In this article, I will address the topic “A Challenge to
Greatness.” The focus will be on the virtue of magnanimity as
striving toward excellence. Over the years, I have come to a better
understanding of magnanimity as a fundamental principle for
developing spiritual wellness, personal wholeness, and a striving
for excellence.
First, I will begin with a simple choice: Ask yourself each day, "Am
I aspiring to be an uncommon person, or
am
I choosing to be an
ordinary, common person?"
Hopefully, you want to be an uncommon person.
Striving to be uncommon means you will have to do the uncommon things
in life, those things that the common, ordinary person usually won’t
do. You see, it is not that they can’t, it is rather that they
won’t. Likewise, it will be your won’ts in life, i.e., “I
won’t do that…,” that will always hold you back from becoming the
uncommon, magnanimous man or woman you are called to become.
Intentionally Designed by God
Coach Tony Dungy, former NFL player, member of
the NFL Hall of Fame, and a
best-selling author, wrote a book titled, Uncommon: Finding Your
Path to Significance. Dungy writes,
"I
believe that the imprint you are meant to leave on this world is not
accidental or coincidental. Your life has been intentionally
designed by God to have a uniquely significant eternal impact on the
world around you.
"Think about that for a moment — your life has been intentionally
designed by God to have a unique and significant impact on everyone
you meet, and many you never meet. What if we all lived our lives
embracing that idea as true — what would our lives begin to look
like? What would we attempt to do that we never would have attempted
otherwise? What difference would we begin to make in the lives of
those around us? What would our communities begin to look like?"[1]
You might want to re-read the above paragraph more slowly and let
the impact of Dungy’s words sink in. “Your life has been
intentionally designed by God to have a unique and significant
impact on the world around you.” That is being uncommon, significant
and magnanimous.
For over 25 years, this concept has been for me in various stages of
preparation as I attempted to discover and become the extraordinary
person each individual is created to become. Yet something always
seemed to be missing; that is, until I read the book Virtuous
Leader by Alexandre Havard that introduced me to a virtue and a
vice, that is the defect of the virtue, which I cannot recall ever
having heard previously. The virtue is “magnanimity,” and its vice,
or defect, is “pusillanimity.” Over the next six months, magnanimity
kept popping up in my readings. I started to figure out that God
was telling me something and I had better
pay attention!
Grand Purpose in Life
Havard, in the introduction to his book, echoes Coach Dungy’s
concept of uncommon and of being significant:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of an America in which a man
would be judged “not by the color of his skin, but by the content of
his character.”
What is the “content of character?” It is virtue, or more precisely,
the set of classical human virtues — above all, magnanimity,
humility, prudence, courage, self-control, and justice…It is my
contention that leaders either strive to grow in virtue as surely as
they breathe or they are not leaders. Life for them is a quest for
personal excellence.
Virtuous leadership is for people who desire to have a grand
purpose in their life. What purpose is grander than the quest for
personal excellence?’[2]
Those men and women who have a grand purpose in their life…quest
for personal excellence are uncommon men and women who will
make a uniquely significant, eternal impact
on the world around them.
Magnanimity, by definition, means “great-souled person,” one who is
growing into the fullness that God created him/her to be, utilizing
all one’s gifts and talents. The word is from the Latin, magnus,
meaning large, great and animus meaning mind, soul. Havard
describes magnanimity as, “The striving of the spirit toward great
things.”[3]
Also, magnanimity is defined in The GNU version of the
Collaborative International Dictionary of English as:
Greatness of mind; elevation or dignity of soul; that quality or
combination of qualities, in character, which enables one to
encounter danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, to
disdain injustice, meanness and revenge, and to act and sacrifice
for noble objects.[4]
The Catholic Encyclopedia
further states that magnanimity:
implies a reaching out of the soul to great things….aims at great
works in every line of virtue, making it his/her purpose to do
things worthy of great honor.”[5]
A
magnanimous leader, therefore, has a sense of a grand purpose in
his/her life, a quest for personal excellence, who aspires to be
uncommon and make a significant impact on the world around him/her.
This purpose or quest can be called one’s mission, vision, or
vocation in life. Havard writes, “A mission/vocation is not
something we invent or imagine. It is a special calling to do a
certain thing and to be a certain way. It is what God expects of us.
We need to discover what that is and correspond to it.”[6]
Properly understood, magnanimity is not being prideful but is firmly
rooted in humility; it is all grace, a gift from God. Again, Havard
writes, “Magnanimity generates noble ambitions; humility channels
these ambitions into serving others.”[7]
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a magnanimous man, who was awarded the 1952
Nobel Peace Prize, once said, “I don’t know what your destiny will
be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be
really happy are those who sought and found how to serve.”[8]
What a noble, magnanimous ambition that is; “those who sought and
found how to serve.”
Small-Souled Person
Pusillanimity, the defect opposing magnanimity, on the other hand,
means “a small-souled person”; that is, one who settles for becoming
less than God created him or her to be, usually out of fear or
intimidation. What intimidates you? What are you afraid of? What is
it that is holding you back from becoming fully who God created you
to be?
