Respected dignitaries on the dais, parents and well wishers of our graduating class, staff of LICET, both teaching and non-teaching, who have moulded these young pioneers, entrepreneurs, and leaders for social transformation, parents and friends, and my dear graduation students – Good afternoon.

Today is a great day – A day of Happiness and Hope: It is a day of happiness because today we crown your academic achievement as engineers; and at the same time it is a day of hope because you are beginning or you have already set out to realize your dreams in concrete. I congratulate you for your achievement and I wish you the very best for your dreams to come true.

You have received the Jesuit Education. This education is not given to you but to the society you come from and today you are stepping out to serve the society at large. Hence, this education from LICET is a gift to the society through you. Take it and make it fruitful 60, 80, 100-fold (Mt 13:8). The outcome of Ignatian pedagogy is: Critical thinking leading to creativity. When Mr Kamaraj was the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, he was held up for a long time in the traffic one day. As soon as he reached his office he called the head of traffic police and asked him how to ease the traffic. The police officer said: There is no way, Sir. Mr Kamaraj retorted: “You are not here to tell me, there is no way. Find a way and come back to me in a couple of days.” It is said, that this is the origin and birth of Anna Flyover at Gemini Corner. Today multiple flyovers are able to decongest the traffic jam.

The latest novel of Dan Brown, Origin, is about: “Where do we come from?; and where are we heading to?” You too face these questions: You are coming from an academic world but you are walking along the road of technology and communication, which are ever changing as well as challenging. You are called to be men and women of innovations and entrepreneurship as you are equipped with both. Go forth with the confidence and, as St Ignatius of Loyola would say, to set the world on fire of knowledge and service.

I would like to share with you three thoughts for the day, namely personal, social, and transcendental.

Personal:

As a person, have a heart for the needy, especially the poor and the marginalized, who are discriminated, unserved, and unnoticed. The needy should be the focus of your lives. You need wisdom to understand them and heart to accept them as your fellow human beings.

A boy was selling goods from door to door to earn a little to pay for his education. One day he was exhausted and asked a neighbor for a glass of water – The kind lady offered him a glass of milk. The boy asked: How much I owe you? – She said: I never accept payment for being kind. Years rolled by. The lady fell sick and the doctors could not diagnose her problem. They sent her to a famous doctor in the city. The doctor struggled and finally saved her. When she got well, he asked the administration to send him the bill. It was a huge amount but he paid it all in full. When the lady received the bill, she was shivering, for she knew it would be a huge amount. But when she opened the bill, there at the margin was written: Paid in full with a glass of milk – Signed: Dr Howard Kelly.  Jesus said: Even a cup of cold water that you give to the thirsty will not go unrewarded (Mt 10:42). Think with your heart and act with your mind; feel for the others and see the world of others with their eyes and perspectives. That is the way you could bring in the breeze of change in the society for transformation.

Social:

No single tree makes a forest but seas and oceans are made of single drops. Every individual counts in the society and we need ethics in all that we do and achieve. Our life and success should be other-centered.

An anthropologist conducted a game in Africa. He collected the children from a village and placed a basketful of sweets under a tree a little far away from them. He told the children: Whoever reaches the tree first would get all the sweets in the basket. Then he said: ‘Ready – Steady – Go’. There was a moment a silence and suspense.

The children came together; held each other’s hands; ran together towards the tree; and shared the sweets equally among themselves. There was immense happiness as they enjoyed the sweets. When the anthropologist asked them why they did so, they answered that is ‘Ubuntu’. Ubuntu means ‘I am because we are’ – In other words: How can one be happy when others are sad? How can one be rich, when million others are poor? How can one be educated when so many others are illiterate?

