You have probably seen the Sky ‘no compromise’ TV advertising campaign in which Eric Cantona, Forrest Gump-like, walks through some of the great moments of sporting history.
I saw one of the associated posters driving down the A40 recently, which has Cantona looking broody beside the following caption:
WHAT’S THE POINT OF GREATNESS IF YOU CANNOT WATCH IT?
It’s meant as a rhetorical question, but surely there are plenty of answers. Even before I had hit the next set of traffic lights my mind darted from the exquisite carvings around the vault of a gothic cathedral, too distant for the unaided human eye to see, to the spiritual heroism of an enclosed nun like St Thérèse of Lisieux, to the hundreds of thousands of relatives caring for their sick and disabled loved ones without acknowledgement or reward.
But perhaps Eric and his Sky-paymasters would counter, like the medieval theologians, that all this hidden greatness is indeed meant to be seen: in the present moment by God, and at the end of time at the Last Judgment by the whole of creation. Quite an audience. And perhaps they’d give an even less theological answer, which is that I can only point to examples of such hidden greatness and humility because they have in fact come to light. I can take my binoculars to Chartres Cathedral, read a book about Thérèse, or see a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the lives of carers in modern Britain. Technology and the media have made it possible for me to discover this hidden greatness for myself and then to speak about it to others. Lots of paradoxes here.
Bridges and Tangents 
Despite all the complaints we hear about the problems of living in the modern age, this post highlights how fortunate we are. There are countless wonderful things in life, be they built or natural which, without the modern technologies of TV, the Internet etc, we would probably never see. The other thing which it brought to my mind is that there is a vast amount of greatness out there but we cannot hope to see it all and comprehend it. It is one of the wonders of life which we are made more and more aware of by the technologies we all take for granted.
Late in the wee small hours of the night, this post also reminded me of people. Ordinary, everyday people, who seemingly go about their ordinary lives in a quiet, unassuming way. Some of these people are, or have been involved in truly great achievements but, for their own reasons, elect not to discuss them with anyone. It is often only after such a person’s death that others learn of their achievements. Other people do small things in their own quiet way which, when combined with the efforts of others, lead to truly fantastic results.
I think there is a real and true potential for greatness in all of us and it is God who unleashes this potential and gives us the opportunity to help others in whatever way He decides.
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat,
and snicker
And in short, I was afraid.
T.S.Eliot
and then Mathew on the story of the women who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb as they hurried away from the scene “with fear and yet great joy”
Mathew
I think of everything of which I personally see greatness in, and I realize that it is with His eyes I am seeing.