FORTITUDE ENSURES FIRMNESS IN DIFFICULTIES, CONSTANCY IN THE PURSUIT OF THE GOOD
The weekly general audience was held in a sunny St. Peter’s Square this morning and Pope Francis continued his catechesis on virtues, having previously dedicated a series of talks on vices.
“Dear brothers and sisters,” he began, “in our continuing catechesis on the virtues, we now consider fortitude, which the Catechism defines as ‘the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good’. (Vatican media photos)
“With the help of this virtue,” he noted, “we are strengthened in our daily efforts, sustained by grace, to resist temptation and to overcome all obstacles to living fully our new life in Christ. Those obstacles may be from within, such as fear, anxiety or guilt, or from without, such as trials, tribulations or persecution. Cultivating the virtue of fortitude makes us take seriously the reality of evil and actively combat all forms of injustice in the world around us.
The Pope then explained that “Fortitude is a fundamental virtue because it takes the challenge of evil in the world seriously. Some pretend it does not exist, that everything is going fine, that human will is not sometimes blind, that dark forces that bring death do not lurk in history. But it suffices to leaf through a history book, or unfortunately even the newspapers, to discover the nefarious deeds of which we are partly victims and partly perpetrators: wars, violence, slavery, oppression of the poor, wounds that have never healed and continue to bleed. The virtue of fortitude makes us react and cry out “no”, an emphatic “no” to all of this.
Francis emphasized that “In our comfortable Western world, which has watered everything down somewhat, which has transformed the pursuit of perfection into a simple organic development, which has no need for struggle because everything looks the same, we sometimes feel a healthy nostalgia for prophets.
“But,” he said, “disruptive, visionary people are very rare. There’s a need for someone who can rouse us from the soft place in which we have lain down and make us resolutely repeat our ‘no’ to evil and to everything that leads to indifference. ‘No’ to evil and ‘no” to indifference; ’yes’ to progress, to the path that moves us forward, and for this we must fight.”
“May the example of fortitude and perseverance shown by Jesus and the saints,” Franics concluded, “encourage us in our journey of Christian faith and confirm our trust in the risen Christ’s definitive victory over sin and death.”
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