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August 23, 2021Being the youngest child in my family I often found myself the center of attention. Now, this was mostly based on my personality, meaning I typically forced as much attention to myself as I could. That being said I had two older sisters who constantly looked out and cared for me. One of the things I vividly remember was during the summer months when school was not in session we would always make up games in the yard or in the pool. Without fail, there were those few days where the weather decided to exert its own will and force us to stay indoors. However, it is those days that have a longer shelf life in my memory. On those rainy days, my sisters would squeeze every last ounce of their creativity into creating different games for me to enjoy. It often took the expression of sending me on a scavenger hunt throughout the house to find small pieces of candy with the reward of a full-size candy bar at the end. Clue after clue would send me on a new adventure. Which room would I have to go to? Which piece of furniture would I have to crawl under? With each new search came a new rush of adrenaline and excitement. Each milestone immediately initiated the next search.
To our incoming and returning students - WELCOME! It is a joy to have you here in Charlottesville and to be your chaplain during your short stay here in central VA. You have reached another milestone in your life. But this is not the last one. This earthly pilgrimage of yours is filled with these moments to pass on from one phase to the next. I find more comfort in the fact that our earthly journey is more akin to the childhood scavenger hunt in the Kress household. Our lives move from one short-term journey to the next. For some, the transition brings about sadness about the completion of the previous journey. This grief is normal and appropriate. For others, the approach of the new journey brings about excitement. This too is normal and appropriate. There is always a mix of satisfaction and anxiety as we traverse this life.
As new students, you may be experiencing that blend of satisfaction, anxiety, and excitement as you begin your studies here at UVA. The next four years will provide much for you in the ways of opportunities and experiences. I can assure you that the next “search”, the next pivotal experience, the next most important thing is much closer than you realize. In this constant barrage of possible paths and journeys to take, I encourage you to remember that this milestone will only lead to the next one. The hunger that you have to go on the adventure of searching to make your way through this life and to find yourself along that journey is one that is woven into our very humanity. It is something that is unique to our humanity. But it can wear us down if we simply see life as an endless line of little adventures. Each little adventure/search will only offer a “little” and temporary satisfaction. It will fade to the next “search”. Our hearts are made to be satisfied in the eternal presence of God. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God” (St. Augustine).
It is the Lord that we hunger for and search for. It is the Lord who reveals us to ourselves. Dear students, remember that in each new opportunity and search in your life it is the Lord that you desire most. Pursue Jesus Christ as He pursues you if you desire happiness and not just fleeting moments of pleasure. For those moments fade but the mercy of the Lord endures forever.
“It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.” - St. John Paul II
Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress is a Dominican Friar and serves as the chaplain for the Catholic Campus Ministry (Catholic Hoos) at the University of Virginia.
