Charge to the 2020 Graduates: President John A. Nunes

GYM

This is the room where it was meant to happen,

      meant to be filled with

     family, friends, your personal fan-club

faculty, staff, your fellow-graduates;

     meant to be a moment of a lifetime.

Concordia’s staff and faculty are not here today,

but know this: we are cheering you on.

   Not virtually… but FOR REAL!!

Nothing in all creation can diminish

     our pride in your accomplishments

The impact you have made

      will never be lost or forgotten

           just because of what we’re all going through.  

You have endured so much in your lives,

    terrorism, school shootings, economic downturn,

       political divisiveness,

      and COVID-19

But you have proven your ability to overcome.

I cannot wait to watch you making your way into the world

  empowered by your Concordia education,

     to accomplish the more meant for you!

PIETRUSKI

In the classroom you learned about

literary composition and effective communication,  

            about the business ethics of global conglomerates

   AND the economics of local bodegas,   

ABOUT history, chemistry, anesthesiology, theology,

But I hope you also learned

   that you are more than

[count, finger 1]

     your grades and academic achievement,

[count, finger 2]

    much more than a prisoner of a pandemic,

[count, finger 3]

so much more than… a new word

    I literally just learned from a graduate’s

         capstone project,

more than deoxyribonucleic acid,

  that’s more than your DNA,

I believe you have learned resilience that will make

    yours one of the greatest class of graduates to ever walk our planet.

We need you.

  I charge you to be world-changers

      because you are meant for more.

CHAPEL

Graduates, you know that being meant for more 

   means more

than just filling our lives with more matter

—more material goods, more stuff,

    more treasures, pleasures, and power.

It means filling our lives with more of what really matters:

    relationships, integrity, the human touch, faith,

  appreciating every moment we have with each other

Because we don’t know whether that moment may be the last

[bow head, sign of the cross]

Jesus said, what does it profit you to gain the whole world

      and lose your spiritual center, your soul, your core?

You are meant for more.

FETH HALL ROOF

I will shout it from the rooftops:

I am so proud of your accomplishments.

But you are meant for more than resting on your diplomas! 

I know this because you are Concordia College New Yorkers

meant for more, so others can discover

   their potential, their voice, their capacity, their calling,

Henry David Thoreau, the 19th century abolitionist,

tax-resister and poet once sadly put it like this: 

“The majority of people lead lives of quiet desperation

    and go to the grave with their song still in them.” 

Resist having your song silenced!

   Refuse to be defined by your circumstances!

Sing your song,

dance your dance, [little dance move]

dare your dream, 

live your life, 

be the more God meant you to be.