Ignatius of Loyola put down the biographies and asked himself a simple question about their subjects: “What if I should do what St. Francis and St. Dominic did?” In effect he asked, “Why not me? What is to stop me from being a saint?”
Such was the noble aspiration that eventually took him to sainthood. In his first rule of life St. Maximilian Kolbe expressed this holy ambition even more clearly: “I must be a saint and a great saint.” The goals of these men may strike us as too much, extreme, even downright prideful. But in fact they proceed from a virtue, indeed from “the crown of all virtues” — magnanimity.
Magnanimity is the virtue that prompts us to seek great things in the service of the Lord. It explains the seemingly overreaching ambition of the “Sons of Thunder,” Saints James and John. They approached our Lord and boldly said, “Grant that in Your glory we may sit one at Your right and the other at your left” (Mk 10:36). And even when our Lord made known to them the cost of this reward — “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mk 10:38) — they responded generously: “We can.”
We may mistake magnanimity for pride, as in fact the Apostles did: “When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John” (Mk 10:41). Magnanimity denotes a certain aspiration of spirit, a stretching forth of the soul to great things — a holy ambition. The word itself comes from the Latin for “great soul” (magna anima). But magnanimity differs from pride in this: it operates not in consideration of a man’s own worth, but in consideration of the gifts he has received from God. Magnanimity is anchored by humility, which gives a man the sense of his own insufficiency. The two virtues must travel together, keeping one another honest, lest humility become pusillanimity and magnanimity become pride.
Magnanimity (as the word implies) also “magnifies” the other virtues. It gives increase or added strength to all of them. Think of it as a magnifying glass held up to the other virtues. By magnanimity we stretch out to greater charity and aspire to higher hope. We desire to perform greater works of mercy, to make the Lord even better known, to do the more difficult thing for the glory of God — and even, as St. Ignatius put it, “for the greater glory of God.”
True, the man cultivating magnanimity may sometimes outrun the virtue and need to be reined in. Our Lord had to do this on occasion, and in particular with James and John (cf. Lk 9:54-55). But it is an easier thing to harness ambition than to stimulate indifference. And how much more inspiring magnanimity is than the current state of mediocre spiritual aspirations. Our culture permits ambition in all areas — in sports, careers, finances, politics, etc., but not in religion. There we must be moderate, lest we be labeled “fanatics.” Even within the Church, unfortunately, we often reduce the goal to just being nice, a basically good person, a “good enough” Catholic (as some have actually encouraged).
Of course, this “greatness of soul” does not require the same great deeds and actions of everyone. It simply means that we aspire to great things according to our state in life and with the gifts God has given us. It means that we not content ourselves with half-measures or mediocrity. Humble in regard to ourselves, confident in regard to the Lord, we exercise a holy boldness in prayer, word, and action — all for the greater glory of God.
Fr. Scalia is parochial vicar of St. Rita parish in Alexandria, Virginia.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
