MAGNANIMITY

 

2 March 2016

Sharing my notes taken from Talk by Fr. Christopher Seith on Catholic Bytes 

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WHAT IS MAGNANIMITY

Magnanimity literally means great soul. 

It is the virtue that strives for excellence, which disposes men to do great things. 

It is magnanimity that makes us focus on things that are above, on heavenly realities on God himself. ..Great things.

Ephesians 4:22-24

Put off the old man that belongs to a former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lust, and be removed from the spirit of your minds and put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:1-2

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

MAGNANIMITY IS A VIRTUE

Magnanimity is a virtue.  A virtue is a stable disposition of the soul that enables us to do good things easily, quickly and joyfully.  

(An example of a virtue, eg Temperance.  The temperate man, the person with the virtue of temperance, is able to look at a glass of scotch and correctly see that this is something good, and is able to drink the glass virtuously, temperately, without the troubles of desiring drunkenness from the scotch. He is able to enjoy the scotch the way it is, and he does this easily.)

The virtue of magnanimity is a stable disposition of the soul that enables the person to easily strive to do good great things, things that are worthy of honour, things that will get us noticed ultimately. 

MAGNANIMITY & HUMIILITY

In scripture we are supposed to be humble, and yet magnanimity – doing things that are worthy of honour seems to go against humility?  

CS Lewis says it is actually humble to desire to be noticed. Think of a son who desires to be noticed by his father.  He is not proud, he did what his dad asked him to do and he wanted to show his father he was doing something pleasing to him and he wanted to be noticed by his father.   

And we too, never lose this desire to be noticed.  

What the virtue of magnanimity does is to direct that desire toward the person that we should really strive to be noticed by, namely God. That we do things to be noticed and honoured by God himself. 

MAGNANIMITY & HONOUR

The magnanimous person is not put off when he is not honoured. 

If he is dishonoured he doesn’t mind because he wasn’t trying to be honoured by human beings in the first place, he wanted to be honoured by God his Father. And so he is not inordinately distraught about not being honoured.

MAGNANIMITY & BEING FOCUSED

Likewise the magnanimous person doesn’t complain, his mind is focused on doing good, great things.  And so he does not complain when inconveniences come his way, because he is not focused on those inconveniences. He is focused on doing the good.

And also, the magnanimous person doesn’t get bogged down and get distracted.  The magnanimous man focuses on things that are important, things that are great; namely, striving to be a saint, striving to get to heaven.

MAGNANIMITY & THE HEROIC MINUTE

To strive towards magnanimity, Fr Seith suggests practicing the “heronic minute” advocated by St Jose Marie Escriva:  The heroic Minute” is waking up at the first moment of the day and offering our day to God, so that the first moment when we don’t want to do anything, we offer the day to God and say we want to do great things. 

LOOKING AT THE CRUCIFIX

And looking at the crucifix can help us grow in this virtue.  St Peter Chrysologus (5TH century saint) said, “Why, O man, are you so worthless in your own eyes, and yet so precious to God.” Looking at the crucifix we remember our dignity - how much God loves us, what he calls us to - and we strive to live up to that.  And so it is by looking at the crucifix we can put aside our old self and become who were are born to be.

IN SUMMARY

In summary, magnanimity is the virtue, the stable disposition to act towards great things. People who are magnanimous don’t get discouraged, don’t focus on trivial matters and they do great things with great joy because they are focused on pleasing their heavenly father.  To grow in this virtue, try practicing the “Heroic minute” and contemplating Christ’s love for us in the crucifix.