Perched on Mount Moriah where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem. Centuries later, Herod rebuilt and expanded it. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus lavishes praise on its beauty. “…The building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays. … all that was not overlaid with gold was of the purest white” (Ant. 15.391-395).

In Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, the hero Ulysses on his way home from the Trojan War has to pass by a lovely island where the Sirens dwell. These beautiful sea-nymphs were known to lure sailors to their death by their sweet music. To avoid hearing their bewitching song, Ulysses orders his sailors to fill their ears with beeswax. With this ruse, his men successfully escape the fatal danger of the Sirens’ seductive song.

In the Cloisters, which are part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is displayed the Bury St. Edmunds Cross. This highly unusual altar cross dates from the 12th century. It is a Romanesque cross made of ivory with ninety-two intricately carved figures and ninety-eight inscriptions, adorning its front and back.

As you begin a new year of studies, I have you very much on my mind and in my heart. This moment in our history is challenging us to search our souls and to choose between justice and prejudice, violence and peace, reason and emotion. The media have recently been flashing before our eyes the images of angry protests across our nation. When the city officials of Charlottesville, Va., the hometown of Thomas Jefferson, decided to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a downtown park, they ignited a nationwide argument about the propriety of honoring heroes of the South’s confederate past. As a result of this controversy, a statue of Lee no longer towers over the city of New Orleans. And the limestone, almost life-size image of Lee no longer graces the entrance to the Chapel of Duke University in Durham, N.C.

I want to take the opportunity at the beginning of a new academic year to write to you as your bishop. I am very proud that you have chosen to continue your pursuit of truth at the university level. The time spent in undergraduate and graduate studies is a time of growth and change. More than just providing you with the skills and knowledge necessary for whatever profession you choose, a college education forms you intellectually, assists you in discovering your personal identity and helps you grow into a mature individual who contributes to the common good.