Something important happened yesterday at the Al Smith dinner that should not be lost among all the schadenfreude of watching Trump get booed by the New York elite.
At the end of Hilary Clinton’s speech, she turned from humor towards the type of bridge-building that is much more in her comfort zone, and spoke to this group using words that would be music to their ears:
Now as you may know, my running mate, Tim, is Catholic and went to Jesuit schools, and one of the things he and I have talked about is this idea from the Jesuits of the Magis, the more, the better. We need to get better at finding ways to disagree on matters of policy while agreeing on questions of decency and civility. How we talk to each other, treat each other, respect each other.
So I’ve taken this concept of Magis to heart in this campaign, as best as one can in the daily heat, the back and forth of a presidential campaign, to ask how we can do more for each other, and better for each other. Because I believe that for each of us, our greatest monument on this earth won’t be what we build, but the lives we touch.
The reference to the Magis isn’t something that every Catholic would catch, but in this crowd of the well-heeled and well-educated, it resonated strongly with more than a few people watching.
What is the Magis?
The Magis is a central concept in Jesuit and Ignatian spirituality. Many of the people in that room would be either Jesuit-educated or at least familiar with the Spiritual Exercises that are a key part of Jesuit teaching and form the core of Ignatian spirituality, and they would have picked up the reference immediately, as I did.
It comes from the Jesuit motto “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” — For the Greater Glory of God — and it describes the criteria a person should use when discerning among different alternatives, so that their actions will be for the greater glory of God.
If you’re not a person of faith, you can translate the Magis as “that which is for the greater universal good” — and I, as a person of faith and a student of St. Ignatius of Loyola, would see that you and I are headed in the same direction, even though we are not in perfect accord about the ultimate destination.
The Greater Good
The Magis is the best option from the alternatives that will lead to the greater good: it’s better to solve the problem of poverty at the root level than it is to just give the poor barely enough to survive indefinitely. Of course, the poor need food, shelter and medicine but we should not think that our job is done because we’ve met today’s need only. We’ve done nothing to prevent tomorrow’s need. To fulfill the Magis, we need both charity and the pursuit of social justice to truly love our neighbor as ourselves.
But this textbook definition doesn’t represent the passion that is attached to the pursuit of the Magis by people of faith who have dedicated themselves to serve God and neighbor. And this is why Clinton’s statement last night was a strong lesson in how to talk to sincere people of faith.
The Resonance of the Magis
A commitment to the pursuit of the Magis is a commitment to go beyond even whole-hearted dedication to the service of the greater good — for Christians, to answer the call of Jesus to love and serve God and to love and serve our neighbors, to go beyond what we think we’re capable of doing when we answer that call and offer our service to Him.
Clinton made reference to the Magis in the most respectful way possible, by acknowledging her debt to Tim Kaine for learning about it, and for her effort to to embrace the Magis via the Methodist tradition of “do as much good as you can for as many as you can everywhere that you can for as long as you ever can.”
So the lines, although scripted and probably not by her, came across as sincere bridge-building to further the greater good, focusing on the commonalities, rather than the differences and calling us all towards the greater good.
This is how to talk to people of faith.
And if we want to take back our country permanently, we need to know how to build these bridges.
Clinton is on track to win the Catholic vote this year, despite her full-throated defense of abortion rights. The Evangelical Millennials are as concerned about climate change as their parents were about being against gay rights. The Mormons are just as disgusted by Donald Trump as we are.
Some of these Christian voters may be trying on the Democratic party for the first time; perhaps surprised that the people down at Democratic Headquarters don’t have horns and tails, or astonished to find themselves planning to vote for a woman for the most powerful position in the country. Some of them may even see that the Republicans make good Pharisees, but not so good at following the parts of the Bible that exhort them to take care of all God’s children. They may even find themselves here.
What welcome will the people of faith find among us?
At times, it seems like religious intolerance is the last acceptable form of bias among liberals. People say things about evangelicals, Catholics and other Christians that they’d never say about Muslims or Hindus, much less people of color, or people who actually have the mental disabilities that some seem to think we have.
I know a lot of people on this site are “nones” — some spiritual, and some none at all. And I know some who have obviously been hurt deeply by the Catholic Church, by one of the Evangelical off-shoots of Calvinism, or by “prosperity gospel” mega-churches. The leaders of these branches of Christianity have done some colossally stupid things and some deeply disturbing, even criminal things.
It’s hard for some to see how anyone could still believe in anything said at any church.
Yet there are those of us who say with Peter, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Or who say with (St.) Dorothy Day, “(The Church) is a harlot at times, but She’s still our Mother.”
Our faith in a loving, gracious God is not rational, and the experience of a personal friendship with Jesus is not easily put into words. We carry the burden of 2,000 years of evil things done under the banner of Christ. Yet we believe in Him, we rest in Him, we trust in Him and we give our allegiance to Him. We try to discern His will and we try to fulfill it, reaching for the Magis as best we can. Since we are finite beings reaching for the infinite, we fall short of the greater good, again and again, but our faith tells us to keep reaching for it.
It’s hard to see the greater good, much less attempt to fulfill it.
If we want the greater good — a better country, justice and peace, economic security that extends beyond the 1% – we need to build bridges so that we can connect our visions together.
As I’ve watched Clinton come into the fullness of her power every day that she gets closer to the Presidency, it’s clear to me that she gets this — that it’s not just talk with her. She preaches the Gospel of her campaign with deeds more than words.
So when Clinton talks about reaching for the Magis within her campaign, when she uses the very word that defines this progressive Catholic’s own striving to live the Gospel, it’s clear to me that she respects the role my faith has played in making me who I am, and who I want to become.
She has shown the respect — and taken the time — to understand who her audience is and how we talk about what’s important to us.
She’s chosen her words carefully to emphasize the similarities rather than the differences in our faith traditions. More than that — she has evoked our best selves — the people we are when we are most in alignment with God’s will for us — and joined our best selves to her cause.
So we can be more than just allies-of-convenience to defeat a common boorish enemy — we can be companions on the journey to seek the greater Good, seeking the path of justice in our bigger and smaller ways. I’m With Her because she is with me in this struggle.
This is how to build bridges with people of faith.
It’s not as sexy as Obama’s Audacity of Hope, but it resonates deeply.
I’m sure there are people on this forum more versed in the subtleties of this than I am, and I welcome any corrections / additions to this.