By Maria Sermersheim
Meditatione Ignis
With the beginning of a new semester and the recent feast of Blessed Basil Moreau (Jan. 20), founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (which founded the University of Notre Dame), I have had ample occasion to reflect on my hopes and hesitations regarding the next term of academic study. And though yes, I am daunted by a significant increase in the caliber and quantity of work demanded of me, and yes, I am also very eager and excited to learn so much from these particular courses, I want to consider one more dimension of my education, one which I hope will inspire each of us in our respective activities in life.
In his 36th circular letter to the members of his congregation, Blessed Basil Moreau wrote, “We shall always place education side by side with instruction; the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart. While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for heaven.” This quotation has been adopted as a special part of the mission of Notre Dame. In theological studies, the note of caution is often heard to warn against focusing too much on intellectual distinctions such that we forget the heart of the matter and the true gift of faith, which is lived out in a much more simple life than all the problematizing academic articles may make it seem.
I think this danger is quite true, and though an academic article written by a Jewish scholar about Leviticus 19:17 can be so beautifully convicting that it spurs me to seek God’s grace in the sacraments, and a doctoral seminar studying the Hebrew of the Joseph story in Genesis 37 can lead to profound meditation on the mystery of divine providence, I am fully aware that this semester will require enough late nights of translating and summarizing that I will be tempted to consider it rote and dry work that needs only to be conquered and not deeply considered. Indeed, it is true of all disciplines in life: we can become too focused on specializing in whatever skill or merely accomplishing whichever task that we become detached from the nourishing content of living love for Christ in everything. We must intentionally choose to follow Moreau’s model and not allow the mind to be cultivated at the expense of the heart. It is easy to pour our energies into the checklist and to forget the prayer list.
As this new year continues, let’s consider how much more important it is to become citizens of heaven. In all our resolutions, in all of our dreams and doubts about our various pursuits this year, let us not cultivate earthly success or accomplishment at the expense of holiness.
Maria Sermersheim is pursuing her doctorate in biblical studies at the University of Notre Dame and is a graduate of Reitz Memorial High School. She welcomes emails at [email protected].