Baccalaureate Address

Dr. Jim Henderson

This is the full text of Mr. Henderson's address.

"Please grant me just this one concession and anyone who wants to join me: it's too hot. (He removed his jacket). That's actually the first rule of medicine-make yourself comfortable, and then your patient comfortable, and then proceed. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffery, thank you, Brian and the Spiritual Life Committee, thank you to all of you who had a part in choosing me to give this speech.

I wish you could know what an honor it is for me to speak to your class; I continue to get emotional, so pray for me. It's double honor for me, because as I look at your faces, I see people who have befriended somebody very precious to me [his daughter, Anne Henderson] and have loved her and, in so doing, you have changed her life forever. She loves you with all her heart, in case you don't know that, and therefore, I am blessed.

And it's also an honor for me to address you because I've had the privilege to get to know a few of you a bit, and I think, in fact, that's really my credential for speaking to you today, with the wisdom of someone who knows you who could keep this personal. Whenever you've had an illness or emotional or other type of problem, it may have been a problem for you, but it provided an opportunity for me. To know you has been one of the greatest joys of my last eight years here in Mussoorie. The villages and the people in the town are wonderful, but I think you guys take the cake. I'm blessed for having been part of this school, even though tangentially.

My daughter said, "Dad, whatever you do, keep it brief, and don't preach." So by God's grace, that's what I hope to do. You've already heard what Baccalaureate is-this is a service of blessing; it's a spiritual service of blessing. What a joy, but it also has the potential for confusion. In fact, as much as I honor and respect you, that has created a real tension in me because it would be very easy for me to try to serve up, perhaps, clichés, nice things, to speak gently and adoringly to you and to tell you that the world's there waiting for you-go for it-as some places in India say, It's Reebok, go for it!

But I can't say that to you because I don't believe that's what a blessing is. Annie read to you those scriptures; they are actually called "The Beatitudes." Contrary to what I was told as a young man, it's not the "Be Attitudes." It's not, "Be this and be happy." It's, in fact, just the opposite. A beatitude is a proclamation of blessedness or a blessing spoken over somebody who is loved, and you are all very dearly loved, so I can't do less than that when I pronounce this blessing over you. It will be brief.

Now, I remember 30 years ago, sitting where you are now, and I had the world at my feet. I was not as smart as the Noras and the Toms and the CheonHas and the Insuks, and the rest of you, but I was smart. I was magna cum laude; I went to a prestigious university. I studied medicine at two of the finest places in America. I came from a good family, and I had good health. The world was at my feet. Well, as you've already heard from some, this world is quite a place. It's full of wonder for sure, and there's an incredible joy and a journey waiting for you. I just applaud you, having heard especially what I heard yesterday about some of your accomplishments, truly impressive.

But there is a problem: this world that we live in, that provides the framework for our life, often would love nothing more than to chew you up and spit you out, to use you as an object for itself, and not to know you and love you as the precious individuals that you are. You'll be leaving a very protected and wonderful environment, where people all around you have loved you well, some of whom you haven't known, but they have. You're entering a world that is tough, and so to speak anything less than the blessing that Jesus spoke would be foolish for me and also less than love.

A quick illustration: 1923, Carlton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois: "Eight of the most powerful and rich men in the world gathered. . . ." Who knows what for? Maybe just to navel gaze and applaud each other. These men's combined wealth exceeded that of the United States Treasury at the time, men of power and influence and certainly of reputation. What eventually happened to them? They had had success defined to them, as the world does, and, unfortunately, as the West preaches very loudly these days, "Success, success, success, financial security and whatnot." Three or four of these men's lives ended in suicide. Three of them ended up in prison or out of prison just before their deaths, and another ended his life in misery. I think, by my calculation, that left one who did ok.

