http://cuqldfreeblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/reflection-of-parting-words-of-vice.html
After reading the reflection of Sau Wai on the Vice Chancellor letter to the fresh graduates of 2011, may be I could share about my own reflection how this letter has touched me as a prayer from a Christian perspective, or so to speak a spiritual vantage point.
It is a letter to all the parting graduates, but we are included though we have graduated long time ago. This letter intends to convey the advice about life experienced by our Vice Chancellor through a form of prayer. If it is in a form a prayer, then, not only the students and the Vice Chancellor are involved, God who is part of the faith system of our Vice Chancellor Sung is invited to instil together these learning about life to us. Such advice is actually originated from the teaching of God as such we must not try only to understand it in a secular sense. The fundamental difference is in the vantage point. When we contemplate on the form of life our Vice Chancellor is advocating us to pursue, we will try to reflect not how much we have achieved, rather, what more we can learn and be transcended to the next level of this form of life.
He started with a very serious question. If you are going to die now, do you have any regret on the life you went through? Anything still feel missing that you want to do, to achieve or to feel if you are given a second chance?
He then gave us three possible aspects of life experience that we may find answer to his opening question of any possible regret.
By simple life, the Chinese translation is a bit misleading. It gives the idea to be simple by being thrifty trimming our daily spending to minimum necessary. Yet the original focus is on the way to live a happy life. It only affirms to us that happiness is not related to money. But it does not condemn the use of money for a reasonable cosy home, simple clothing and healthy meals. The focus is on the other hand not to crave for luxury. And the spirit is simple life has nothing to do with money and material wealth. So if we have headed towards this wrong direction, it is not too late for us to stop pursuing material wealth as a sign of success or a factor of good life. Life to do without the burden of the pursuit of material wealth is a simple life. The need for a simple life is to make us room available to focus on other aspects of life rather than distracted by this wrong objective of life.
The noble life is the real meaning and purpose of life, so to speak. The word noble does not mean an aristocrat. Rather it refers to the dignity of life or to live a dignified life. It is all about self respect and respecting others. The respect of our own life as well as others is not dependent on what we are, but just who we are, or what God made we are. So self respect should be translated into self acceptance. All it counts is not how we see ourselves and how other people see us but how God sees us and accepts us. We live not for our own ego, not for our boss, and also not for our King or President, but for God. Everything we do is to honour and glorify Him, not ourselves so that we don’t need to please anyone but God. It gives us the needed moral courage to stand up to any human authority that is not right in God’s eyes. Daring to live a non-compromising life may cause us a lot, sometimes freedom, or even our earthly life like all the freedom and human right fighters. But at the end we will receive the most worthy reward from God: - our name be included in the book of eternal life (Revelation13:8), and more so in the honour list of the book of remembrance. (Malachi3:16)
Finally, what is meant by a humble life? Of course, humble does not mean humility and low esteem. We are already told to live a dignified life upholding a healthy and positive self esteem, not because of our goodness but because what God made us and sees us in His own image. So the connotation of humble is a proper reality check of who we are in relation to God. See! in front of your own birth parents, you at least will respect and honour them. Now we are dealing ourselves with our real life creator or giver, more so we should have complete submission to His sovereign control of our life.
On the outset, it seems that our Vice Chancellor is only talking about humbling ourselves to serve others people, to serve the society, to our country and even to mankind of the whole world. Many of us are doing this to a varied degree already. So what is the real challenge? Then, you have to learn a bit of the background of this teaching from the Bible. The way to be elevated to a higher or even the highest place to receive the award from God is by your willingness to put others first by serving like a servant. Jesus Christ gave us a role model example by washing the feet of his disciples when they began an argument who would be occupying the most significant position besides Jesus once he becomes the King of the restored Jewish nation. (Mattew 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45; Luke 22:24-30; John 13:1-17) This is the Christian servant King motif that the actualization of one's life is not by asking what the society Can do for you, but what you Can do for your society. It is actually a plagiarized quotation from President Kennedy with a change of the word from society to nation. But still we have missed the point of learning to be humble.
Jesus tried to show His disciple, he is God but even so he is willing to empty himself to serve others. More so, His disciples need to empty themselves, or be opened enough to receive help from God, if they really want to serve others or even do great things for mankind. Thus the need to humble is to receive empowerment from God to face life challenges.
