The Forgotten Virtue that Calls Men to Greatness
No, it's not "humble" to be mediocre.
Sometimes I think about all the great men who’ve lived and died before us, and wonder if they feel pain and disappointment when they look down on us from heaven.
I think about the great kings, saints, martyrs, prophets, and warriors of old, about the way they suffered, about the harshness of their lives, and about the fire that moved them forward, towards conquest, towards the highest peaks, towards heaven.
These are men who ventured into the deep, always seeking to expand the frontier of human knowledge, fueled by a God-given fire too strong to ever die, surviving the constant onslaught of war, sin, disease, and suffering. They weren’t perfect, but they were men who dared.
And then I look at myself in the mirror, and at all the men who live today, and the contrast shocks me to my core. We have more opportunities than they ever did, more tools at our disposal, the entirety of human knowledge available to us, and we aren’t even half the men they were.
I look at the men of our time and I see deep-rooted apathy, a refusal to dare and cowardly excuses to remain mediocre in the name of false “humility”.
Christian men are especially guilty of this. We hide behind layers of excuses, avoiding the burden of leadership, comfortably using our faith as an excuse to never strive for something great. Small minded and small souled. We’ve believed the lies of the enemy, who whispers in our ear that a “real Christian man” would tame his fire, would avoid standing out, and would choose to live a life of no influence, forever a spectator, sitting in the sidelines watching the world decay. What’s even worse, we have started to believe that mediocrity is moral, and the desire for greatness a terrible sin.
But is that truly so? Do you really believe God’s will for you is a life of cowardice? Do you really believe a “real Christian man” devotes his life to safety and comfort? Do you really believe he created you to watch the arena from afar, refusing to participate as you hide behind false piety?
Were the men responsible for the expansion of Christendom “not real Christians” because they had big goals not only in the next life, but also in this life of flesh and blood?
A real Christian man is precisely he who walks the line between this world and the next, never settling, always seeking more, not for self-glorification, but in a sincere effort to make of his limited time on earth productive and meaningful. A real Christian man doesn’t put out the fire in his heart, but orders it correctly, towards sacrifice, towards submission to God’s will, and towards expanding His kingdom on earth.
I refuse to believe we are called to live as spectators. I refuse to believe our faith, when lived properly, makes men apathetic and mediocre.
Christ wasn’t. Nor were any of the great men who proclaimed His Gospel and expanded His Church. It’s not prideful to pursue greatness, and I dare to say that it’s more prideful to claim we know better now, and that all of those men of great ambitions who successfully ordered that ambition instead of killing it were acting immorally.
It takes great humility to accept that God calls you towards a life spent striving, under His command, to accomplish great goals for His glory. It takes humility to be His instrument, to step into the arenas of the world and fight for His name and honor.
Greatness is our calling, our heritage, and our duty. But greatness properly ordered. And that virtue has a name, one that we have forgotten and one which we desperately need to remember again: magnanimity.
Magnanimity
Look at the above description and ask yourself if that’s a virtue you embody. Chances are, you don’t. Because I don’t either. Nor do most modern men.
To break it down into a few key aspects:
Magnanimity involves a disposition to strive for excellence and to undertake significant endeavors for the sake of God and others. It encourages us to set high goals and to pursue them with determination and integrity. St. Thomas Aquinas describes the magnanimous person as one who recognizes their worth and potential, aiming to achieve great things in virtue and service1. It’s key to mention that this pursuit is not for personal glory but for the greater good and the honor of God.
Magnanimity demands generosity: This virtue calls us to rise above our base desires and to act in ways that bring about good beyond ourselves2. It’s a virtue that is sacrificial in nature, forcing you to forgo your own preferences and put your life to the service of others.
Magnanimity requires perseverance and toughness: It involves a readiness to confront obstacles and to persevere in the pursuit of good, even when faced with adversity.
The virtue of magnanimity is proof that Christian men are not called to make themselves invisible, but rather —and this aligns perfectly well with Scripture— put ourselves in the frontlines of the fight against evil, make of our lives public examples of virtue, and seek to be mirrors of God’s glory and bearers of the light of Christ.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
— Matthew 5:14-16
The World Needs Magnanimous Men
If our faith is facing a crisis among young men, it’s because we haven’t been doing our job properly. Men need other men to inspire them, motivate them, and push them towards greatness. As I wrote in Christian Vitality:
Young men are full of fire; they are full of life! It’s a terrible shame that every time they try to approach the Christian faith, they encounter within it male role models that have no fire, and too often, no life at all.
They go to church only to find, more often than not, soft-spoken priests preaching confusing messages of a hippie kind of “peace and love” Christianity, and soft, pudgy, middle aged men who clearly live under the leadership of their wives.
Our job as Christian men includes becoming leaders: first to ourselves, so we can control our base desires, second to our families, so we can guide them with wisdom and justice, and third to our communities, cities, and nations, so we can contribute to the eternal fight against evil and leave a mark on this world that lasts even after we’ve perished.
The world needs more magnanimous men, men who are committed to the pursuit of greatness, the right kind of greatness, for the right reasons. It doesn’t need any more cowards passing as humble, and it doesn’t need any more degenerates in positions of power and influence, where they can idolize themselves and sell their souls for wealth, pleasure, and status.
The world needs you, and me, and all the other men who’ve been gifted the spark of life to step up and make a choice to become magnanimous and influential, to stop hiding behind false, comfortable, convenient versions of Christianity that do not require you to demand more of yourself. It needs men who stand firm on their beliefs, and actually pick up their crosses and carry them.
Only when we remember to strive for magnanimity will we arrive at the kind of greatness that matters, and reach our final days resting on the certainty that we did all we could, that we lived for something higher, and that we will be remembered by those who knew us for daring to step up and seek greatness at a time when most wouldn’t.
How to Become Magnanimous in a World that Wants You Mediocre
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Ad Aeternum to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.