The Virtue of Fortitude

 

Fortitude is necessary when being confronted 

with the Passions of the Irascible:

hope, despair, courage, fear, anger.

 

Passions are the human reactions, emotions and 

mental states that we all have in common.

Out of the 4 above mentioned, fear is the one 

that stands out the most. 

Because instead of being moved and motivated 

by love in this life, we often act out 

of fear;

we flee something or other because of fear, 

we practise avoidance faced with difficulties,

fear of not having enough money, fear of not 

being liked, fear of making fools of ourselves, 

fear of not succeeding, fear of not being loved, 

fear of what people think about us, fear of being 

slandered, etc. 

Some people live in a permanent state of fear

and anxiety. 

As for anger, it is very often a cover for fear, 

motivated by fear.

So what is fortitude?

It is doing the opposite of fleeing or avoiding; it is 

the power to decide to not flee, to not give in to fear. 

To stay with it.

 

The strength we are talking about is the strength to 

overcome oneself, and not the "traditional" idea of 

"strength" meaning to defeat others, to be victorious

over others.

But what if the situation, feeling or difficulty 

might last for an unknown period of time, what then?

The same; we are asked to stay present with it, even 

though we do not know the duration nor the outcome.

Ok, if we can do something to resolve the difficulty,

we will do that, but in any case, we practice resisting

the tendency to flee or avoid when we feel fear 

by staying present.

The Catholic Faith implies giving everything,

all our willpower, our life and our death.

There is nothing more radical that our faith.

In regard to fear; in human terms what is the ultimate

fearful thing to us? It is death. 

Yet the history of the Catholic Church is full of martyrs 

for the faith, they preferred death rather than renouncing 

the truth.

We are asked to do the same; to go all the way,

to be martyrs if need be.

Our faith is not one of comfort!!

There is also a great deal of fear in despair, we have to 

combat it no matter what.

 

The goal of the Catholic Faith is to be holy; 

to overcome our human weaknesses. To be strong

and steadfast.

We can never be strong as long as we are afraid.

Fear is a state of weakness.