Graduation

Friday afternoon 26 October 2007

I am delighted to be able to join in congratulating all of you who are receiving degrees and diplomas today and to share with you and your families and friends in this celebration of your achievements. I also congratulate the academic and administrative staff of Mary Immaculate, and everyone who is part of the life of the College, your fellow students and all those who have been part of this journey for you. Today your work is being recognised by the University of Limerick. It is a joy for all of us to share in celebrating what you have achieved.

The place of teachers in Ireland is an honoured one. Doctor Garrett Fitzgerald said something recently to the effect that teachers are the only people in Ireland who still have some moral authority. That puts a considerable weight on your shoulders! Whatever about asking teachers to be the saviours of the country, it is true that the moral standards of a society and the nature and values of its education system are closely intertwined.

That is not so much, I think, because of the undoubted respect that teachers have earned. There is a deeper reason. We all agree that education is about the development of the student as a whole person, with all the dimensions that this involves – intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual and so on. Of course the first thing that you need if you want to educate the whole person is a vision as to what a person is.

That is not as obvious as it might sound. Some of the voices that one hears in the area of education seem to operate, perhaps unconsciously, on the basis that developing the whole person is the same as producing a good citizen, or the same as preparing someone who will play a productive part in the economy, or, worse still, the same as training someone to maximise the points which they receive in the Leaving.

But there is more to us human beings than that. We need a vision, an understanding of ourselves that faces the big questions that are dealt with in philosophy and theology – questions about the meaning of life and death and suffering and evil, questions about whether in the end life is hope-filled or absurd. We need a vision that takes account of our longing for something or someone who is greater than all our longings and hopes. There is a restlessness in us that will not be satisfied by anything that we can possess, or achieve, or even imagine. I called these questions philosophical and theological because that is where they are directly addressed, but they are questions that occur in every subject of the curriculum and in every moment of life.

We are living in an Ireland where increasingly there are different answers to these questions, but that is not a reason to leave the questions aside. We cannot educate the whole person if we tell pupils and parents that their fundamental understanding of life is to be left in the locker room with their overcoats. That is the challenge to education.

That is also the challenge to the moral outlook of society. The reason why there is a certain incoherence about moral discussion in western society, is that we do not begin with an understanding of human life, human dignity, human freedom. We try to speak about morality in a number of different languages without ever suspecting that we need a translator. For some morality is about maximising happiness, for others it is about obeying rules, for still others it is about gut feelings. These are different questions; why should we expect them to yield the same answers? The foundation on which we have to build is our vision of the meaning of our lives. If we do not have a meaning that takes account of the fundamental questions about who we are, how can we decide how to live?

This motto of this College, Briathar Dé mo lóchrann, points to a vision that is worthy of the highest ideals and hopes of humanity: the word of God lights our way. My prayer for you is that God’s word may light your teaching and your lives: go raibh Briathar Dé mar lóchrann agaibh I gconaí.

+Donal Murray