The Virtue of Fortitude

Monday

Deuteronomy 31:6 .7. 22-24 “Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

This week’s guidelines are all about the virtue of Fortitude. This means spiritual strength and courage, something which is referred to a lot in the Bible. The Bible tells us not to be afraid 365 times, once for each day of the year. There is a sense of totality about God’s call not be afraid.

What is this fear? It maybe some difficult person or situation that threatens us. Fortitude enables us to overcome the obstacle that gets in our way.

Lord, come into our hearts with your strength that we may overcome our fear that stops us from entering into full relationship with you and reaching out to others as you want.

Tuesday

2 Chronicles 15:8 “And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord.”

Justice (or the right choice) demands that we face our obstacles in God’s strength. Maybe it is someone at work we find difficult or some task that is not easy for us that we would rather try to avoid. Either we find something more pleasurable to do or we just decide to avoid the difficulty.

These alternatives, or comfort zones, are like our idols. Yet God wants to help us to overcome our fears. When we do so we are restored to God and his plans for us. It is never in our own strength, but by asking God to come in and help us to overcome our difficulty we grow stronger and more aware of the presence and grace of God.

Lord, it is only by your own strength that we can face the challenges that life brings. Help us to know our calling, and to become more dependant on your all strengthening love.

Wednesday

Matthew 14:27 “Take courage it is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Matthew 14 : 22 – 33 is all about Jesus walking across the water, and his invitation to Peter to walk with him. It was stormy and the other disciples were afraid. Peter is so taken with Jesus being on the water that he decides to join him. At first he is confident and trusts Jesus, but when he becomes aware of his circumstances, he becomes afraid and starts to sink.

So often we start out inspired by Jesus, but when the difficulties come we can be so overwhelmed, we can feel like giving up. But Jesus calls us not to give up, and He speaks the words to us “take courage it is I. Don’t be afraid”.

We can’t live life in the absence of trials and difficulties, but when we come to know Jesus and his love for us and his will for us we can then look beyond our difficulties and trials towards other people and his hope for our lives and the lives of others. We can achieve this when our eyes are fixed on him and not on our circumstances

Lord, help me to step out into the unknown, into the difficulties of life, keeping my eyes fixed on you. When I am tempted to give up, remind me that you are near

Thursday

Acts 4:13 “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

In this reading the disciples are being brought before the Sanhedrin, being brought to account for their faith. Even people in the Sanhedrin were amazed by their faith.

There may be times when we face criticism or ridicule on account of our faith or at times no apparent reaction at all. We really don’t know what the deeper reactions of others might be to our faith. It may never be expressed to us, but our attitude of grace of tenderness may influence in ways that we do not know.

There are various schools of thought that help us to understand fortitude. The stoics see all strong emotion as a sickness, which is followed by Emmanuel Kant, who said that the man who acts out of happiness is reacting to pathological will.

Aristotle says the virtuous man will be angry, but is ruled by reason, while the brave man has intelligent anger.

The vices opposed to fortitude are cowardice, fearlessness and recklessness.

The coward allows fear to overcome reason and prevents what he should do for the sake of justice

The fearless person is not really brave because the brave person knows the risks that he faces. The reckless person rushes into things in an untimely way, willing to risk everything, even when it is not the best course of action.

erseverance is the most important part of fortitude. According to Aristotle and Aquinas, perseverance is undermined by someone living a ‘soft life.’ The person who indulges in pleasure and who avoids discomfort, will be unwilling to go through sadness.

The Military and religious orders do without extra comforts so are more able to persevere, but over-perseverance can lead to obstinacy, when really that person should yield to others.

When we go through difficulties it changes us and makes us into stronger people, full of experiences that help others. We can achieve all this through trusting in God and in his will for our lives.

Lord, Jesus help us to trust you and to believe in your will for our lives that we can overcome our fears and difficulties knowing that that you are near, knowing that you love us and want to strengthen us

Friday

Philippians 1:14 “Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word more courageously.”

In this passage Paul is imprisoned in chains, and yet in the previous passage he is giving thanks, how can this be?

It is because Paul has come into a relationship with God, with Jesus, a relationship of trust, that all is well, in spite of his human circumstances.

St. Paul had his whole focus, the eyes of his heart fixed on Jesus. His security was in heaven and the things of the next life, so if this life was unpleasant it did not matter to him.

The fact of him being in chains encouraged his brothers to go and to preach freely, when otherwise they may not have done.

We can have many discomforts and difficulties in our lives, which we can wish were not there and yet we can go through them if we come to know what God wants and our focus is on the next life and not this life. If we focus on this life we grumble, and we are not content with anything.

We can be strengthened like the brothers to tell others of our faith, and realise that where we face trial and difficulty, if we are able to share that difficulty, it helps the other person.

When we persevere through the challenges and difficulties of life, we become stronger, but also others can be inspired by our perseverance.

Lord help us to persevere in the difficulties and challenges of our lives, may we live as witnesses to your life in us. May our lives be an inspiration to others, by the way that we live.

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Verbum Dei UK