Like every year, it was time for graduations at "Good Shepherd College". This time the event was held at the School for the Deaf. Below, my speech.
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REMARKS BY THE RT. REV. José Luis PONCE DE LEON IMC, BISHOP OF MANZINI,
AT THE GRADUATION CEREMONY OF GOOD SHEPHERD COLLEGE
2nd NOVEMBER 2018
His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’
(Matthew 25:21)
As I see the graduating students all dressed-up and waiting to receive certificates and diplomas which certify the successful completion of various programmes offered by the Good Shepherd College, I recall the words in the parable of the talents:
‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master’s joy’.
Together with the master in the parable, I also say well done to the graduating students. You have clearly demonstrated that you have the decisiveness to embark on a mission and to stay focused on it in the midst of many potential distractions.
However, like all endings, this is also a beginning, it is the beginning of your professional life. Now is the time to take away your focus from the challenges of being a student and to start focusing on using the knowledge, skills and attitudes you have gained in the college to work diligently for the health and wellbeing of EmaSwati and all other peoples who will be committed to your care.
It is now that you begin to work for the final ‘well done’, a well done which is not said in any human language, a well done which cannot be heard by any human ears, a well done which cannot be written in any book, yet it echoes ever loudly in the deep recesses of your informed conscience.
Whenever you do healthcare and do it the way it should be done, whenever you treat your patients as they should be treated, remember that whatever treatment we give to them is a treatment we are giving to our Lord Jesus Christ himself, as he himself pronounced: ‘I was sick and you visited me’ (Matthew 25:36).
Whenever you say anything which needs to be said the way it should be said. Indeed, whenever you act for the best interests of others:
‘giving and not counting the cost,
fighting and not heeding the wounds,
toiling and not seeking for rest’,
you will hear this well done in the depths of your conscience. Strive dear graduating students to hear this well done after every action you carry out so that these well dones may build up into that final well done when Our Lord and Saviour will welcome you to your eternal reward.
Standing before you on the occasion of the graduation of these fine young men and women, I also take the opportunity to give thanks to His Majesty’s government for the support they give to the hospital and college; I also thank various members of the donor community who have partnered with the hospital and college to ensure that the services delivered to the people of Eswatini are of a very high standard. Noteworthy is the partnership with Boitekanelo College in Botswana which has seen the launching of the Occupational safety and health programme this academic year.
Finally, let me also thank the Board of the Hospital and College for the oversight they provide to hospital and college activities; the Management of Hospital and College and The Principal and Staff of the College for all the work that they do towards the achievement of the purposes of the College.
May God bless you all
+ José Luis Ponce de León IMC
Bishop of Manzini
