A Grateful Heart, by Fr. Tony Penna
BOSTON COLLEGE CAMPUS MINISTRY·FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016
(The following remarks were given by Fr. Tony Penna, Director of Campus Ministry, at Boston College’s Class of 2016 Senior Toast.)
Only 90 hours remain until Commencement. Only 90 hours before you graduate from this Jesuit University that loves you so much. Today, I’d like to pose a single question for you to think about. Ideally, you’ll do this sometime before your respective deans place a diploma in your hand on Monday.
The question is, “How did you get here?” I mean, under this tent, holding a glass, waiting to toast with friends, with classmates sitting aside you, in front and behind you? How in the world did you get to this point in your life about to graduate in 90 hours from college, something that less than 1% of all the peoples of the world are privileged to do. How is this possible that it’s happening for you? Allow me to share a story that may help you frame this question and your answer.
The story is about a guy named Charles Plumb. Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot during the Vietnam conflict. After 75 combat missions, his plane was blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected. He parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a Prisoner of War camp. Luckily, he survived the ordeal. Now, turn the clock forward many years, Plumb and his wife find themselves sitting in a neighborhood restaurant. A man at a nearby table approached and said, “You’re Charles Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!” Taken aback, Plumb asked the stranger, “How in the world did you know that?” The man replied, “I was on the Kitty Hawk too. I am the guy who packed your parachute.” Plumb sat there stunned, unable to say another word, as the man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb finally replied, “It sure did. If it hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here today.”
That night, Plumb couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about the man from the restaurant. Plumb recounts, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform…. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not said, ‘Good-Morning, or How are you? or What’s up?—because you see, back then, I was a cocky, self absorbed, hotshot Navy fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor.” That night, Plumb thought about this man and about how many hours the sailor had spent standing at a long wooden table deep in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving and folding the silks of each chute so that they would work perfectly, if ever needed.
This random encounter at a neighborhood restaurant changed Plumb’s life forever. He now travels around the country as a motivational speaker. After telling his story, he concludes his presentations by asking his audiences one unforgettable question: “Who has packed your parachute?”
It is this question that I put to the Class of 2016 this afternoon. Who is it that packed your parachute so that you would land softly on your feet, to be under this tent, with glass in hand, friends to your right and left, about to graduate in 90 hours from this distinguished Jesuit University with a life of possibility ahead of you?
Did you really do this on your own? Did you really get here without any help? Do you literally have wings to fly and to land on your own? Or did you, like Charles Plumb, have someone behind the scenes, covering your back, packing your chute, so that you would have this day in the sun, this weekend of celebration in Chestnut Hill, this life with education and possibility as your future?
Saint Ignatius of Loyola claimed the world’s greatest sin is the lack of gratitude. Let this not be true for BC’s Class of 2016.
Let this weekend be a weekend of gratitude at Boston College, a weekend of acknowledging and thanking not only God for blessings had, but all those special people who have toiled and sacrificed deep in the bowels of your lives to provide this amazingly good landing that you enjoy today.
Perhaps, there are many good reasons why you should lift your glasses high in toast this afternoon—but the best reason may be: to give thanks to the special men and women who over the years have packed your parachutes to give you this soft and graceful landing called graduation.
I pray that God grant each of you—and all of you of the Class of 2016—a grateful heart.
Congratulations!
BOSTON COLLEGE CAMPUS MINISTRY·FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016
(The following remarks were given by Fr. Tony Penna, Director of Campus Ministry, at Boston College’s Class of 2016 Senior Toast.)
Only 90 hours remain until Commencement. Only 90 hours before you graduate from this Jesuit University that loves you so much. Today, I’d like to pose a single question for you to think about. Ideally, you’ll do this sometime before your respective deans place a diploma in your hand on Monday.
The question is, “How did you get here?” I mean, under this tent, holding a glass, waiting to toast with friends, with classmates sitting aside you, in front and behind you? How in the world did you get to this point in your life about to graduate in 90 hours from college, something that less than 1% of all the peoples of the world are privileged to do. How is this possible that it’s happening for you? Allow me to share a story that may help you frame this question and your answer.
The story is about a guy named Charles Plumb. Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot during the Vietnam conflict. After 75 combat missions, his plane was blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected. He parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a Prisoner of War camp. Luckily, he survived the ordeal. Now, turn the clock forward many years, Plumb and his wife find themselves sitting in a neighborhood restaurant. A man at a nearby table approached and said, “You’re Charles Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!” Taken aback, Plumb asked the stranger, “How in the world did you know that?” The man replied, “I was on the Kitty Hawk too. I am the guy who packed your parachute.” Plumb sat there stunned, unable to say another word, as the man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb finally replied, “It sure did. If it hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here today.”
That night, Plumb couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking about the man from the restaurant. Plumb recounts, “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform…. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not said, ‘Good-Morning, or How are you? or What’s up?—because you see, back then, I was a cocky, self absorbed, hotshot Navy fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor.” That night, Plumb thought about this man and about how many hours the sailor had spent standing at a long wooden table deep in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving and folding the silks of each chute so that they would work perfectly, if ever needed.
This random encounter at a neighborhood restaurant changed Plumb’s life forever. He now travels around the country as a motivational speaker. After telling his story, he concludes his presentations by asking his audiences one unforgettable question: “Who has packed your parachute?”
It is this question that I put to the Class of 2016 this afternoon. Who is it that packed your parachute so that you would land softly on your feet, to be under this tent, with glass in hand, friends to your right and left, about to graduate in 90 hours from this distinguished Jesuit University with a life of possibility ahead of you?
Did you really do this on your own? Did you really get here without any help? Do you literally have wings to fly and to land on your own? Or did you, like Charles Plumb, have someone behind the scenes, covering your back, packing your chute, so that you would have this day in the sun, this weekend of celebration in Chestnut Hill, this life with education and possibility as your future?
Saint Ignatius of Loyola claimed the world’s greatest sin is the lack of gratitude. Let this not be true for BC’s Class of 2016.
Let this weekend be a weekend of gratitude at Boston College, a weekend of acknowledging and thanking not only God for blessings had, but all those special people who have toiled and sacrificed deep in the bowels of your lives to provide this amazingly good landing that you enjoy today.
Perhaps, there are many good reasons why you should lift your glasses high in toast this afternoon—but the best reason may be: to give thanks to the special men and women who over the years have packed your parachutes to give you this soft and graceful landing called graduation.
I pray that God grant each of you—and all of you of the Class of 2016—a grateful heart.
Congratulations!
