In his words inscribed on the Rockhurst Bell Tower, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J, former Superior General of the Society of Jesus, calls each one of us “to act accordingly.”   These words are at the heart of what it means to be Men and Women for Others.  Not only are we to be of service to others in all that we do, but the Jesuit mission of this school asks us to go one step further, calling us to seek constantly to improve under the idea called the Magis.  Magis literally means “more,” but more in the sense of quality, not quantity.  Magis is about always searching for something more, something greater, something that better responds to the situation at hand.  For me, Magis is best understood as trying to make the most out of each experience, approaching it with the perspective that I will only have the experience once and that it should not be wasted.  Living the Magis requires a motivation to act above-and-beyond what our culture may ask of us and to aim higher than what is required.
     
 At Rockhurst we have been surrounded with examples of the Magis every day, and we are faced with infinitely more opportunities to live it ourselves.  Each year dozens of Rockhurst students take part in wonderful service trips abroad and domestically, but we don’t have to be immersed in service on a service trip to seek wholeheartedly to serve others in a way that pursues the Magis.  We have witnessed it on-campus in the perseverance of students taking Organic Chemistry, the cheerfulness and friendliness of the cafeteria workers, the genuine care of the Campus Ministry staff, the dedication of professors, and countless other examples every day.  At the same time, examples of how we do not live the Magis have abounded on campus: sitting with the same people in the cafeteria or Fishbowl instead of with someone new or different, or apathetically approaching a class needed merely to satisfy the core curriculum are just a couple of simple examples.
      
If we are authentically striving to be Men and Women for Others, we must be willing to engage in the restless, purposeful drive to improve what the ideal of the Magis calls us to, rather than settling for what is easy.  Admittedly, our nation and our culture are not designed to promote loving, selfless service of others, but our 469 year-old Jesuit tradition at Rockhurst is.  We can choose to follow the self-satisfaction and individualism our society values or to pursue the selfless community-oriented ideals of the Jesuit tradition.  We can chase after the Magis or blindly tag along with the status quo and settle for what is good enough.
      
In his book Heroic Leadership, Chris Lowney says that “leadership is defined not by the scale of the opportunity but by the quality of the response.”  So we must ask, what will be the quality of our responses?  Anything less than the Magis is less than a total response and is thus not a wholehearted attempt at showing our appreciation for the love and grace God shares with us in the world.  Fulfilling the deepest potential of every experience, seeking to serve all those around us in the best and greatest way possible, and always improving at being Men and Women for Others is the spirit of the Magis.  As the rapid pace with which time has sped by in my four years at Rockhurst should attest, life is too short and too valuable to live it in any other way.

Christopher Shaver
Class of 2009