Cathy Rigby. Gymnast Cathy Rigby was the first American woman to win a gold medal in a World Gymnastics Competition, which she did at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Cathy Rigby was a member of the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team in the 1972 Olympics at Munich. Like other Olympians, her goal was to win a gold medal. And to reach that goal, Rigby trained hard. When competition-day arrived, she, tense with determination not to let her team and her country down, prayed to the Lord for the strength and the control to get through her routine without making mistakes. Cathy performed well, but not well enough to have her name among the winners. She was crushed. Afterward, Cathy joined her parents in the stands, all set for a good cry. As she sat down, Cathy could barely manage to say, “I’m sorry. I did my best.” Her mother replied: “You know that, and I know that, and I’m sure God knows that too.” Then her mother said ten words that Cathy has never forgotten: “Doing your best is more important than being the best.” (From Soundings, Vol. D, # 7, pp. 1-2.)
Those words are full of wisdom for each of us on our Lady’s team. Indeed, the Legion never asks us to be the best at everything we do: It only asks us to do our best in everything we do for Jesus and Mary. The Handbook says as much within the section we read together a few moments ago, dedicated as it is to the topic of “Intensity of Effort in the Legion.” There we heard the following sentences: “Because one works with Mary and for her so completely, it follows that one’s gift to her must be the choicest that can be offered. One must always work with energy and skill and fineness” (H, 34). And “work with energy and skill and fineness” translates into a member’s giving one hundred percent of his or her mind, muscle, and heart in whatever is done within the Legion – viewing what we undertake not as a duty, but as a gift to our Lady. Just as we would never give something broken or insulting to one we love, so we should never think of giving a sloppy, careless, or partial effort to our beloved Queen and Mother. Because we prize her, we must wrap every Legion action, whether at the meeting or in the field, with our finest!
Some may think that such an ethic is too demanding or highly unrealistic. Yet we must consider the fact that such an approach of “giving our best” is definitely supported in the Bible. In the Old Testament, God did not say, when it came to offering sacrifice, that He would only accept expensive gifts. Instead the Lord requested that what is given, no matter what its price, be the first and the finest of what one has. In fact, when the prophets chastise the people for their offerings, it is often not because some were giving simply, but because many were giving cheaply – because they kept the choicest for themselves while turning over to God what they did not want or found defective. This then underlines the Handbook’s point and rationale on “Intensity of Effort,” for it is asking us not to obsess over the “size” of the gift placed on the altar of the Legion of Mary, but to be more concerned that we present our first and finest. It knows that the Lord and His Mother deserve nothing less than our best!
Legion members, let us take care to make such an offering. We do this at our meetings when we arrive on time, pray with concentration, prepare our Handbook readings thoughtfully, take part in the discussions with interest, and write reports which are thorough, instructive, and interesting. We do this on our assignment when we arrive punctually, accept our roles, put our heart-and-soul into the work, come ready and rested, follow through and follow up on tasks, and do not leave until two hours elapse. In so many ways in the Legion, it comes down to quality, not just activity, because while activity shows obedience, quality shows love!
Legion friends, let us remember what is most important in our Legion service: not our success, but our generosity. For indeed what the mother of Cathy Rigby says is true: it comes down not to being the best, but doing our best – worrying less about attaining all and more about giving our all when it comes to our Legion service. Doing that will always make us “winners” in our Mother’s eyes!
18 December 2016: Rev. Frank Giuffre/Philadelphia Senatus
Reading: Handbook, pp. 34-35 [Chapter 6, Section 4]