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“Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” – Pope St. John Paul II
Courage is a virtue and a gift of the Holy Spirit. It gives us the strength to remain faithful to Christ even in the face of fear. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to do what is right despite that fear, uncertainty, discomfort, or what it costs.
One of the church’s greatest examples of courage is found in St. Sebastian. Yes, he’s the patron saint of athletes, but he’s also the patron of those who desire a saintly death. His life was marked by a courage that remained steadfast even in the face of death…not just once, but twice. It’s easy to think that courage is reserved for moments of great danger, but the truth is that it’s not. Courage formed in the everyday ordinary moments when we have to choose, over and over again, to do what is right even when it isn’t easy.
Our Christian life constantly calls us toward this virtue of courage, especially in the modern society we live in. It takes courage to stand for those who cannot, to choose forgiveness over resentment, to admit when we are wrong, to keep our promises, to speak the truth with charity, to do what is right when no one is watching, to defend the dignity of every person, to raise our children in the faith, to live our moral convictions, to begin again after failure, to repair a broken relationship, and to trust God when we cannot see what comes next. There will always be reasons to remain silent, or take the easier path, or choose comfort over conviction. Courage calls us to something greater than; it calls us to a life of saintly virtue.
The beauty of living the Christian life, however, is that we don’t have to do it alone. There are approximately 1.4 billion baptized Catholics throughout the world who share the same goal: to get to Heaven and help others get there too. We are part of a Church filled with people praying for Her mission and praying for one another. This issue of Trivium is about those moments, both great and small, when we are asked to be courageous even in the face of fear.
