Baccalaureate Baccalaureate Address Rt. Rev. Susan Brown Snook, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego
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ongratulations to The Bishop’s School Class of 2020 for doing the challenging work of education at a school that has always asked you to bring your best to learning and growing. I know this is not the graduation season you’ve anticipated: you were looking forward to end-of-year celebrations, to the triumphal culmination of your extracurricular activities, and to walking across that stage and receiving your diploma. None of those traditions will happen quite as you expected. I know that’s a disappointment. And it’s not fair. Yet the fact remains that you have done the hard work of becoming adults. You’ve studied hard, and you’ve thought about how to make a positive difference in the world, and what it means to do justice, and love kindness and walk humbly with your God. You’ve contemplated compassion, integrity, inclusion and justice and incorporated those values into your lives. And oh, how those values are needed right now. You are graduating in a time of isolation, pandemic, economic hardship and polarization, when the future seems uncertain and society is frightened and fragmented. The values of caring for others, exercising justice and practicing integrity are exactly what our world needs to get through this crisis. Because those are the values that will help us become a just, compassionate world and address the challenges we face: public health, economic opportunity and every person’s right to thrive. John F. Kennedy was the first U.S. president from “The Greatest Generation,” and in 1961, he said: “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.”
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You are a new generation born 100 years later, in the 21st century, and while I hope you will not be tempered by war or disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, I believe that your generation will help us overcome the many challenges facing our world. Members of your generation have already shown amazing leadership, like Greta Thunberg in the struggle against climate change and the students who led the March For Our Lives. The great strength of your generation is that you call us to work together to overcome the challenges that threaten the human race. And it’s possible that painful as it is, this current time of isolation may help you build the kind of leadership our world needs right now. This time of solitude may allow you to draw on the inner strength described in Psalm 46 when, in the midst of world crisis and tumult, God says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Sometimes it is stillness, even disappointment, that leads us to new insights that change the world. After all, the message of the cross is that God is with us even in our disappointment, isolation and suffering. And the message of the resurrection is that even though our suffering is real, God’s love wins. So as you move into this new world of adulthood, with your years at The Bishop’s School behind you, know that, as Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” You are a generation that brings our world hope. Tempered by hardship, disciplined by a clear focus on the challenges our world needs to overcome, I pray and believe that you will lead our world into a new era of compassion, prosperity and justice for all. Scripture references in Bishop Snook’s address include Psalm 46, Micah 6:6-8, Philippians 4:4-9 and Matthew 5:1-16.