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
5th Edition, defines pusillanimous as: “Wanting in courage
and fortitude; being of weak courage; faint-hearted; mean-spirited;
timidity.” The word is from the Latin pusillum meaning very
small, petty and animus, meaning spirit, soul.[9]
A
Google search on “magnanimity,” referenced a paper written by Dr.
Rebecca DeYoung, who teaches at Calvin College. In it, she compares
Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ accounts of the virtue of magnanimity
specifically as a corrective to the vice of pusillanimity. Aristotle
envisions the self-made man, one might sing, “I Did It My Way.”
Whereas, Aquinas associates magnanimity with gratitude as a gift —
true humility — and the need to magnify it, i.e., Mary singing her
Magnificat, celebrating God’s giftedness in her life.
Dr. DeYoung, in her book Glittering Vices, writes:
Those affected by this vice [pusillanimity], wrote Aquinas, shrink
back from all that God has called them to be. When faced with the
effort and difficulty of stretching themselves to the great things
of which they are capable, they cringe and say, ‘can’t.’ In short,
the pusillanimous rely on their own puny powers and focus on their
own potential for failure, rather than counting on God’s grace to
equip them for great work in his kingdom — work beyond anything they
might have dreamed of for themselves.[10]
In addition, Dr. DeYoung writes: “The key transformative feature of
Aquinas’ account of pusillanimity and magnanimity is its
acknowledgment of our fundamental relationship of dependence on God.
Only an acknowledgment of our dependence enables us to grasp the
true worth of the self and to live up to our full potential.”[11]
Pusillanimity, as the defect of magnanimity, makes one settle for
being less than God created a person to be. A pusillanimous
man/woman has a cowardly spirit brought on by fear or intimidation.
To return his/her gifts and talents unopened and unused is a sin. It
is much like one who listens to the whispers of The Deceiver, “Look
at you, look what you’ve done. You’re not worthy. You’re not good
enough.” Have you ever listened to these whispers? That is the BIG
lie, and why the Devil is called The Deceiver, the Father of Lies.
In God’s eye, you are infinitely worthy. You are created “very
good,” and even though at times you may not always act in such a
great or noble manner, you can never lose your created goodness.
Magnify the Gifts and Talents God Entrusted to You
In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas devotes Question
129 to “Magnanimity.”
“There is in man something great which he possesses through the gift
of God; and something defective which accrues to him through the
weakness of nature. Accordingly, magnanimity makes a man deem
himself worthy of great things in consideration of the gifts he
holds from God: thus if his soul is endowed with great virtue,
magnanimity makes him tend to perfect works of virtue; and the same
is to be said of the use of any other good, such as science or
external fortune.
On the other hand, humility makes a man think little of himself in
consideration of his own deficiency…Yet humility makes us honor
others and esteem them better than ourselves, in so far as we see
some of God’s gifts in them.”[12]
The
First Letter of Peter 4:10-11 (NIV) exhorts us:
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others
faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms…If anyone
serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in
all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the
glory and the power for ever and ever.
Therefore, a person should not settle for simply being good when
being called to greatness — to magnify the gifts and talents God
entrusted to you.
Aspirations for Excellence
In the article, “Schooling the Young into Goodness”
it states:
Magnanimity is the virtue that habituates us in aspirations for
excellence. Literally meaning to be of ‘great soul’ or ‘great
spirit,’ magnanimous persons always aspire to what is best, always
reach for what is truly excellent and worthy of their lives, and
refuse to ‘lower their sights’ to less promising possibilities.
…Indeed, the magnanimous person knows that we grow as humans in the
measure that we extend ourselves on behalf of some transcendent
purpose…the virtue of magnanimity suggests that our fundamental
error is not that we hope for too much, but that we settle for so
little.[13]
Think
about that statement, the virtue of
magnanimity suggests that our fundamental error is not that we hope
for too much, but that we settle for so little.
Just to be clear, this greatness of a magnanimous person means that
he/she is a great-souled, great-hearted, generous, ennobling,
dignifying person. It is not about fame, recognition, celebrity,
status, or fortune. It is not in comparing oneself to another, not
in competing with others, but, rather, in discovering God’s unique
gifts and talents in one’s own life and how that life can be lived
in its fullness — not settling for becoming less than God created
one to be.
The greatness of a magnanimous person is also in his/her humility of
service to and for others, reaching out and lifting others up, such
as, many teachers and coaches do as a matter of practice. Many men
and women who are truly magnanimous are not well known until late in
life, or after they have passed on and people recall the legacies
they left behind in the hearts and lives of others.
Dr. DeYoung reminds us:
Magnanimity is a wholehearted readiness to attempt the great acts of
virtue to which we are called, however impossible or daunting the
task may seem and however much the attempt may ‘stretch’ us.
