Fr Luke Seminary Commencement
Archimandrite Luke at the 70th Commencement of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary

On the Acquisition of Wisdom

Closing Remarks at the 70th Commencement
of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary

by Archi­man­drite Luke, Rector

Dear Graduates and Seminarians!

St James writes, If any of you lack wis­dom let him ask of God.1

Archimandrite Luke delivers closing remarks on the acquisition of wisdom.
Archi­man­drite Luke deliv­ers clos­ing remarks on the acqui­si­tion of wisdom.

You have gained some knowl­edge of your­selves and of var­i­ous sub­jects through your stud­ies and expe­ri­ences. But to gain the wis­dom for sal­va­tion to which St James refers, you need to reflect deeply in order to under­stand the Spir­it behind your knowl­edge. Some of you might desire to fur­ther your stud­ies, which should hope­ful­ly ben­e­fit you. But remem­ber that the priest­ly rul­ing body of the Jew­ish nation was com­prised of men who all held “ter­mi­nal degrees,” “doc­tor­ates in Old Tes­ta­ment stud­ies.” For all of their knowl­edge they failed to under­stand, rec­og­nize and wor­ship the Truth found amongst them. They were blind to the Spirit.

We are told we live in the post-truth era. To be an Ortho­dox Chris­t­ian or pas­tor in the world, we must revis­it the Pla­ton­ic tri­ad of Truth, Good­ness, and Beau­ty through the prism of the Gospel and the Fathers. The ancients were clos­er to Christ in this respect than our con­tem­po­raries are today.

My advice is to draw less atten­tion to your­selves, to avoid triv­i­al­i­ty and the super­fi­cial. This prob­a­bly means less time on social media. Spend more of your time form­ing your souls with the rich­es God has abun­dant­ly giv­en you, and when­ev­er the oppor­tu­ni­ty aris­es, show an act of love for Christ’s sake to some­one near you, your neighbor.

St James writes, Who is wise and under­stand­ing among you? Let him show by good con­duct that his works are done in the meek­ness of wis­dom.2

Thank you.