‘Find a purpose higher than yourself’ — SU summer graduates urged
Popularity, money, and power are usually the reasons why people choose a certain career path, but Atty. May S. Pono challenged the 163 graduates of Silliman University (SU) during the 10th Summer Commencement Exercises last May 19 to rethink “why they want to be what they want to be” and find a purpose higher than personal gain.
“We want to be what we want to be because we want popularity…money…[and] power…But should our ‘why’ be all about ‘me’? Is that all we have to struggle for—to give ourselves things? Shouldn’t our ‘why’ be able to transcend beyond ourselves and find meaning and purpose in something higher, something bigger, something more permanent than our fleeting mortalities?” Atty. Pono asked the graduating Sillimanians during the morning rites at the SU Church.
The Cebu-based lawyer and CEO of Maia Gianna Organic Manufacturing said that starting at a young age, children already know what they want to become. Throughout a child’s life, Atty. Pono said, they are taught “how to become what they want to become.”
“We all want our children to be successful, to become rich, so we teach them to choose the course that will likely land them a good job…We spend all of our energies, every waking hour of our everyday, learning the ‘how,’ and applying what we learn into our lives, with the hope that it will get us what we want. In the process, we forget that there is a third and even more important question to ask, and that question is ‘Why?’” she said.
Atty. Pono clarified that while it is not wrong to tell children to work at becoming rich, it is equally important to help them understand and evaluate their motivations in doing so.
“It is okay to tell them that it is okay to become rich. But it is our obligation as Christian parents to help them set their eyes on a goal higher than their own selfish interests…It is never about how much money you have. It is about what you spend it on,” she said.
Atty. Pono then emphasized that as Christians, it is important that we live life “in a way that brings honor and glory to God” and live “according to God’s purpose.” She cited Isaiah 61:1-3 in the Bible as an example of how Christians can glorify God.
“God created us so we can bring glory, not to ourselves, but to Him…We can glorify God if we ‘bind up the brokenhearted,’ ‘proclaim freedom to the captives,’ ‘release prisoners from darkness’ and ‘comfort those who grieve and despair’…That is the reason why we are here, and that should be the reason why you want to be what you want to be,” advised Atty. Pono.
The SU Board of Trustees member concluded her speech by urging the graduates to know the reasons behind their career goals and if those reasons are aligned with God’s purpose for them.
“Unless you find the correct answer to your ‘why,’ you will have lived your life in vain. You will stand on top of your success one day and find everything to be without meaning, and that will be the saddest day of your life,” she said.
To read the full text of Atty. Pono’s commencement address, click here.