[F]or
Aquinas, this virtue and its operation are possible only through
God’s gift of grace — a gift for which we are dependent on a God who
is greater and more powerful than we are. Magnanimity is thus
fundamentally conceived in terms of vocation and stewardship: it is
a response to God’s call, and willingness to use his gifts….[14]
Noble Ambitions
Magnanimity challenges each individual to grow into the fullness God
created him/her to be, with one’s own unique set of gifts and
talents. It means to believe in yourself because it is God who
created you with a lofty vision for your life, to have noble
ambitions, to dream great dreams; simply, to believe you are worthy
as a child of God and that you are created to do great things. This
is a virtue that will stretch a person to become uncommon, significant, and
magnanimous.
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, said in
his 1899 speech at the Hamilton Club in Chicago:
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,
even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those timid
spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in
the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.[17]
Roosevelt’s quote challenges each person to personal greatness:
“Far better it is to dare mighty things,…than to rank with those
timid spirits who…live in the gray twilight…”
Teddy Roosevelt was a
leader who exemplified the essence of an uncommon, significant,
magnanimous person. It requires stretching oneself to dare things
mightily, challenging oneself to aspire to greatness. That is the
perfect image of the inner struggles between settling for
pusillanimity or aspiring towards magnanimity.
In other words, a magnanimous man or woman has aspirations, striving
to make a difference, to achieve. Pusillanimous individuals, on the
other hand, often just settle for less believing it is fate, or that
they are not worthy of it.
Professor Abraham Maslow used to challenge students with these
questions:
“Which of you is going to write the next great novel?”and “Who is
going to be a saint like Schweitzer?” [We might add, the next St.
Francis of Assisi?, the next St. Teresa of Calcutta?, or the next
Saint John Paul II?] For, if not you, who will?
Confronted with such big ideas, the students would only blush,
squirm and giggle. Then the famed psychologist would assure them
that he meant what he said. “If not you, who will?” he demanded.
Each person could ask that question of themselves.
Every moment, God holds out a chance for each person to be more, to
achieve more. Each moment, God gives us what we need to respond to
that invitation. We have what it takes. Will we use it? If not us,
who will? If not YOU, who will?[18]
Spiritual and Moral Greatness
Former Vatican Swiss Guard Andreas Widmer writes in the “Foreword”
to his book, The Pope and The CEO, that St. John Paul II
frequently challenged young people this way:
Don’t ever settle for anything less than the spiritual and moral
greatness the grace of God makes possible in your life. You’ll fail;
we all do. But that’s no reason to lower the bar of expectation. Get
up, dust yourself off…keep trying. But don’t ever settle for being
less than the noble human being — the leader and exemplar you can
be.[19]
Likewise, Pope Francis spoke directly
to young people:
I
ask you young people who are just setting out on your journey
through life: have you thought about the talents that God has given
you? Have you thought of how you can put them at the service of
others? Do not bury your talents! Set your stakes on great ideals,
the ideals that enlarge the heart, the ideals of service that make
your talents fruitful. Life is not given to us to be jealously
guarded for ourselves, but is given to us so that we may give it in
turn. Dear young people, have a deep spirit! Do not be afraid to
dream of great things![20]
In summary, Dr. DeYoung reminds us that “magnanimity is a
wholehearted readiness to attempt the great acts of virtue to which
we are called, however impossible or daunting the task may seem and
however much the attempt may ‘stretch’ us.”
Those great-souled men and women who “have a grand purpose in their
life, a quest for personal excellence” are uncommon men and women
who will make a uniquely significant, and lasting impact on the
world around them.
Finally, “don’t ever settle for being less than the noble human
being — the leader and exemplar” God created you to be. “Do not be
afraid to dream of great things!” Aspire to live magnanimously and
it will stretch you into the individual God created you to become.
For if not YOU, who will?
✤
✤ ✤
Notes:
[1]. Dungy, Tony,
Uncommon: Finding Your Path
to Significance, Carol Stream IL:Tyndale Momentum, 2011,
p. 211.
[2]. Havard, Alexandre,
Virtuous Leadership,
NY:Scepter Publishing, Inc., 2007, p.xiv.
[4]. “Magnanimity,”
The GNU version of the
Collaborative International Dictionary 0f English, accessed on
August 3, 2021.
[5]. “Magnanimity,” New Advent,
The Catholic
Encyclopedia, accessed on
August 3, 2021.
[9]. “Pusillanimous,”
The American Heritage®
Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, accessed on
September 21, 2021.
[10]. DeYoung, Rebecca Konyndyk,
Glittering
Vices, Grand Rapids:Brazos Press, 2009, p. 9-10.
[18]. Cavanaugh, TOR, Fr. Brian, “If You Won’t
Who Will,” Fresh Packet of Sower’ Seeds, Mahwah,
NJ:Paulist Press, 1996, p. 45. Adapted from “What A Day This
Can Be!” The
Christophers, used with permission.
[19].
Widmer, Andreas,
The Pope & The CEO: John
Paul II’s Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard,
Steubenville, OH:Emmaus Press, 2011, p. x.
[20]. Pope Francis,
General Audience, Saint
Peter’s Square, Wednesday, 24 April 2013, ,
accessed 0n September 21, 2021.
