Jun 17 Tue
Should I be strong?
Fortitude is the virtue that strengthens the will so that we may not give up in our pursuit of a good when we see it as difficult.
This virtue controls the influence that feelings (passions) of fear and daring have on the will. The acts of fortitude tend to suppress both excessive fear and recklessness or carelessness.
Since Christian life is a continuous struggle to better fulfill the divine will, fortitude, and its related virtues maintain us firmly in the struggle. Their concrete manifestations are: constancy in work, perseverance in the face of temptations and difficulties, measuring up to costly duties and difficult environments, speaking about God without human respect, correcting evildoers, and boldly undertaking risky or heavy tasks.
The ultimate, though exceptional, act of fortitude is martyrdom: the endurance of death in witness to the truth of Christianity.
The vices contrary to Fortitude are:
• Cowardice or timidity is an inordinate fear of temporal problems.
• Fearlessness or impassibility is a lack or disregard of fear when having fear is reasonable.
• Recklessness or temerity consists in risking danger without a reason.
Four virtues are related to fortitude:
1. Magnanimity (from magnus animus, “great soul”) is the virtue that inclines man to undertake great deeds in every undertaking.
The magnanimous person does not delight excessively in receiving honors, no matter how great; neither is he greatly affected by prosperity or adversity. He is happy to help others. He does not flatter people, and he does not allow them to restrain his freedom. With ordinary people, he is unassuming. He is neither ambitious nor a social climber. Neither fearing others nor seeking their praise, he openly speaks what he has in his mind when necessary. He forgets offenses. He is not rash but takes his actions deliberately.
The vices contrary to Magnanimity are:
• Presumption inclines to undertake works that exceed the capacity of the subject.
• Ambition is an extravagant longing for honors.
• Vainglory is an immoderate desire for personal glory.
• Pusillanimity (from pusillus animus, “small soul”) inclines man to shy away from works that he deems to exceed his strength, when in fact they do not.
2. Munificence (from munus facere, “to make presents”) is the virtue that inclines man to undertake great and costly works despite the effort or expenses that are required.
The vices contrary to Munificence are:
• Prodigality a tendency to make unreasonable great expenses.
• Stinginess leads to unreasonably restricting necessary expenses.
3. Patience is the moral virtue that inclines people to suffer present evils without excessive sorrow, especially those that are inflicted by others.
Patience has several successive degrees: to suffer evils without backbiting, to suffer evils without groaning or complaining to others, to suffer evils with joy.
The vices contrary to Patience are:
• Insensibility, or lack of feeling, leads man to be indifferent by any difficulty, as if he could not notice it.
• Impatience leads to yielding easily to obstacles, often reacting with complaints or anger.
4. Perseverance is the virtue that inclines man to continue working and doing good, despite the wear and tear and the monotony of repetition.
The vices contrary to Perseverance are:
• Pertinacity or stubbornness leads a man not to yield when it would be reasonable to do so.
• Inconstancy consists of easily giving up the practice of virtue as soon as difficulties arise.