Homily Given by Abbot Michael Liebl OSB Graduation May 12, 2013 ...

Homily Given by Abbot Michael Liebl OSBGraduation May 12, 2013So seniors before you graduate a last few questions. Do any of you know whatthe CES in Las Vegas is? The consumer electronics show is a convention for vendors ofstate-of-the-art electronics gadgets, from phones to displays to 3-d printers. Do any ofyou know what SXSW in Austin is? South by Southwest is a festival dedicated to music,film and interactive software. Do any of you know what Comicon in San Diego is? DrPeters you cannot answer. I know you already know the answer. Comicon is aconvention that celebrates the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art andculture. All of these gatherings are just reincarnations of the first great exposition theworld ever witnessed. Seniors do you know when and where that was?The Great Exhibition of 1851, the first world’s fair ever held, was staged inLondon. It was a celebration of the latest and greatest technology of the day. Theshowpiece of the exhibition was a building called The Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palacewas a cast iron frame clad in 300,000 sheets of plate glass. It was 1840 feet long (that’sfive football fields), 400 feet wide and 128 feet high. More than 14,000 exhibitors fromaround the world gathered in the Palace's 990,000 square feet. It would make a nicereplacement for the palace here at Mount Michael, don’t you think? The GreatExhibition of 1851 was a tribute to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of humanity.Among the more than 100,000 items showcased at the Great Exhibition, there wasa display of locks. Victorian London was the world’s largest and richest city. Manypeople were accumulating wealth and they wanted to keep their valuables safe. So lockswere a necessity and the English prided themselves on the quality of their locks. A lockof English manufacture was renowned for its impregnability. Jeremiah Chubb, itscreator, advertised it this way: “My name is Chubb, that makes the Patent Locks; Lookon my works, ye burglars, and despair. The lock was called “the Detector”. Any attemptto tamper with the lock caused it to freeze, rendering it impossible to open. Or that wasthe claim. To the great dismay and shock of many English who wanted to believe theDetector ensured safety, an American named Alfred Hobbs picked the Detector within 25minutes. It took him 7 minutes to do it the second time. Lest this story seem a merelyintriguing historical reminiscence, just remember that today’s locks now are mostly of theelectronic variety. A few days ago CNN reported that hackers had stolen $45 milliondollars by defeating the cyber security which was supposed to make access to financialrecords impossible unless you had a key. Apparently not.If locks seem an odd topic for a graduation address, remember that on the papalflag, there are keys. We believe that Jesus gave St Peter, and by extension, the successorsof St Peter, the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Now if St Peter or perhaps Pope Franciswould just hand over those keys to us, our problems would be solved. As I am sure youhave surmised by now, it doesn’t quite work that way. A lock is just a form of puzzle,and life is the grandest puzzle of all. It would be wonderful indeed if a magical keyunlocked all the mysteries of life. We could make sense of everything that happened tous. We could make everyone and everything in the world bend to our needs. We couldmake ourselves happy and satisfied. We could remove all of our problems – no war, noinjustice, no sickness, and with keys to the kingdom of heaven, no need to even worryabout death. It would be grand wouldn’t it? But you already know there is no such key.In a sense that would be too easy. It would take both the fun and uncertainty out of life.

