Cardinal Virtues: Fortitude – the Courage to Face Evil

The cardinal virtues help us to form our character so that we live a fully human life. Fortitude is the cardinal virtue of standing up for what is right and good even in the face of difficulty or fear. In many ways, fortitude is the battle virtue. It is the part of spiritual growth that demands we build up our strength.

Fortitude is in part the courage to face evil in the world and to stand up for what is right and good.

That’s probably why, like all of the cardinal virtues, it’s so neglected. There was a time when the ceremony for the sacrament of Confirmation included a slap on the face from the bishop. The meaning of this gesture was to communicate the need for Catholics to go into battle for the Kingdom of God. It told the Confirmation candidate that they needed to be willing to suffer for Christ. This practice has fallen by the wayside with the practice of corporal punishment in schools. But at least part of the reason we don’t do it anymore is a distaste for the whole metaphor of doing battle for the Kingdom.

Fortitude & Love

The distaste of our modern Church culture for the metaphor of war with evil stems from a valid desire for peace paired with a misunderstanding of what peace is. Our modernist world assumes that all violence is evil. But peace isn’t just the absence of violence. Peace is the presence of justice and goodness. Sometimes we need to fight for peace. If we truly love others, we’ll lead them to goodness even if it means making them mad. Spiritual growth means having the virtue of tough love. Fortitude as one of the cardinal virtues means having the courage to do what is necessary to truly love, even if it means fighting for it, doing what is difficult, or making sacrifices for the goof of the other person.

Fortitude & Truth

Another reason fortitude isn’t so popular is that we’re afraid to make the claim that we know the truth and that others are wrong. Again, our modernist culture has trained us.

• Tolerance
• “Who are you to tell me how to live?”
• That may be true for you, but it’s not for me.
• That’s your truth.

But the truth is not personal. It is objective. Sure, we may not always know the truth clearly. But we can always know it more clearly. The truth does exists and it can be known. When we know the truth, we have a responsibility to stand up for it and to lead others to it. This also is an act of love. This also takes fortitude, especially in today’s culture. Spiritual growth means having the virtue of telling the truth even when others don’t want to hear it.

Fortitude & Patience

But having fortitude doesn’t always mean fighting. Sometimes fortitude requires that we wait through an evil without fighting. Other times we may have to wait for a good that we know we’ll have eventually. Patience and perseverance are two virtues closely related to fortitude. It takes courage to wait patiently for a good. It takes courage to wait through an evil. Spiritual growth means growing in the virtue of patiently waiting through evil.

Fortitude & Hope

Ultimately fortitude, patience and perseverance lead us to the theological virtue of hope. Hope is trust that God will give us the grace to get us to Heaven. Until we get home, we have to put up with the evil of the world and with our own sin and ignorance. Don’t think fortitude isn’t needed to keep fighting temptations and growing in holiness. We need a lot of courage to persevere in hope. Spiritual growth means persevering in the faith as we await God to complete the good work he began in us.

Fortitude & Public Witness

Our world today, mired as it is in modernism, needs Catholics to stand up for truth and goodness. It needs you and me to stand up with fortitude and to speak the truth that is not popular. It needs us to be counter-cultural. It needs men and women of courage to stand for Christ.

Cardinal Virtues – It’s Just Human!

But don’t think of fortitude as just a heroic virtue. Having fortitude really means to have a healthy will – choosing what is good even when it gets difficult. Fortitude is an integral part of becoming human!

Bonus Tip: 

The key to changing any behavior – especially establishing and growing in virtue – is to systematize your behavior into habit formation. Helping you to build these habits is what From the Abbey is all about. Are you interested in getting more involved with From the Abbey? I have a special opportunity for you! Look below . . .

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