Catawba College’s graduating seniors were told to look inside themselves if they want to find “the Holy and the Sacred.” That advice from Dr. J. Daniel Brown, professor emeritus of religion and philosophy, came at the annual Baccalaureate Service held Friday in Omwake-Dearborn Chapel in campus.
“You will find what you seek … in yourself. That is where God is ó or there is no God,” explained Brown, who spent 30 years teaching at Catawba and then founded and now serves as the executive director of the Center for Faith and the Arts in Salisbury. “The holy, the sacred, is in you. It comes to you not with piety, but with truth ó truth about yourself.”
Urging the students to “set aside time” to “Embrace the presence … the presence of the Holy,” Brown said that “an organized religion that lays out all your experiences for you, that assumes this is what you need,” cannot connect them with God. Only an internal examination of themselves can bring them to that meeting.
“I suggest that you meditate on life ó your life. If not in a church or synagogue, then somewhere quiet,” he continued. “The notion of a God ó is as old as the human race. I speak not of the Fifth Avenue notion of a God … but of the deity to whom one can turn and find solace.
“If you have found that small thing that triggers the presence of the sacred, you have found a valuable experience. God is not dead unless you choose for God to stay out of your life. The choice is yours.”
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth Clapp, Catawba’s chaplain and senior vice president, introduced Brown, who holds degrees from Lenoir-Rhyne College, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary and Drew University.