It would make our lives plebian. Human beings are made for challenge. We want to betested. We want to be stretched. We want new horizons to hone our skills. In a sense,we are given the task of emulating Mr Alfred Hobbs. After all if a mechanical clock canbe picked, then perhaps we can manage to pry open the lock of life. In fact I claim weought to be lock pickers. I bet none of your instructors has ever told you that before. Thegreat challenge for all of us is to decipher life for ourselves.So who was Albert Hobbs? How did he become such an extraordinary lockpicker? More importantly, what he can we learn from him? Alfred Hobbs could picklocks because a) he had the background; b) he had the tools; c) he had patience; d) he haddetermination. Notice that I did not list a requirement like exceptional talent or unusualintelligence. Hobbs rambled through his early life in a number of undistinguishedoccupations. He was a farmhand, dry-goods clerk, carriage painter, coach trimmer,harness maker, firefighter, sailor, and glass cutter. Do any of those strike you asrequiring giftedness or singular ability? I don’t think so. But eventually Alfred Hobbsbecame the exclusive vendor of safe locks for a New York City firm called Day andNewell. Hobbs quickly determined that the best way to sell someone a new lock was toexpose the weakness of the one they currently owned. If you can show a customer howuntrustworthy their current lock is, it will likely be easy to sell them a new lock. To picka lock, you have to understand how they work. He studied them. He familiarizedhimself with all possibilities. He became enraptured with the details of lock mechanisms.He knew locks from the inside out. There are a number of good lessons here. You maymove through a number of professions before you find one that fits. But whatever youchoose to do in life, know it well. Study it. Be in love with what you do. Do that andyou can’t help but be a success. A quick aside – knowing a future partner from the insideout is good advice too.When Alfred Hobbs arrived at the Great Exhibition of 1851 he had severaldrawers filled with lock picking tools. Most of them he created himself. He was the onlyone he knew exactly what he needed. The same will be true for you. Your educationhere at Mount Michael and your education as you move into college and beyond suppliesyou with tools. But to be honest, all your classroom tools are rudimentary. None of uscan tell you in advance with what challenges the puzzle of life is going to confront you.You will have to make some tools for yourself. What I can promise you is that yourMount Michael education will enable you to fashion any tool that you think you mightneed. You have the ability to craft the tools that will bring success. More important thantools for a career are tools for living with others. Remember community, hospitality,integrity, moderation and service. “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear andthe blind can see.” 1The next lesson is simply to be patient. Even if someone hands you the necessarytools, you cannot pick a lock without hours of dedicated practice. In calculus class I givethe students more homework than I am quite sure they want to do. But unless youpractice solving lots of problems, calculus will seem a hopeless labyrinth. Hours ofapparent drudgery actually translates into an ability to master the connections whichmakes calculus not just sensible, but even beautiful. Same with picking a lock. It takestime and it takes patience. Hobbs won $20,000 opening a lock that its manufacturerconsidered impossible to pick. It certainly wasn’t easy. It took Hobbs 50 hours to open.That is more than two days spent patiently exploring and understanding a mechanism he

could not see. But he succeeded. The tools of which I spoke will make it possible foryou to create for yourself a meaningful life. Don’t expect instant success. You have totry some steps to see which succeed and which don’t. Sometimes you have to backtrack.But everything you try gives you more experience. Mistakes aren’t all bad. Andsometimes what seems like a false lead actually becomes the path to success later on.The final lesson is determination. Will Rogers once noted, “The road to successis dotted with many tempting parking spaces.” It is easy to get distracted, to get lost on atangent, to pat oneself on the back. Greatness only comes with determination. Hobbshad to travel the Atlantic to prove his lock picking prowess. That’s a significant journeyin 1851. Didn’t stop him. Don’t be deterred by setbacks. A setback is just another dooropening onto a new possibility. Don’t just attend an exhibition or convention. Be thecreator of the next great festival or show.Thank you gentleman for sharing your lives with us the last four years. We haveenjoyed it. Thank you for all you have contributed to making this a great school. Thankyou parents and families for sharing these young men with us. They have enriched us,given our lives purpose and meaning too. Thanks for scholarly efforts and athletic onestoo. Thanks for occasional outbursts of youthful mania such as completely filling thefreshman shower room with balloons. A little amusement is good for us all. And we arenot exactly sure how Psy and Gangnam Style fits into it all.Be sure to thank the faculty and staff who tried to make this the best secondaryeducation you could ever hope to have. Be sure to thank your parents and families whomade it possible for you to be here. It is mother’s day. Mark Twain once quipped, mymother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. Give your mothera kiss today. Remember that St Peter indeed has the keys to the kingdom of heaven.That means you have to work your faith into your life. It will unlock many mysteries foryou. Return to see us when you can. You are always welcome here. You are part of thefamily. Congratulations and God bless you all.