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Virtue of Fortitude Part 2

5/16/2013

 
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 FORTITUDE MUST NOT TRUST ITSELF

The brave man must first know what the good is, and he must be brave for the sake of the good. It is for the sake of good that the brave man exposes himself to the danger of death Fortitude is not independent, it does not stand by itself. It receives its proper significance only in relation to something other than itself. “Fortitude must not trust itself”, says St. Ambrose.

Every child knows that in the list of cardinal virtues fortitude comes third. This enumeration is not by accident, it has a real meaning and purpose. Fortitude become fortitude through being informed by prudence. For the virtue of fortitude has nothing to do with a purely blind, daredevil spirit. The man who recklessly and indiscriminately courts danger is not for that reason brave; all he proves is that, without preliminary examination or distinction, he considers all manner of things more valuable than keeping his life intact. Prudence as we have seen give inner form to all the other cardinal virtues. With fortitude and temperance they serve to guard and conserve the good of man; it is their function to preserve man from declining from this good.

Fortitude therefore, by itself, is not the primary realisation of the good. But fortitude protects this realisation or clears the road for it. But we also need justice, for without a just cause there is no fortitude. “Not the injury, but the cause makes martyrs,” says St. Augustine. “Man does not expose his life to mortal danger, except to maintain justice. Therefore the praise of fortitude depends upon justice,” says St. Thomas.

ENDURANCE AND ATTACK

To be brave is not the same as to have no fear, yet fortitude does rule out a certain kind of fearlessness, which is based on a false assessment of the danger.

It can be either because we are blind and deaf to the real danger or due to a perversion of love. For fear and love depend on one another. Someone who does not love does not fear either, and he who fears falsely loves falsely. Just as on who has lost the love for his life, and the will to live, is not concerned with the fear of death. He is one who does not love and does not fear.

Fortitude assumes that man has a fear, but that fear does not force the man so much that he chooses to do the evil and not the good. But even the man who exposes himself to a danger - even for the sake of a good-, either from overconfidence, “nothing can possible happen to me”, or from firm confidence in his own strength, do not therefore possess fortitude.

It is only possible to be brave when all possible assurances, either real or those that seem to be real, fail. Thus he can not help being afraid and with good reason, not because he is being an unreasonable wimp. So in the supreme test when every heroic action is useless a man walks straight up to the cause of his fear, not being put off doing what is good, and for the sake of good - that is God- nor for the sake of ambition, or fear of being called a coward, this man alone is truly brave.

The truly brave man is he who cannot be forced to give up the greater good for the lesser and passing goods of this life. He is one who faces what is truly dreadful, by facing injury for the sake of the good, and this facing has two basic act of fortitude: endurance and attack.

Endurance is more of the essence of fortitude than attack. But this does not mean that in every case it is better to endure than attack. Just as we said the true position of fortitude is one where everything is stacked against you and the only option is to suffer and endure. In this situation fortitude is primarily and ultimately shown in it true colours, so to speak.

This enduring is not all just laying back and taking it, for if that was all then it would not be a virtue, for virtue can not be forced on anyone, just as sin can not be forced on us, we sin and are virtuous freely from our will. Therefore this enduring is a firm grasping and grabbing hold of the good, and by this firm act we have the strength to the physical and spiritual suffering of injury or death.

Another necessary part of fortitude is Patience, but not the sad, self-immolating and spineless submission to whatever evil we happen to meet with, or even worse sort out, but it is to preserve cheerfulness and peace of soul and mind in spite of the injuries that come about because we wish to hold onto the true GOOD.

So the man who is brave is patient as well, yet he will not hesitate to “pounce upon” evil and to block its path if he sees that this can be reasonable done. But kind of attitude requires readiness to attack, courage, self-confidence and hope of success, but this hope is naturally in subordination to God. This pouncing upon evil, we may call a just wrath. Thus St. Thomas says, “The brave man uses wrath to pounce upon evil.”

Yet with all this said, when it comes down to it endurance and patience are the essence of fortitude. For it is only in the supreme test, which leaves no possibility of resistance than endurance, that the inmost and deepest strength of man reveals itself. Fortitude then essentially is nothing else than to love and to realise that which is good, in the face of injury and death.

Holy Scripture tells us clearly how true strength is shown when we are left with only resistance as a weapon. St. Paul who was given the sting of Satan to buffet and beat him asked the Lord for strength “ And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful.”

