WORCESTER, Mass. (CNS) – "To be free, you must be brave," the chief justice of the United States told graduates of the College of the Holy Cross May 25.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts brought history, government and mountains into his commencement address after receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree from the college. About 640 graduates received bachelor of arts degrees.
Addressing the graduates at the college's Fitton Field, Roberts drew laughter and applause as he said, "In my capacity as chief justice, let me begin with a subject I know something about: Nice robes."
He said the graduates were indebted to their families and friends, who were no doubt relieved, proud and perhaps surprised that they graduated. And the students' families "are probably just plain indebted," he joked.
"Today is a day to celebrate not only your success, but the sacrifice of all those who worked so hard to make that possible," he told graduates. "In fact, now is a perfect opportunity for you all to stand up, turn around and thank your families and friends." The graduates did so with applause.
The chief justice told graduates that Holy Cross posed to them a question of universal importance: "How then shall we live?" and commencement was a good time to "pause and see where you are in coming up with an answer."
He spoke of Francesco Petrarch, a man of faith and learning several centuries ago, who climbed a mountain, initially to see what such an elevation had to offer. An old shepherd told him the climb would yield only fatigue and regret.
The advice of elders is most suspect when it says "something you have your mind set on cannot be done," Roberts said.
Petrarch's brother took a direct route up, while Petrarch chose routes that looked easier, but ended up taking him down, the chief justice said. He finally gave up looking for an easier way, concluding that "no human ingenuity can alter the nature of things."
At the top, he saw more and greater peaks. But the climb also had caused him to look inward.
"You have been educated on a hilltop, but now you go out to climb mountains," the chief justice told graduates of the college that sits on a hill dubbed Mount St. James. "Some of these mountains will be of your own choosing: goals, ambitions, desires. Other mountains will chose you: crises, handicaps, setbacks. Either way, if you would get to the top, you have to climb.
"And when you reach the summit what you will find are more mountains," Roberts said. "This college should have taught you, as Petrarch learned, that if you do not progress internally along the way, the climbing will not be worth much in the end."
The chief justice told graduates they would be confronted with choices and "so long as you make those choices within the confines of ... principles that do not change, your personal constitution, you probably will not go too far wrong."
"You've been climbing Mount St. James for the past four years," he said. "Today ... you have reached the summit, and from the top you can see ranges of other mountains you could not have imagined four years ago. Happy climbing."
The chief justice is married to Jane Sullivan Roberts, a 1976 graduate of Holy Cross and current member of the college's board of trustees. Nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate, Roberts took his seat on the Supreme Court Sept. 29, 2005.
Prior to becoming the 17th chief justice of the United States, he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
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