Courage Is A Gift Of The Holy Spirit

In our dining room hangs a printed photograph, Aid From The Padre by Héctor Rondón Lovera. You can see it for yourself, here:

Navy chaplain Father Luis Manuel Padilla was giving last rites to soldiers in Venezuala during a military uprising in 1962. I love the photograph on a lot of levels, but in large part because it captures the kind of terror of war on the priest's face as bullets fly all around him. At the same time, though, he is there in the middle of it all, defying his very human fear, holding up the soldier. 

We often think we are brave when we are not, and end up having courage when we feel the least like it. It reminds me of the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered." (Mt 21:28-31)

Fortitude, or courage, is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It allows us to face those humanely impossible situations that faith sometimes demands, when we really have nothing but fear and dread in our hearts. Gifts are freely given, not merited, but we can ask for them, as our Lord says, "ask and it shall be given to you" (Mt 7:7). Fortitude buoys our spirits to do the work of faith when our body and human will fail us. When we are scared out of our mind and frozen in our tracks, but move forward anyway by this gift of God's grace, this gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say at the moment when you need them (Lk 12:12). The Lord tells us not to pre-rehearse them. 

Even the most humanely courageous of us will lose heart in the spiritual war without this gift. Our Confirmation strengthens us to fight, to take courage, to give witness. Like the Padre giving aid to the dying soldier in times of war, we may find ourselves humanely terrified, saying "I will not go!" Yet there we are in the midst of it all, doing the work of God, proverbial bullets chewing up the concrete all around us. Give glory and thanks to God for the gifts of the Spirit. We would be completely ineffectual without them!

(And Happy Independence Day, to all my fellow American readers.)