You Are Called to Greatness

Welcome to the 13th issue of the Fit Shepherds Newsletter. People like to make comparisons about who the greatest player who ever lived in a particular sport is, or share the name of a great restaurant, or talk about how great their team is and so on.

To be great is something to aspire to. Let’s see how Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI talks about it:

Man was created for greatness—for God Himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched. “By delaying [His gift],” St. Augustine once wrote, “God strengthens our desire; through desire, He enlarges our soul, and, by expanding it, He increases its capacity [for receiving Him]”.

St. Augustine refers to Saint Paul, who speaks of himself as straining forward to the things that are to come (Philippians 3:13). He then uses a very beautiful image to describe this process of enlargement and preparation of the human heart. “Suppose that God wishes to fill you with honey [a symbol of God's tenderness and goodness]; but if you are full of vinegar, where will you put the honey?” The vessel, that is your heart, must first be enlarged and then cleansed, freed from the vinegar and its taste. This requires hard work and is painful, but in this way alone do we become suited to that for which we are destined. Even if St. Augustine speaks directly only of our capacity for God, it is nevertheless clear that through this effort by which we are freed from vinegar and the taste of vinegar, not only are we made free for God, but we also become open to others.

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Alexandre Havard, a Catholic author, has published a series of books examining the virtue of magnanimity. Here’s his definition of that word:

Magnanimity is the habit of striving for great things.

He also said:

Magnanimity is the conquest of greatness. It is not content to initiate; it achieves. It is not content to aspire to greatness, but to attain it. It is like jet fuel: it is the propulsive virtue par excellence. Magnanimity is the virtue of action; there is more energy in it than in mere audacity. The magnanimous person achieves self-fulfillment in and through action. He gives himself over to it with passion and enthusiasm.

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But there is a cost to being magnanimous. You also have to practice humility. Here’s what Alexandre Havard has to say on this:

Magnanimity and humility go hand in hand. The more aware we become of our personal greatness, the more we need to understand that greatness is a gift of God. Magnanimity without humility is not magnanimity at all; it is self-betrayal and can easily lead to personal calamities of one kind or another. The magnanimous impulse to embark on great endeavors should always be joined to the detachment that stems from humility, which allows one to perceive God in all things. Man’s exaltation must always be accompanied by abasement before God.

A true leader magnanimously assesses his talents and abilities and judges himself worthy of great things, which he undertakes with confidence; at the same time, he humbly perceives his status as a creature and understands that his capacities and his virtues, even those acquired by his personal efforts, are ultimately gifts of God. It’s no denial of man’s own greatness and strength to humbly attribute them to the goodness of God; humility offers up to God this greatness and strength, thereby consecrating them.

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A final bit of inspiration on the topic of magnanimity:

Whoever aspires to sanctity should have a generous, magnanimous heart, which is not satisfied with doing little things for God, and tiny acts of virtue, but is eager to do great things and give great proofs of love. Just as there is no sanctity without heroic virtue, so it is impossible to attain to heroism without performing great acts of virtue.

Some think there is pride and delusion of the devil in fostering great desires, or in wanting to do great things for God. There would be, certainly, if in this we sought honor for ourselves, or praise from others, of if, in trying to do great things, we were to neglect the small details of our daily duties. The virtue of magnanimity, on the contrary, inclines the soul to do great things for God, but never to the detriment of obedience, humility or the fulfillment of duty.

Generous souls, precisely in this domain, will often meet with arduous, difficult things which call for much virtue, but which usually remain hidden from the eyes of others. In circumstances such as these, we are often tempted to give up, under the pretext that it is not necessary to push virtue to such extremes; we excuse ourselves, saying that we are neither angels nor saints. St. Teresa of Jesus says, "We may not be, but what a good thing it is for us to reflect that we can be if we will only try, and if God gives us His hand!"