A Toast to the Year Ahead

Ad hoc annum et ad multos annos

A Toast to the Year Ahead

REV. MR. TIM COURTNEY ’23, DIOCESE OF ARLINGTON

Each semester at the United States Military Academy, the Corps of Cadets carries out a competition called “Soldier of the Quarter.” The cadets who are nominated to vie for the title of SOQ are evaluated in each aspect of academy life: academic and athletic performance, military discipline, function in the command structure, shoe-shining, and all the rest. They also undergo the SOQ boards, a panel interview regarding each cadet’s philosophy towards Army leadership.

During my time at the Academy, I never secured a nomination to compete for Soldier of the Quarter, so the story from the SOQ board I share this evening comes to me secondhand. The question posed to the hopeful cadets in the fall of 2012 was this: which is more important: the men or the mission?

One cadet said, “The men, because the mission will take care of itself.” This was not the answer the cadre were looking for, as a foot patrol or pursuit of a high-value target or room clearing will not take care of itself. One of my company mates answered, “the mission.” And he offered another insight: “but here at West Point, the men are the mission.” This cadet must have distinguished himself with that response because, if my memory serves, he did go on to win the coveted SOQ title.

At the North American College, we are in this same unique position. The men are the mission. Any conflict between the two is only apparent. Because of this fact, we can come together at the beginning of a new school year to celebrate a renewal. It’s the men, the faculty and seminarians of the NAC, who have been renewed. Men are renewed by summer pastoral work, vacations, and the Holy Spirit.

Besides the individual men of the house, our composition as a community has also been renewed. Never before has the combination of individuals in this room tonight, each with our own experiences, talents, expectations, and personalities, been assembled in one place. And it never will be again.

In this way, the very mission of the NAC is new and unique this year. It has never been done quite the same before. Our common task is to carry out the work of formation, not abstractly, but with these men, by these men, and through these men.

Of course, to suggest that the mission of the College is completely new would be a step too far.

We stand upon a hundred and fifty years of NAC tradition. We respond to three hundred years of hope and expectation of the faithful in America. We are rooted in the two-thousand-year history of the Church.

The mission of the NAC remains the same because of the presence among us of a man who needs no renewal but is the source of our renewal. A man who needs no formation but is he to whom we conform ourselves. Let us stand and raise a glass to the mission of the Pontifical North American College. Ad hoc annum et ad multos annos. n

Our common task is to carry out the work of formation, not abstractly, but with these men, by these men, through these men.