So, success does not lead to blessing, and the definition of success in the Western sense certainly does not. So, what is blessing? If you were listening as Anne read, I want to highlight just the first and the last of these Beatitudes. Jesus is speaking to a crowd really not unlike yourselves. At this time, like no other time in history except today, this was a global society that was pluralistic. People from all over the world-Africa, Asia, Greek speakers, and Latin speakers from the Roman world-gathered. And into this area great need was found. This man, sitting up on a mountainside with a crowd much larger than this but not unlike it, opened his mouth, and he said with joy, "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of heaven is yours." And he said, "Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be filled."

And if you'll remember what I said: blessing is not happiness, happiness depends on circumstance, and circumstance is fickle. It's wonderful, but it's not blessing. Blessing speaks to an ultimate sense of well-being, a state of spiritual joy that goes to the depth of the human heart, and if it does so, it speaks to the place where we all live-the place of hunger, the place of poverty, the place of this preciousness, this God-created image bearerness that was made for something much more than a lot of what you have tasted in your lives. So, blessedness is something that I want, and I think you want, too.

What is blessedness, then? Well, to speak this [blessing] over you, I have to say this: I've seen pain in your lives. I've heard confusion; I've loved it because of your honesty, and it has made me face my own. As a physician, I've had the greatest privilege of being a part of the greatest profession, except maybe for teaching, in the world. And I still hold out for In Suk and Anne and maybe Connor and perhaps Nora to go into medicine, maybe more of you. But it truly is a blessing, and the reason it's a blessing is not only can you help people, but you're face to face with honesty every day of your life. People come in who don't fake it. Hypocrisy is left at the door. People are hurting, and people are in need. And you must find something to meet it.

So you have to face hunger, and it's not hunger, again, that would lead to our natural conclusions, such as more food, illicit sex, drugs, success, money, power, whatever. It's a hunger that gnaws at the inside of our soul; it's a hunger for a love that would never leave us and a hunger for significance, which is what we were made for. That's where you have to go if you want to talk blessedness over somebody. So, Jesus was either mad, or He really knew our hearts when he spoke like this.

I want to end by telling you this: The only one who could speak to the hunger of your soul is the one who would leave everything and taste that hunger for you. The only one who could speak to the poverty of the human condition, the ability to love others without contamination of self, and to love God, which is what we were made for-that's the one who left the riches of heaven, came and was born in a dirty old stable and walked the way of the cross, dying in our places for the penalty that we're due and living the life that we could never live-a vicarious atonement.

Now Anne said keep it personal. I've got to share this; sorry if you've already heard it. When the world was at my feet, my life was crashing around me. I was a second-year medical student, and the confusion that Tony spoke about came full circle, and I felt as if my life was meaningless and, in fact, might end. I didn't know where to turn or what to do. I certainly didn't know what to do with these feelings. It was at that time one night, when I heard the sweetest voice that I've ever heard probably echoing something that I'd learned long ago: You can continue to try to be (forgive me) intrepid, to be tough, to earn your way through life, or you can yield to the only perfect life that ever was. And all the blessings accrue through it. What do you want? What do you want? When I heard that voice, I was in the pit, and it sounded like life; it sounded like water, and I couldn't say no.

And when I said, "Yes, I want that more than anything else," I had to die to self. That's what scripture says-those who would live must die. Those who die will live, and that's what blessedness is. Into my heart at that moment came the most powerful, wonderful thing I could ever have imagined. The joy exceeded almost my capacity to hold it. I had been blessed. And that's why I'm a doctor now; that's why I love you. Because I don't have to earn anything any more, I'm free. It was for freedom to love that I was set free, and so I pronounce that over you. Blessing is not according to the world's standards. Blessing is costly, and it involves death. But it's been done, and it's there-free-for all who are hungry and poor enough to want it. How do you receive it? All the fitness that you need is to know your need; that's it, nothing else. So, go your way into this world. I hope you're not afraid. As was said, because somebody tasted fear and all that it could throw at us and bore it, we have nothing to be afraid of now. You are precious, and you are loved, and I can't wait until I meet you again. The Lord bless you. Amen.