Commencement and Reunion

May 26th, 2013 Posted in writing

This weekend Marquette University High School, where I presently work, held its commencement ceremonies for the class of 2013. Last weekend Creighton Preparatory School held its fifty-year reunion for the class of 1963, of which I am a member.

The M.U.H.S. class of 2013 has fifty years until they arrive at their golden jubilee, and who knows what events will occur in those five decades or what dilemmas and decisions the years will force on them.

My Creighton Prep class of 1963 has the advantage of seeing what the past five decades have brought us and what decisions we have made. But we living members of that class have an unknown future before us, too.

One armchair philosopher observed, “Ninety per cent of life is a matter of showing up.” So, to live responsibly, whether we are members of the class of 2013, the class of 1963, any of the other classes before or after, or even if we never had the chance for a formal education, it’s still important that we “show up” for whatever life presents, good or bad.

That means meeting what comes, accepting it or trying to change it, not relying solely on our own strength but on the power of God who, as St. Paul, wrote “can do infinitely more that we could ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3).

We don’t need to do any more than that, but we owe it to ourselves and God to do no less.

Creighton Prep 2013 Commencement and Reunion of the Class of 1963

  1. No Responses to “Commencement and Reunion”

  2. By Tom Hickey on May 27, 2013

    Fr. Majka – congrautlations on your 50 years from the second best H.S. in the country. You have consistently showed up and that is what makes you such a terrific man and an effective priest!
    Tom

  3. By Mike Martin on Dec 1, 2013

    I did not make the reunion, but your observation that our future is unknown is as true as it was fifty years ago, but we have more experience to adjust and accept. Someone I love defined progress as acquiring the ability over time to react to occurrences in our life differently than before, with more courage and grace. I know that our experience at Prep is part of my growth and progress.

  4. By Mike Martin on Dec 27, 2013

    Dear Frank;
    Thanks for sharing your blog on expectations. My first reaction was the old quote: “Realization is the assassination of anticipation.” Then I carried that word with me for the last few days and thought about it on many levels: parenthood, teaching, business, and spirituality.
    • Parenthood. Babies are born expectations. When I gazed upon my sons, the questions were enormous: Who would they be? How could I be a father – I knew nothing? Time ultimately answers those question, with a stringing together of incidents and some overarching values. Now the boys are fathers, husbands, lovers, friends, sons, uncles, sportsmen, teachers, and men. I acquired some parenting skill, mostly by watching my wife, remembering my father, and turning them over to God.
    • Teaching. My career has taken many turns; from chemical engineer, to business development, to University Intellectual Property Manager, to University Technology Transfer consultant. In all of them, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to teach – to translate complex concepts into actionable items that students can use to grow, to translate their dreams into some form of reality. My expectations were the questions: Will they hear me? Will I be able to translate this language of engineering, business, or law into language so they can take action? Some times and for some people the process works. Then I see the fire in their eyes.
    • Business. Most of my career has been strategic rather than tactical. The former always results in the latter; but I have had the fortune in participating in a number of strategic plan development sessions for many different enterprises. These exercises are all about expectations driven by the mission or nature of the human organization: whether a for profit, or a not for profit, or educational, a community, or a Church. The questions are: Who are we? How do we express that mission for what we have defined as success? Most of these are 3 to 5 year plans, and the answers can change every year or two; except “Who are we?” That answer does take longer to change; but, inexorably, it does.
    • Spiritually. I thought of St. John the Baptist and my own spiritual journey. Both of us have grown. My growth was not chronicled as well as John’s. Can you image his expectations; and the answers, as opposed to all of the other prophets, of his questions: Who is the messiah? How will I relate to Him? He meet Jesus and decided he was unworthy to tie his sandals. Jesus disabused him of that notion. I have had the fortune of a spiritual awakening. It has been a process of awareness of God’s role in my life. I ask for courage/grace to love without condition and to give service without reserve. Some times and for some people it works and I feel happy.

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.