The Wisdom of Francis

Frequent readers of my blogs know that I often talk about new ways to discuss our schools, advocating that we aim to recapture the evangelistic fervor that resonates from the gospels and our Catholic tradition. (Previous posts on this theme have been here and here. ) I believe how we articulate our purpose to others matters profoundly in building the right culture for our schools,  as long as we are willing to carve out time to speak thoughtfully, frequently and consistently about this purpose as leaders in the school, recognizing we have a kind of "bully-pulpit" to do so.

In my view, Pope Francis is particularly adept at speaking to young people about the challenge of the gospel, and thus serves as a great source of inspiration for us as Catholic school leaders on how we might talk about our mission to others. We used his brief remarks on "magnanimity" as the foundation of our "vision" for St. Michael Catholic High School, resulting in a tag line that says "Forming Great Hearts and Minds to Do Great Things."

Here are some other Francis quotes that I believe provide us with beautiful ways to think and talk about our schools:

First, here are two quotes from the "Joy of the Gospel" to inspire us as leaders:

Finally an evangelizing community is filled with joy; it knows how to rejoice always. It celebrates every small victory, every step forward in the work of evangelization (sec. 24).

Challenges exist to be overcome! Let us be realists, but without losing our joy, our boldness and our hope-filled commitment. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary vigor! (sec. 109).

And here's some of his messaging to young people:

Yours is a time of life which is full of amazing changes.  Everything seems possible and impossible all at once.  I repeat what I said to some of your friends: “Remain steadfast in the journey of faith, with firm hope in the Lord.  This is the secret of our journey!  He gives us the courage to swim against the tide.  Pay attention, my young friends: to go against the current; this is good for the heart, but we need courage to swim against the tide.  Jesus gives us this courage! … With him we can do great things; he will give us the joy of being his disciples, his witnesses.  Commit yourselves to great ideals, to the most important things.  We Christians were not chosen by the Lord for little things; push onwards toward the highest principles.  Stake your lives on noble ideals” (Homily at the Conferral of the Sacrament of Confirmation, 2013).

“With [Jesus] we can do great things; he will give us the joy of being his disciples, his witnesses. Commit yourselves to great ideals, to the most important things.” (Vatican Radio address to young people) 

I ask you, instead, to be revolutionaries, to swim against the tide; yes, I am asking you to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes that you are incapable of responsibility, that you are incapable of true love. 

Do not be afraid to go and to bring Christ into every area of life, to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent. (Rio, World Youth Day, 2013) 

"Let yourselves be touched by his boundless mercy, so that in turn you may become apostles of mercy by your actions, words and prayers in our world, wounded by selfishness, hatred and so much despair." (in anticipation of World Youth Day, 2016)

May we bold enough to discuss our purpose with the same evangelistic zeal as our pope! 

Great Minds, Great Hearts, Great Things

I often look for ways to elevate the discussion of our schools with others, and in this respect, I continue to be edified by Pope Francis, who has a way of saying things both simply and powerfully. Not too long ago, he said this off the cuff to an audience of Albanian and Italian elementary and high school students:

Following that which St. Ignatius teaches us, the principle element of school is to learn to be magnanimous. Magnanimity: this virtue of the great and of the small, that makes us always look to the horizon. What does it mean to be magnanimous? It means to have a big heart, to have a great spirit; it means to have great ideals, the desire to do great things to respond to that which God asks of us, and exactly this doing of daily things well, all of the daily acts, obligations, encounters with people; doing everyday small things with a big heart open to God and to others. It is important, therefore, to tend to human formation aimed at magnanimity. School not only expands your intellectual dimension, but also the human dimension.  (Vatican Radio, June 7, 2013)

Great minds and great hearts to do great things for the Lord--what a powerful way to talk about our mission with others! 

"Magnanimity"  comes from two Latin words, "magna" meaning "great" and "anima" meaning mind or spirit. Thus "magnaminity" means literally "great-mindedness." St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa, defines it as a "stretching forth of the mind to do great things. " He contrasts it with "pusillanimity," from "pusil," meaning "small," such that a pusillanimous person is a small-minded one, without great aspirations or ideals. It makes sense, then, that in modern parlance, pusillanimity is a synonym for cowardice, since those without large vision or ideals are not moved to action and are inclined to "play it safe." 

Aquinas argues the reason people tend toward pusillanimity is that deep down, they don't believe they have the "qualifications" to be magnanimous. They believe that magnanimity is a virtue for the spiritually elite-- the saints, perhaps--but not for us, we who are ordinary.  It's as if we tell ourselves, "if we aim low, we won't be disappointed." 

And in fact, we live in a culture that consistently aims low for our youth: "We don't really believe you're capable of virtue or of chastity, so practice safe sex." "We don't really expect you to be committed to scholarship, so we'll inflate your grades." "We don't think you're capable of handling disappointment, so we'll be sure that you and everyone else gets a trophy." And the sad thing about this consistent messaging is that teenagers begin to believe these things about themselves. 

But that's not our vision in Catholic schools! We are children of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, infused with God's grace to do great things with our lives for others! We are all called to holiness! We are all called to become saints!

I believe teenagers are hungry, deep down, to be challenged. They are utterly bored and uninspired by an accommodating, "lowest common denominator" approach to life. Instead, they want their lives to matter; they want to be challenged by the gospel, to believe that such a life is possible, and they are powerfully attracted to people that seem to be living as if it were. 

Magnanimity, then, needs to be the consistent theme of our schools, calling our students to do great things. "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me" (Phillipians 4:13) is the Scriptural message. And even in doing the lesser things, Mother Theresa remarks: "We can do small things with great love." May we consistently remind our students they are powerful, strong, and capable of doing great things for others.