A Brief Charge to Senior Boys Graduating from Providence

On May 17 Providence celebrated its seniors at the Senior Day Assembly. The whole school, along with families and friends, gathered to thank God for the Class of 2024, to remember their journey, and to look forward to their future.

At the Senior Day Assembly each year two members of the faculty deliver solemn charges to the seniors, one to the gentlemen and one to the ladies. This year Rhetoric School teacher Anderson Underwood delivered the charge to the male graduates, and I’m sharing it below. (I plan to share Mrs. Laura Whiddon’s charge to the senior ladies next week.)

Mr. Underwood’s charge (which was published on the Circe Institute blog) is not only an excellent meditation for you, but also for your sons. At Providence we envision partnering to graduate young men who understand their calling to be men of strength, well-grounded in the truth of Scripture and shaped by the classical vision.

Many thanks to Mr. Underwood for his stirring words to the senior gentlemen:

In the opening scenes of the Odyssey, Athena presents a vision of manhood. She sees a man as one who protects his family, who upholds his ancestors’ honor, and who stands up to wicked men. She encourages Telemachus to be like his father in this. We have spent a lot of time this year studying this vision of manhood and what it takes to achieve such a vision.

The old stories are full of similar tales. History and mythology leave little question as to what a man is or should be. But even Athena was missing something.

You have been given that something. If you have graduated from a Christian school of any kind worth its salt, then you have been given the profound gift, by your parents, church, and school, of growing up in the knowledge and love of Christ. You are therefore accountable for that gift, and to bury your talents would be a gross misuse of them.

I originally thought it would befit a charge for graduating seniors to quote the Aeneid. Aeneas, in his mourning for Pallas, ends his mourning with a poetic line: “Hail forever and farewell!”

But such a sendoff would be inappropriate for the context of a graduation. You are not being sent off as corpses to be mourned. You are being sent as sheep among wolves, but as sheep that are fully, fiercely alive. Your teachers expect to see you again, and to see the goodness of the Lord acting in you here–in the land of the living, as the Psalmist says.

My charge then is threefold:

My first charge: be a man in the order of the true Man. Do not be content to be an Odysseus. You have been called to something higher. Christ has shown you what Odysseus could not have known: that glory and safety only find their fruition in sacrificial Love. You must therefore take up a calling much heavier even than that of the epic heroes you have read. This call is, as Lewis wrote in the Weight of Glory, a call “so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.” Seek then, therefore, the kingdom of God. Do not just follow Him but seek to love Him.

My second charge: do not neglect your beginnings or despise what is familiar. It is a great gift to have a boring testimony. You do not need to be “cool” or have the most scars to be an interesting person in college. What you have suffered does not make you half so interesting as what you love. As you now step into a world that does not accept your faith, share your values, or value your virtues, you must remember from whence you came. Your families and your school are there at your back. They love you. They want to see you succeed. Let them be the wind in your sails and do not think of your departure so much as leaving them as it is of going forward in faith.

My third charge: find a church; love her and serve her. As Cyprian said: God is your Father; the Church is your mother. You were never meant to walk alone. It is an incredible gift to know that wherever you go, to Connecticut or Cambodia, the Church will be there, advancing. You cannot be the man you were made to be without being committed to, and serving, the Church. Do not put it off; do not wait to “get your bearings” before looking. It is the Church that will make your bearings accurate. And do not merely attend. As Paul says to Timothy, do not let anyone despise your youth. You must not only show up, but you must serve her. If you are not needed, you will not go on the days you are tired. Make yourself needed so you remember how much you need her.

In The Return of the King, Tolkien describes Aragorn’s ascendance to the throne of Gondor. He is noble, strong, and brave, and that is how he gains the crown. But what gains him the hearts of the people is not his glory. It is not even his strength. As the commoners said of him, in hushed tones, in awe and amazement: “The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.” This, more than anything else, was what won Aragorn the love of the people.

You are called as men to lead—in your church, family, and community. But you are not called to dominate them. Your hands, if they will best represent Jesus and His life on earth, must be hands that heal, restore, and build others up. You will need strength to do it, and nobility, and all the rest. But your hands must be the hands of a healer.

We are very proud of the men you are becoming. We are excited to see the Spirit draw you ever closer to Himself.

So fellas: Hail forever and don’t forget to write.