The Promise of Mission Week

By Rev. Robert A. Wild, S.J.
President Marquette University

Web Posted: Jan. 31, 2005

Mission Week gives us an opportunity to reflect not only on our heritage at Marquette University as a Catholic Jesuit institution of higher learning but also on our purpose as academic community.

Our heritage is a slice of the 450 year tradition of Jesuit Catholic education started in Messina, Sicily when the parents in that town petitioned St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, to establish a school to offer solid academic courses as well as to provide opportunities to learn about faith and practice it.  Three hundred and twenty five years later in 1881, with the encouragement and support of Bishop John Martin Henni, the doors of Marquette College were opened by a small group of Jesuits; and that same tradition began to take root here in Milwaukee.  Today, with our mission week activities we celebrate our heritage and recommit ourselves to the pursuit of truth, the fostering of personal and professional excellence, the search for a faith that animates our lives and the development of leaders who are committed to serving others.

As we celebrate mission week, we are surrounded by the construction of the new interchange.  We are also privileged to host as our keynote speaker Arun Gandhi who will reflect on the lessons his renowned grandfather taught him. We are challenged to be persons who will work to “Construct Peace” as members of the Marquette Community.  I invite everyone to reflect upon:  What have I done for peace?  What am I doing for peace? And what will I do for peace? 

The peace that the Catholic Jesuit heritage of our University espouses is more than tranquility of heart amidst struggles.  It means taking leadership to mend relationships, to create an atmosphere where serious study and research can take place, to promote unity amidst diversity, and to pray and live in such a way that we model here the peace that we wish for our world. 

This week let our prayer be that of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

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