Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. Inaugural Speech (cont'd)

The works of Carolyn Forché also bring us closer to the truth. Carolyn champions how poetry can be an active witness especially in places where justice and the common good are compromised. Carolyn’s poetry is an example of the kind of learned ministry to which we are all called. In honoring Carolyn and Dean today, we set a tone and suggest a direction for the work we will do together at Marquette.

Inspired by the example of Dean and Carolyn, let us commit together to shape Marquette in a way that at once honors the legacy we inherit as well as the chapter of Marquette history that we will write together. Standing here today peering into the future is daunting. It is colored significantly by mystery. And it requires of us, hope.

Two of the greatest Jesuit educators I have ever known can help us understand the hope that is required of us, the substance of things hoped for. The late Father Tim Healy looked back on a lifetime spent at Jesuit Universities and concluded that “out of our works and days as a Catholic university comes one great virtue that we simply proclaim by being what we are — the virtue of hope — the hope that God has a purpose for creation and for us in it.”

The first Jesuit I ever met, Father Otto Hentz, who is here with us today, fleshes out Father Healy’s conviction and encourages us to embrace a future with hope. Otto writes, “Love does not wait for a blueprint complete in every detail. But a real future means hoping, for hoping impels us to imagine possibilities, the way parents imagine possibilities for their children. They cannot predict in detail the future for which they work. Even so, they must commit themselves in hope.” Otto ends, “Love must work its way.”

There is no blueprint for Marquette complete in every detail, but our love for this university must work its way. The work ahead may occasionally be arduous, but as St. Ignatius reminds us, “Nothing is hard to one whose will is set on it, especially if it be a thing done out of love.”

Finally, it is only fitting that we go back to Bruce Springsteen on his birthday. And what album more appropriate for Marquette than The River — Numen Flumenque, the Spirit and the River. On that album he sings of the ties that bind. Today we celebrate ties that bind us to this place and to one another, ties that enrich our days and works and ties that ultimately give us evidence of God’s grace active here on the sacred ground at Marquette. God’s grace is surely at work here giving us the energy and enthusiasm to go and “set the world on fire.”

God bless you, God bless Catholic and Jesuit higher education and God bless Marquette University.

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