Less than a year ago, a graduating senior of the class of 2007, Kent Iwaniec, walked across the stage of the Carey Center and received from me his Bachelor of Arts degree, Major in History.

Last Friday Kent was coming home from work when another vehicle crossed the center line of Route 41 and crashed into his car. Despite medical efforts to save his life, our brother Kent did not survive the accident and went home to God.

This Friday, at 10 a.m., there will be a memorial Mass in the Archabbey Basilica where his family and many friends and admirers will commend Kenton E. Iwaniec's soul to God. Words can not express our sorrow and shock at his sudden departure.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to his friends and family - he was one of four children of Kenneth and Debra Iwaniec, and their only son - and to the many students on our campus, as well as alumni and faculty members of Saint Vincent, who knew Kent. Fr. Brian Boosel taught him two classes and told me today how much Kent loved life and lived it to the fullest, and also how Kent was a man of sincere faith.

When Kent left Saint Vincent, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to go into law enforcement. He wanted to serve others and if necessary lay down his life for others. He enrolled in the Pennsylvania State Police Academy and joined Troop J in the patrol unit at the Avondale Station in Chester County. He was only three months out of the Academy when his trip home from his last evening shift was cut short.

Kent joins a procession of great people who once walked on our campus and now are home with the Lord. One cannot attend Saint Vincent and not be immersed in its noble history that extends 1500 years.

Today is the feast of Saint Benedict. This great man, considered the patron saint of Western Civilization, lived in the 5th and 6th centuries and the religious order that bears his name later inspired a young German priest, Boniface Wimmer, to voyage to America and found Saint Vincent College in 1846.

There has been a steady succession of Benedictine monks on our campus ever since. If you go behind the residence halls you will see the crosses marking the graves of many of these monks and others who placed Saint Vincent at the center of their lives.

Saint Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 25, recounts Jesus telling a parable that ends: "The moral is: keep your eyes open, for you know not the day or the hour."

It is true - we do not know the day or the hour, and neither did Kent. He finished his shift and headed home just as he had done the day before. Kent left us all too soon but his life and death can inspire us to do as he did: to embrace life, to walk faithfully with the One who created us, and to leave this world better for our time here.

His passing challenges us to cherish each day that God gives and discover anew our purpose here on earth so that one day we can hear the words of Jesus later in that same Chapter 25: "Come. You have my father's blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world."

With confidence we pray that Kent heard those words of welcome last Friday and is now at rest in that kingdom, and may each of us hear those words one day, too.

I hope you can come to the Mass for Kent at 10 a.m. on Friday in the Basilica.