It is really a difficult concept, so let me have another go to explain by using the most ancient
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen : Lyrics
God rest ye merry, gentlemen(*)
The first verse of the lyric was written in ancient English that has lost its meaning down the history. A merry gentlemen means simply a happy man in today sense, but the ancient definition of “merry” is a man of might who can do whatever he wants.(*) Isn’t it the same dream for us human that we hope we can do anything we want unassisted? And this exactly is the problem; to name one is to save ourselves from the condemnation of our sins against God and all the trespassings against other human fellow. So the lyric comforts us with the true good news that if we “rest” in God, He will enable us to do what He empowered us to do. The word “rest” mean to let God give you power. (*) The English expression of “rest assured” may still carry a bit of this sense of help from an authoritative figure.
You may still think that we human can do most of the thing ourselves. You will find it not true when you have to love your enemy, even to the extent to die for those who viciously want to kill you in the most humiliated way. This exactly happened to Jesus Christ when he was crucified on the cross by the same group of people who once hailed him as Hosanna our king one week ago.
Again you may think I am exaggerating, we have never committed any murder. But the definition of murder in the Bible is: if you hate and humiliate a person, hurting his/her dignity, you will then be liken to have committed murder. Do you have the moral power to love someone who has hurt you in this way? Or do you have the moral courage to seek for forgiveness if you have hurt or murdered someone in this strict biblical sense?
For some more realistic application, can you love a government who did you wrong by injustice? If you are Liu Xia Bo or Ai Wei Wei, can you still respect a government who does not respect your human right? As a human, I don’t think any clear minded person say he can. But in the power of God, He can rest assure us with moral power we need to be a merry and mighty gentlemen with a big enough heart to love and to forgive in God’s manner. So the meaning of a humble life is exactly to be viewed in this manner. You can exchange the word with “rest” in the lyric so it reads like this” “Let us humble (rest) before God to allow him to make us a morally powerful man to do His Will and teachings. This is the basis of my other article entitled “ Accusation in Love” (愛的控訴) We have no fear to voice out our opinions against the unrighteous acts of the Government out of our true love for even our biggest enemy because we have experienced the same kind of love from God when we still sinned against Him.
My Dear CU Alumni, you will begin to feel annoyed as what I have been talking about is totally inhuman. That is correct, no human can have even one % of such moral strength but by the empowerment of God through a prayer, then YES WE CAN. So, it is important for whoever reading the letter from our Vice Chancellor Sung that we have to finish reading it in a prayer. Then you will be rest assured to live a life that is worth living.
(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_rest_you_merry,_gentlemen It is usually given today as "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", with a comma after the word "merry", so does not refer to "merry gentlemen". "Rest" here denotes "keep or make," with "you" as the object of "rest;" "ye" was the nominative form, and thus was nonstandardas the object of a verb. The claim that "merry" once meant "mighty," and is so used here.
我敬愛的中大校長給所有中大友的三生有幸的勸勉
Speech at the 69th Congregation for the Conferment of Degrees
University Mall, The Chinese University of Hong Kong1 December 2011
My Parting Words to the Graduates
This morning when I flipped through the programme of our degree conferring ceremony and glanced through your names, I laid my hands on the list and prayed for each and every one of you. I pray that after you leave school, you will live a life that is worth living. You may ask:What is a life that is worth living?
First, live a simple life. Having gone through your studies and curricula in the past three to five years, you are now equipped with ample knowledge and professional skills. I am sure you will start a splendid career. Let me remind you that happiness has nothing to dowith money and material wealth. A cozy home, simple clothing and healthy meals are thebest you can ask for. Living a simple life instead of craving for luxury is more likely togive you unspeakable satisfaction.
Second, live a noble life. The dark sides of our society are many: unfairness, exploitation, deception, to name a few. I urge you to honour your alma mater by carrying yourself in a dignified way. Take no advantage of the under-privileged and be fair to everyone. Do no harm to yourself and to others. A noble life is one with a clear conscience, an abidance by justice and an uncompromised standard in morality. It is a rewarding life.
Third, live a humble life. Humble as a servant to serve the others as needed. Always think of the betterment of the society, our nation and mankind as a whole. A humble person does not insist on his own view, but listen to the others with an open mind. A great person does not always look up to the summit of the highest mountain, but kneel down to wash the feet of his brothers.
If you can live a noble, simple and humble life, you will have a fulfilled life. You will love your family, cherish your friends and take good care of your own health. You will ask NOT what your Society can do for you, but what you CAN do for your Society.
I believe that the success of university education should not be measured by the monthly income of her graduates, or by the kind of cars they drive, the boats they sail, but by the impact and contributions to mankind they’ve made. You will be representing CUHKwherever you go. Be a real CUer and make us proud.
My sons and daughters, when I read your names, I pray that you will live a life that is worth living.
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