Commencement Speech

“At least you can smile, if nothing else!”

– St. Mother Teresa

Reflection:

In 1982, Mother Teresa gave the commencement speech at Thomas Aquinas College in California. She addressed college students from a small, American, Catholic college – how cool!

In her speech, Mother emphasized the importance of the joy of loving. God has great joy in loving each one of us. Likewise, we can receive His joy when we love Him in our neighbors. We are meant to be carriers of God’s love and be attentive to the personhood of others.

Mother likes to remind us that if nothing else, we are always loved very tenderly by God, and this is meant to be the cause of our joy, of our smiling! We are meant to embrace our neighbors in this joy. We are meant to serve not so as to accomplish something but to love someone. We are meant to embrace the people around us, not just pass them by.

God loves each one of us as we are, and we called to extend this same love to those nearest to us. When we have the goal of loving, we look and see more clearly the life of Christ in our neighbors.

Let us begin each day by receiving and appreciating the immense love God has for us. When we do this, it will be natural to go and extend this love with joy!

Challenge: “You young people. Remember, do it to somebody.”

– St. Mother Teresa