Medley Minute with Fr Sam: THE MALE EGO Having a male ego, or sense of self and one’s capacities, is not evil. Appropriate hubris, or a certain magnanimity, is necessary to accomplish difficult things. A captain of a ship or plane, an athlete winning a match, a doctor saving a life, all need a very sense of their own personhood to do what must be done. Having a “male ego” is not evil if one uses it to provide, protect, guard, and guide people toward the common good. Jesus had a male ego with which he had plow through the depths of all human sinfulness to accomplish our redemption. Egotism, or a self-centered fixation on one’s self and capacities IS evil. It is a corruption of what masculinity and personhood’s certain dignity is for. Because it is a kind vile insecurity, a cowardice in being self-absorbed, a vain self-concern, it is rightly thought of as one of biggest problems of this world. Many people have been wounded by male egotism, and therefore react to try emasculate or demand the stripping of confidence and leadership in men. This particularly true for children of fathers who didn’t use their authority to build them up and love them into well adjusted happy grown ups. True humility does not negate a person’s ego, or magnanimous concern to make difficult goods happen. It sees one’s identity and mission as a gift from God to be given generously in service of others. It actually multiplies the fruitfulness of a well tuned male ego in communion, service, justice, and goodness for many people. False humility is the annihilation of any kind authority, leadership, or headship of men because of a fear of misusing that authority. Unfortunately there are few real men around to mentor other men in Christian manhood. Effeminacy, cloaked in “deference” or “toleration” or “humility” is the cause of great evils being permitted by a lack of good men standing up against it. Let us pray for real men and real leaders to heed the call to stand in the gap of where this world is and where it needs to go: the care of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, the protection of a just order in society, and the battle against the evils that rage against human dignity and fairness.