Fortitude: Attack and Endure

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Fortitude or courage is 

The determination to become happy; To overcome fear in the pursuit of the proper good; To make sacrifices and take risks; To do what is right even when you don’t want to, especially when things are hard or boring; And to be willing to sacrifice what is lesser for the sake of what is greater; the greatest good being union with God and heaven.

There are two forms of living out courage: Attack and Endure. Attack does not mean that it is your job to fix or condemn all the people and problems you see. Attack means to eliminate any evil that is under our authority or within your control.

We see Jesus live out this courageous attack when he cleansed the Temple with the whip. The Jews intervened and said: What sign can you show us to justify what you have done? Jesus answered, “Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in three days.” He was speaking of the Temple of His Body. The primary place we should direct our attack against evil to eliminate it is in ourselves – for we are the temple where God dwells.

This might surprise you, but God is totally obsessed with our happiness and we want to be happy more than anything else. Sin, my sin and yours ruins our happiness. Therefore, Courage in the form of attack should be directed first toward eliminating our dominant vices – those things that destroy happiness: Pride, vanity, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust, gossip…

A few questions I was reflecting on:

Where do we need to stop sinning?

What is the sin I am least likely to be free of before I die and getting rid of it will feel like it is killing me?

What sin is so much a part of my life that it is part of my identity? What sin do other people most identify with me?

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God has placed us in charge of many good things we must promote and preserve. However, we must be clear on our scope of authority and responsibility.

Our 1st zone of authority is our own behavior.

The 2nd zone is our family and kids – the Domestic Church.

Our 3rd zone is our workplace and voting.

We spend an awful lot of emotional time and energy being angry, sad and fearful about zones that are not under our authority like Governing the country, the world or the Church.

If my wife tells me about something, I immediately think its because she wants me to fix it. I notice the same thing with news. If they tell me stuff it must be because they want my input, they want me to solve it, right? All these international and U.S. problems I now have to fix. They make me overwhelmed, angry, fearful…Wait a minute…this is not my zone of responsibility!

The Church is also not our zone. It is not our job to correct the Bishop or the priests. That is the job of the Pope and Bishops. And it is certainly not our job to constantly spread the dirty laundry about the Church or the Pope, this or that bishop or priest.

Finally, other people are not our zone of responsibility – but social media has convinced us its our job to know everything about everyone else.

But one of the main ways the devil keeps us from eliminating evils in our own life is by making us fixated on the evils of others.

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The good of those under our authority must come before our personal preferences.

We must always ask this question: What is the good that I have been placed in charge of that I must promote or preserve? Is it the unity of a marriage, the eternal salvation of my kids, the culture and success of a business or profession; the well-being of employees; the common good when it comes to voting.

We need to ask this question – what is the good that I must nurture or protect so that my pride or personal preferences don’t get in the way.

Let me give you and example: So often in marriage we insist on being right to the point of making a mess out of our relationship. The unity of the marriage is way more important than always being right. My ego wants me to be right. But it is not enough to be right, because sometimes in our insistence to be right we lose something of greater importance – the good of the marriage I was supposed to nurture and protect with courage.

Having a great marriage and at the least staying married is more important than always being right.

It is better to be united in imperfection and divided fighting for perfection.

Apply this principle to raising kids, running an organization, voting – the good that we must promote or protect must come before our personal interests.

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When we face an evil or some suffering that we cannot change it is very easy to become angry at God and the world, grow resentful and despair. The real danger is that we lose our faith, hope and love.

Endurance is the second part of fortitude – it’s where we hold fast and remain good in the face of evil.

With Attack we do all that’s in our power to change things that are bad. But once we’ve done all we can to change a bad situation, and there is no more we can do; this is where we become Courageous through endurance. We accept the things we did not choose, do not like and cannot change, and we Offer them up and unite them to the suffering of Christ because God works all things for good for those who love him.

Jesus saved the world when he accepted the Cross.

The most spiritually fruitful we can be is the patient acceptance and endurance of the sufferings, which God in His providence allows in your life.

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Some times the only viable option is to suffer patiently and endure the trials that beset us.

In these situations, directly attacking the evil is ineffective; what is required is a persistent pursuit of the good in holy patience. In fact, patience is the supreme test of fortitude, since when you’ve run out of other options, patience still enables you to hold your ground and persevere through any oppressing hardship.

So, ask yourself, what hardship is present in your life, and just won’t go away? Is it some addiction you can’t break? Some disappointment you can’t get over? Do you have some kind of chronic problem? Are your family relationships or your friendships always strained? Is there something you’ve never been good at? Are you depressed? Can you not figure out what to do with your life? What’s that problem you just can’t fix, no matter how hard you try?

Because in that difficulty is the opportunity to prove yourself brave: will you persevere in doing the good, in spite of whatever problems continue to weigh on you?  For example, let’s say you can’t manage to stop a certain vice: will you keep going to confession, and keep trying to do better?  If so, that’s fortitude.  Or maybe you’re in a marriage that’s terribly unhappy, deeply unsatisfying both to you and your spouse. Will you stick it out, continue trying to love your spouse and children, and ask God for the graces to bring peace into your family? If so, then you are proving your courage, and the Lord won’t let that courage go to waste.