ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 6 MAY 2026
It’s been labelled a ‘myth’, a ‘trap’, a ‘tyranny’: the very idea of meritocracy has been much criticised so labelled in recent years.[1] Commentators from prestigious universities like Harvard and Yale, if not from UNDA, have taken aim at the very idea that talent and hard work can and should determine a person’s social situation and life-course. Meritocracy, they argue, is a tale the successful tell themselves to excuse their privilege, a story that breeds hubris among the winners and humiliation among those left behind. In a world where postcode matters more than exam results, the promise that “you can make it if you try” rings hollow, these critics say.
But does this claim stand up to scrutiny? Granted the imperfections of the merit principle and recognising the many other factors that shape a life, merit has surely opened more doors to people from all walks of life than previous social systems in which accident of birth fixed a person’s fate, and aristocracy and nepotism secured the success of the lucky few.[2] Whilst meritocracy has its flaws, it is surely fairer than making bloodline or geography the sole determinant of a person’s life, so that instead of asking “whose family do you belong to” or “who are you connected to”, we tend to ask “what have you achieved so far and what more can you do?”
That question is the very one, dear graduands, that you have been answering through your journey to this moment—whether actively through thinking it through for yourself and talking with others about it, or at least implicitly in your choices and actions. You have attended lectures, tutorials and seminars, read whole books (I hope) or at least the set readings. You have completed projects, written essays and sat exams—all the time resisting the temptations to plagiarise other people’s work or get ChatGPT to do it for you! You’ve done the clinical placements, the practicums, the research. All of this was your hard work, your merit – whatever your background advantages and disadvantages.
Yet is merit enough? It might get you a well-earned degree and a sought-after career that is professionally fulfilling and financially rewarding—all good things, no doubt—but is that sufficient for the good life? As real and as valuable as our efforts are, they were never meant to stand alone. Merit needs a partner, something bigger than us, beyond us…
In our epistle this evening, St Paul tells us something that would prick the ears of the meritocrats. He tells the Ephesians that they should live “holy and blameless” lives “in conformity with God’s purposes and will… for the praise of his glory”. So it’s on them to live meritorious lives.
But Paul also says that God “chose” us, not after we had proven ourselves worthy, not after we had submitted our credentials, but “before the world was made” (Eph 1:3-6,11-12), before we were made. Before any essay was written, any exam sat, any thesis researched, before any of us had done a single thing to recommend us, we were “claimed as God’s own”. Like the gift of life itself, like the gifts of reason and freedom and creativity and love, like many of our opportunities in life, so redemption in Christ and incorporation into God’s family are pure gift. Not our just desserts. Not recompense for our good efforts. But something freely given according to God’s “own kind purposes.” God doesn’t wait to see our academic or spiritual transcript before adopting us “to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his good pleasure”. This pure generosity on God’s part is called grace and if we feel we don’t deserve it, we’re right!
In tonight’s Gospel (Lk 1:39-47), we see what it looks like when someone truly understands this. Mary has just received her extraordinary Annunciation from an angel that she will bear the Son of God as her own child (Lk 1:26-38). She reacts with astonishment and humility and asks a question that no “self-made man” would think to ask: “How can this be? I have no merits to recommend me to be Mother of God. I have not even done the things you do to have a baby.” But she says Yes to God’s gracious will. And on being told that her cousin Elizabeth needs her, she rushes to her side. Elizabeth, now filled with the same Holy Spirit as Mary, cries out another humble question: “Why should I be favoured with a visit from the Mother of my Lord? If I don’t deserve to be pregnant in my old age, I certainly don’t deserve such a Visitation.” It is the question of someone who knows, deep in her bones, that what has come to her is gift, not reward.
Mary responds, again with the grammar of grace (Lk 1:46-56). No qualification flexing but a simple song: “My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit exults in God my saviour, for he has favoured a humble maiden… yes, the Almighty has done great things for me.” Every word is directed outward, upward, toward the God who acted first. The Magnificat is the ultimate anthem of someone who knows that the deepest things in life, those that matter the most, are sheer gift from a loving God.
And so dear graduates of Notre Dame, of Our Lady, have the humility to recognise two great truths. First, that your talents are real, your efforts matter, and you are right to use them. God made you with intellectual, emotional, creative gifts, and He expects you to cultivate them and use them for good. Remember that the servant in the Gospel who hyper-cautiously buried his talent was not praised, indeed he was condemned for wasting his opportunities (Mt 25:14-30).
But second, remember that you cannot do your best, relying on yourself alone. Your life and health, intelligence and freedom, identity and ideals are not all your own doing. Your family, friends, teachers and God have largely given or supported these things. And so much of what you do going forward, so much of what you make of yourself, will depend on those around you and God above. Appreciating this, there is much you can do to respond well, but in humility you must recognise that much of it was given you.
As you graduate and take up the next chapter of your lives, in further study, in business and professions, in leadership and service, in family and friendship, we celebrate your achievements. Like Mary, like Elizabeth, you rightly rejoice. Now continue to deploy those talents and qualifications well. Work hard. Pursue excellence in everything. But above all, give thanks, humbly acknowledging that before you proved yourself, you were chosen, you were loved. Magnify the Lord for what is within you, as those two women did. For the deepest ground of your dignity is not what you have done, but what God has done for you.
Congratulations dear graduands. God bless you always.
[1] Daniel Markovits, The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite (New York: Penguin Press, 2019); Stephen McNamee and Robert Miller, The Meritocracy Myth (3rd edn, Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014); Michael Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020).
[2] For a recent defence of meritocracy, see Steven Schwartz, “In defence of meritocracy,” CIS Analysis Paper 50 (Sydney: Centre for Independent Studies, 2023), https://www.cis.org.au/publication/in-defence-of-meritocracy/
INTRODUCTION TO THE GRADUATION MASS FOR UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME AUSTRALIA
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, SYDNEY, 6 MAY 2026
Welcome friends to St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney for our annual Graduation Mass for the University of Notre Dame Australia – a Votive Mass of Mary. I acknowledge concelebrating with me: Bishop Tony Percy, a trustee of the University; Most Rev. Terry Brady, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Sydney; Rev. Fr Lam Vu OFM Cap, Chaplain of the University of Notre Dame Australia;
From the leadership of the University, I salute: the Chancellor, Mr Paul McClintock AO; the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Francis Campbell; several Governors, Trustees and Directors of the University; other officeholders; executive, academic and general staff; and friends of the University.
From the University’s partner the Catholic Institute of Sydney, I acknowledge the President, Prof. Hayden Ramsay, members of the Senate of the Catholic Institute, and senior staff, along with graduating students.
Tonight I salute the family members and friends of our students who have supported them through their tertiary education journey. Above all, a very warm welcome to our graduands: we are proud of you, congratulate you on your achievement, and tonight pray for your future!