Christ himself, whose agony is the source of the strength of the martyrs and whose life was one of complete readiness to go “like a lamb to the slaughter”, still did not hesitate to pounce on the evil, when he drove the money changers out of the temple. The readiness to meet the supreme test by dying in patient endurance so as to obtain the ultimate good, does not exclude willingness to fight and to attack. For in the end from this readiness springs the true detachment and freedom which this world can never bring.

Fortitude as a gift of the Holy Ghost

When fortitude is practised to a degree where it is called “Heroic virtue”, that is, fortitude exalted by grace, then the Holy Ghost works “in us without us”, as a gift. The heroic fortitude is the first thing that we require according to St. Teresa of Avila, if we wish to reach perfection. She says, “I assert that an imperfect human being needs more fortitude to pursue the way of perfection than suddenly to become a martyr.”

To obtain this higher degree of fortitude which is obtained by the martyrs, in one powerful leap, the natural forces of endurance cannot reach. They are replaced by the Holy Ghost, with the gift of Fortitude, giving to man the unshakeable though still veiled supernatural certainty of the happy final victory, it pours into the soul a confidence that overcomes all fear, namely, that God will lead man to eternal life, the ultimate end of all good actions, and the final deliverance from every kind of danger.

This supernatural fortitude crowns all “natural’ modes of Christian fortitude, for to be brave and suffer death and injury means you hope to win, without this hope fortitude is impossible. The higher the victory, the more certain the hope, and the more we are willing to risk to obtain it.

To die without hope is harder and more fearful than dying in the hope of eternal life. What matters is not the ease of difficulty of a thing, but “the truth of things”. What matters is the reality of eternal life. And the rectitude of hope lies in the fact that it corresponds to this reality.

What hope really is, no one can know more deeply than he who must prove himself in the supreme test of ultimate fortitude, for to him it is revealed clearly that the hope for eternal life is truly a gift, and without this gift there cannot be any such thing as truly Christian fortitude.


Virtue of Fortitude Part 1

5/16/2013

 
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         FORTITUDE

Virtue as we said at the very beginning of this catechism course is that which makes not only us good but also our action good as well. All good is compared with how it conforms to reason, and to our ultimate end.

To make our work and actions in accord and conformed to reason happens in 3 ways:

1. By making reason itself right, this is done as we saw by PRUDENCE.
2. By making our human affairs right, this is done by JUSTICE.
3. By removing the obstacles in order to do our human affairs by FORTITUDE AND TEMPERANCE

Now, our human will can be prevented from following reason in two ways:

· To be drawn by some object of pleasure other than what our reason tell us to do.

· To be not inclined of bothered to follow what reason says because of some difficulty that comes up.

In order to remove this difficulty fortitude of the mind is needed, just as to remove a heavy rock, that is in your way, requires strength of body.

To avoid something difficult involves some fear, because we fear something that is opposed to us and can cause us some lose or pain. Fortitude is principally about fear of difficult things, which can stop us from following our reason and cause us to do something we do not want to do. So in order to stand up to these obstacles we need also to be daring, that is to have courage, so as to free ourselves from these dangers now and if and when they may come back in the future.

The greatest natural good of our soul is the good of reason, when we go against this then we suffer a great lose and fall into sin. That which helps and guards us from the lose of this good is fortitude, which helps us in the face of these evils. The greatest evil to our souls is death, not only on a physical level, but also death of the soul to God and to His grace.

If Fortitude is a virtue and it is essential for virtue to tend to something good. It must be for some good then that man flees from the face of death. But dangers of death like sickness, storms at sea, attacks from robbers, as such similar things do not seem to come to a man from looking to obtain some good. But dangers of death which occur in battle come to a man directly on account of some good. He wishes to fight well and defend what is his own, be it his country, family household, or whatever, Thus he is defending the common good by a just fight. Fortitude then is concerned about the fear of dangers of death.

There are two kinds of combat, General when a man fights in battle and Private as when a man does not fear to say the truth or give the just judgement even though he faces the fear of the sword. Fortitude then, strengthens the mind against danger of death, not only in those general battles, but even those dangers that occur in single combat, which are also given the name of Battle. As St. Paul warns us of our battle, being not one necessarily a physical one, ' Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood: but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.' Ephesians 6, 11-12.

