged and will soon enough be instructing others on a daily — I daresay hourly — basis.

But those cases aside: How does my having wisdom help my neighbor get to Heaven?

Well, I’ll say it again: Love and joy spring forth from wisdom. And this love and joy affect our neighbors. I said that occasions for vigilante instruction are not an everyday occurrence — if you see these occasions every day, then you’re probably missing something. But what is an everyday occurrence is the appearance that each one of us presents to our neighbors around us.

A painful reminder that our everyday conduct does, in fact, affect others is Spinoza’s preface to his Theological-Political Treatise, read by us last year in Junior Seminar. In this treatise, Spinoza gives his views on the relationship between religion and state, which are, to say the least, not orthodox by Catholic standards. In his preface, he states his intention to give the reader his reasons for writing the treatise. And this is the very next thing he says:

I have often wondered that men who make a boast of professing the Christian religion, which is a religion of love, joy, peace, temperance and honest dealing with all men, should quarrel so fiercely and display the bitterest hatred towards one another day by day, so that these latter characteristics make known a man’s creed more readily that the former. Matters have long reached such a pass that a Christian, Turk, Jew or heathen can generally be recognized as such only by his physical appearance or dress, or by his attendance at a particular place of worship, or by his profession of a particular belief and his allegiance to some leader. But as for their way of life, it is the same for all.

But as for their way of life, it is the same for all.

I read Spinoza as claiming that the Christian religion is not special. There is no difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. And what is his evidence? He says he looks at the Christians, and they act the same as everyone else, regardless of what they claim to profess.

What is striking about this passage is that Spinoza is a philosopher. He is very educated.

“By God’s grace, our time here will be an important step on that path toward Heaven and will continue to serve us in our time left on this earth.”

Now, we are not by this to be shaken in our faith in the truths of the Church. But we ought to be moved to consider our lives carefully and the effect our everyday conduct has on our neighbors.

Dear friends; class of 2026: We must live our lives so that Spinoza’s words — “But as for their way of life, it is the same for all” — may never again, on account of us, be said truthfully of Christians. And the attainment of wisdom, under the Church, will enable us to do this. For this wisdom is a grasping of God, and the order in all else that flows from this grasping. And the fruit of this is love and joy, a love and joy that will be seen by others, whether you know it or not.

What good is done by you in secret — even in secret to you, the one doing it — will have its effect. And this, dear graduates, is not only a foretaste of Heaven on earth — for it is nothing other than an imperfect grasping of God — it is an aid to our neighbors on their journey to Heaven. Genuine love and joy tend to have that effect on others. And we can only wonder what effect it would have had on men like Spinoza, whose first complaint — for all his arguments — was the absence of love he saw.

God has chosen for us all paths toward Heaven. And, as for us, this graduating class: God has set us aside these few years for the pursuit of wisdom and the beginning of its attainment. I do not know where God will send you all next. But, for His own reasons, He let you come here first. By God’s grace, our time here will be an important step on that path toward Heaven and will continue to serve us in our time left on this earth. And, for this step toward Heaven, we owe a great deal of gratitude — more than can be adequately expressed in this address — to our tutors, the Board of Governors, our chaplains, the College staff, our parents, and everyone else who made our education possible. I also wish to express great thanks to Fr. Luke Mata and Ambassador Burch for joining us here today and addressing us.

My fellow graduates, dear friends: Our time here, together, has come to a close. But our attainment of wisdom has only begun. And our love for God, and for our neighbors as ourselves, is not beginning now, but has also already begun, and will continue to grow with our attainment of wisdom.

To conclude with a fresh look at Ecclesiastes, in light of our considerations:

The end of the matter; fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. And your pursuit and attainment of wisdom is in keeping with these commandments, and God will bring it into judgement, with every secret thing — and by His grace, it will always be good.

God love you.