Five weeks ago, as the Global Vice President for Academics and Research in Jesuit Worldwide Learning, I had been to two refugee camps in Africa: Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya with 185,000 refugees from about 14 countries; and Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi with 35,000 refugees. The Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL) offers online higher education to them and I was there for their graduation. What impressed me the most was: Community Based Organizations (CBOs). Our alumni and alumnae join together and organize things that would be helpful to the society, namely their fellow refugees. One student has mastered Python program and he is offering free programming lessons to his fellow refugees; and a female student is running a community radio station with the help of the host community. When they could do that, why can’t you? We can, if we have the will.

Take this message and live it out. There are many around us who have lost hope in life. As the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison indicates in her novel ‘Beloved’: “Nothing could be counted on in a world where even when you were the solution you were a problem.”  Ask yourselves: What can I do to change the situation? How can we say that India is literate when even one is illiterate? Each one of you could try to help each other to get educated and to become a little more prosperous in life. And soon India would be a nation of richness in economy and culture. Let us always have the attitude of Ubuntu and spread happiness wherever we go, as social transformation is our goal in life. As LICET alumnus or alumna help at least one other in your poor and underprivileged neighbourhood to find wind and wing to fly high in the society.

Transcendental:

The personal feeling for the other is the spark plug and the social transformation is the ultimate goal to achieve. The dynamic propelling power is our Conscience – It is our consciousness of the other. Listen to that inner voice in you to live out your life.

Steve Jobs, the Apple Founder, just a year after being diagnosed with cancer, said in his graduation speech at Stanford University in 2005: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly become. Everything else is secondary.”

Follow your inner voice, because this is the echo of the transcendental God’s voice; and it is the compass of one’s feeling and conviction.

If you follow your personal pull, emanating from your inner self, for the good of others, you would have the opportunity to be a person of people and environment. Have concern for the environment; and lead a life of people-oriented service. As you move along, learn more, and put to practice what you have learnt.

People oriented Service:

Life is a struggle but keep going and follow your dream: As Paul wrote to the people in Corinth, “We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair; we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us” (2 Cor 4:8f). Because the inner conviction makes you go on, in the spirit of Ubuntu principle, and in the company of our fellow human beings.

In his debut novel, The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga depicts the pathetic situation of the poor in the society: Even if someone wants to come up he/she is a prisoner of the ‘Rooster Coop’ in the society. The chickens in a butcher-shop know they would be slaughtered one by one but they would not attempt to escape the shackles and even if one tries to escape, the others would make the mission impossible. The way to get out of this social prison is to be a person of ‘first-gear’ and should be a person who sees ‘tomorrow’ when others see ‘today’ – One should grab the opportunity to come up in life. And perhaps you might be the one who helps them grab the opportunity for the better – And the only key for liberation and freedom is education.

As you endeavor for the betterment of the fellow human beings, you may meet with challenges and obstacles and even disappointments. At times you might be even powerless to change your own environment and system for the better. But what is important is that you keep trying without losing heart, because people out there count on you.

One final thought I want to share with you: Be grateful to any one who has so far shaped you in life; and who accompany you for your good now; and who would love you as you are. John F Kennedy said, during his inaugural address (1961):

“My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Let us go forth from here with the courage and confidence to do our best for the rest of the world, starting from our household. And have compassion for those in need. This triple-C-formula, namely courage, confidence, and compassion would make you leaders capable of transforming the society for the better.

Eric Weiner in his travelogue ‘The Geography of Bliss’ compares a person to a carbon atom. He says: “Carbon is the basis of all life, happy and otherwise. Carbon is also a chameleon atom. Assemble it one way – in tight, interlocking rows – and you have a diamond. Assemble it another way – a disorganized jumble – and you have a handful of soot. The arranging makes the difference….” Hence let us arrange our lives not for personal ambition but for collective betterment of the society.

LICET is proud of your achievement today. Let the light of LICET shine to the world in and through you. Keep up your spirit ever high and be men and women of magis – to do ever more and ever better. Become men and women of excellence and ethics.

Keep up the good spirit and do your best wherever you are and whatever you do. Thank you.

Francis P Xavier SJ

Vice President

for Academics and Research

Jesuit Worldwide Learning

Geneva

25Jul2018