A brave man behaves well when faced with the danger of any other kind of death, especially since he may be in danger of any kind of death on account of virtue. For example, a man may attend a sick friend even though he fear the deadly infection or he may travel vast distances for some holy cause with the fear of plane crashing, or a car accident, or a cruel death at the hands of barbarians, like the Crusaders did of old. Just as the martyrs faced all kinds of sufferings, which was a fight directed against their own person, but directed to the sovereign good which is God. This is why in the office that the Church prays for Martyrs they are said to be valiant in battle.

                                    Martyrdom

Is it a virtue?

There is a problem because:
  1. It would seem that martyrdom is not an act of virtue for acts of virtue are voluntary, but martyrdom is sometimes not voluntary, like with the Holy innocents
  2. It is praiseworthy to offer oneself to do an act of virtue, but it is not praiseworthy to put oneself in an occasion of martyrdom, which would be rash and presumptuous.
But on the Contrary

The reward of beatitude is not due except for acts of virtue, “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. Therefore martyrdom is an act of virtue.

It belongs to virtue to safeguard the good of reason. Now the good of reason consists in truth as its object and justice as it effect. And martyrdom consists essentially in standing firmly to truth and justice against the threatening danger of death. Therefore it is obvious that Martyrdom is a virtue.

Solutions to the problems:
  1. The holy innocents in being killed obtained by God's grace the glory of martyrdom, which others obtain by their own will. Because shedding one’s blood for Christ's sake takes the place of baptism. What is called Baptism of Blood.

  2. A man must be prepared to do whatever is necessary and to do it whenever it is necessary. In other words to always be ready to act according to reason. Like the Boy Scouts  'Be Prepared'. Now in martyrdom this doing what is necessary consists in the right endurance of sufferings unjustly inflicted. But a man should not give another an occasion of acting unjustly, which is called presumption or being rash, asking for trouble as we commonly say. Yet if someone does act unjustly towards us we ought to endure it in moderation.

Well is Martyrdom an act of Fortitude?

There is a problem again:
  1. Martyrdom means to witness, and witness to the Faith of Christ. But this seems more to do with the virtue of Faith than that of Fortitude.
It belongs to fortitude to strengthen man in the good of virtue, especially against dangers, and chiefly the danger of death in battle. Now in Martyrdom man is firmly strengthened in the good of virtue, since he holds firm to Faith and justice, even though he be threatened with the danger of death. Therefore it is an act of Fortitude.
  1. Martyrdom is related to Faith as to an end, that is, the end of suffering Martyrdom is for the Faith. The faith is the good which strengthens a man, the actual firmness and strength itself by means of which a man does not yield and stands firm against the contrary things thrown at him, which try and draw him from the good; this firmness is the virtue of Fortitude.

On the matter of fortitude the Church declares: readiness to shed ones blood for Christ is imposed by the strictly binding law of God. 'Man must be ready to let himself be killed rather than to deny Christ or to sin grievously. But as regards enthusiasm for martyrdom let us see what the Church of the martyrs thought about it. In the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp a brief passage is explicit:' But one, called Quintus became afraid when he saw the wild animals. It was this very man who had presented himself voluntarily to the court and persuaded others to do the same. By repeated urging the Proconsul brought him to sacrifice and deny Christ. Therefore, brethren, we have no praise for those who offer themselves voluntarily; this is not the counsel of the Gospel”. This appears in the teaching of the Fathers of the ancient Church, who said that those who actually assumed that God would most readily withdraw the strength of endurance from those Who, arrogantly trusting their own resolve, thrust themselves into martyrdom.

St. Thomas says that the pain of martyrdom obscures even the spiritual joy in an act pleasing to God, “unless the overflowing grace of God lift the soul with exceeding strength to things divine”. The brave man suffers injury not for its owe sake, but rather as a means to preserve or to acquire a deeper, more essential wholeness or perfection.

In the early Church martyrdom appeared as a victory, even though a fatal one. In Tertullian we read: “We are victorious when we are stricken down; we escape when we are led before the judge. For the Christian as for the “natural” man, “suffering for its own sake” is nonsense. The Christian loves his life, says St. Thomas, not only with a natural , life-asserting forces of the body, but with the moral forces of the spiritual soul as well. Joy, health, success, happiness, all these things are genuine goods, which the Christian does not toss aside and esteem but lightly- unless, indeed to preserve the higher goods, the loss of which would injure more deeply the inmost core of human existence



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