Fortitude (courage) is the virtue that helps us stand for what is right and do it, even when we have fears. Fears don't make us uncourageous, the courageous person knows what they fear but strives to overcome then for God by the power of God. Read below if you would like a detailed breakdown of what I shared in the Podcast.

Welcome back to “Theology that Matters.” We are continuing our series on the Virtues and focusing on what has traditionally been called the “Cardinal Virtues.” They are called cardinal, for it is from a Latin word that means the hinge… like on a door, so these virtues are a hinge on which all the other Christian virtues come out of and are necessary to truly follow Jesus has he asks us to. These Cardinal virtues allow us to really live out the three greatest virtues (which we will discuss after the Cardinal virtues) of faith, hope and love.

We have already covered two virtues, Prudence and Temperance. Without Prudence none of the other virtues are possible, for one needs to know what is right and wrong and why. In a sense prudence (wisdom, knowledge) gives us the foundation for knowing how to be just, temperate, and to have courage, to knowing what is true love, what to have faith and hope in. Last time we talked on Temperance which is the idea of not letting your passions control you, but to control your passions in a way that will honor God. Temperance is not merely just abstaining from things it is using our passions, our God given desires in the right way, in a middle ground per se, not too much and not too little, but just right.

Now today we are going to talk about the virtue of fortitude (which is it long time name), a different word could be courage. Temperance and fortitude are both virtues of self-control, we will see the right thing and then do the action. They are different in that temperance is more concerned with our desires and passions and keep them under control and fortitude is about making choices to stand up for what is right and when we do we receive or are a part of God’s happiness. When one has fortitude or courage one will do the right thing even in the midst of hardships or should I say in spite of hardships. A truly courageous person must be willing to lay down their life for the greatest good, which is to give honor and glory of God. One is thus to be willing to make sacrifices, even great ones, in order to live out our Christian faith.

Now before we get a little farther we have to see the bad extremes that the virtue of fortitude is helping us avoid. One extreme is being foolish or brash. This is where one lacks proper awareness or concern for danger. This is where one would charge foolishly into dangers that could have been avoided. For example instead of charging across a minefield you walk around and get to the other side. This person has no fear, which we think sounds great, but in reality having no fear means one is not going to have a good understanding or right and wrong or what is the greatest good, as we will see later. In a way a brash man is looking for risks or danger, but this is not being brave or courageous but being stupid or fool-hearted. In a Christian sense it would be one who is looking to start an argument about Christianity or religion or politics to just pick a fight without caring for the outcome. In a sense to win an argument but not a soul.

The other extreme is cowardice. It is one who in a sense is paralyzed by fear. A person abandons the greater good because they are afraid of sustaining a loss. It is close to self-preservation and cripples the person for standing for the greater good as they fear the loss of a lesser good. Most of us I think would struggle with cowardice in one form or other.

Fortitude helps overcome fear or acting rightly in the face of fear while restraining the overly brash or bold person who has no fear. I know that it sounds weird, but to be courageous you have to have a healt(continued)