Fortitude

Fortitude is the cardinal virtue that strengthens the soul in difficulties: it holds it firm in the pursuit of the good when that good costs, even to the gift of life. The Latin word rendered “fortitude”, fortitudo, names this firmness of soul, distinct from the vigour of the body: a weak body can carry a strong soul. Wisdom counts it among the four virtues that sustain the whole moral life: “She teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude, than which nothing is more useful to men in life.” Wisdom 8:7. And Scripture gives it at once its source: the strength of the faithful comes from God, is exercised in weakness, and finds its highest act in faithfulness unto death.

God is the strength of his own

Before being a virtue of man, strength is a name of God on the lips of his people. Coming out of the Red Sea, Israel sings: “The Lord is my strength and the object of my songs; it is he who saved me.” Exodus 15:2. The psalmist takes it up for himself: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart has trusted.” Psalm 28:7, and he describes this strength as a belt God fastens on him: “The God who girds me with strength, who makes my way perfect.” Psalm 18:33. The belt tightened the garment for work and for combat: God himself equips his faithful, and man’s firmness is first a gift received.

Be strong and take courage

At the threshold of the promised land, God commands fortitude to Joshua as one entrusts a mission: “Be strong and take courage; for it is you who will put this people in possession of the land I swore to their fathers to give them.” Joshua 1:6. And he at once gives its support: “Only be strong and of good courage, taking care to act according to all the law that Moses, my servant, prescribed to you.” Joshua 1:7. Commanded fortitude rests on the promise and feeds on the Law: it is an obedience that holds firm. David gives its purest figure: before Goliath, the smallest of Israel advances without armour and names his support: “You come to me with the sword, the spear and the javelin; and I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts.” 1 Samuel 17:45. Biblical fortitude is measured by its support: whoever leans on God can walk toward what exceeds him.

Endurance, the first act of fortitude

Fortitude has two acts: to attack the evil when it can be overcome, and to endure it when it must be borne. The second is the greater, for to hold under an evil that lasts demands more firmness than to strike it. The sage says it by comparing victories: “He who is slow to anger is better than a hero; and he who masters his spirit, than the warrior who takes cities.” Proverbs 16:32. Self-mastery in the trial outweighs conquest. And this firmness gives the just man his assurance: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the just have assurance like a lion.” Proverbs 28:1. The just man’s assurance rests on his upright conscience and his support in God: he can stay in place when everything pushes him to flee.

Strength in weakness

The Gospel unveils the paradox of Christian fortitude. Paul asks to be delivered from the thorn that torments him, and receives another answer: “My grace is enough for you, for it is in weakness that my power shows itself whole.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. The Apostle draws from it his motto: “When I am weak, it is then that I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10. Weakness acknowledged opens all the room to the power of God, where the man who thinks himself strong by himself no longer expects anything from above. Isaiah had promised it to the exhausted: “He gives strength to the weary and redoubles the vigour of the failing. Those who trust in the Lord renew their strength; they will lift their flight like eagles; they will run and not be weary.” Isaiah 40:29-31. And Paul sums up in one phrase the strength of the Christian: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13.

The fortitude of Christ

Christ carried fortitude to its supreme act: to endure the Passion freely. The Letter to the Hebrews sets him to be contemplated as the model of those who weaken: “With eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and consummator of faith, who, instead of the joy set before him, despising the shame, suffered the cross. Consider him who endured against his person so great a contradiction from sinners, so as not to let yourselves be worn down by discouragement.” Hebrews 12:2-3. His strength passed through the agony itself: at Gethsemane, in the struggle of fear and will, “there appeared to him from heaven an angel who strengthened him.” Luke 22:43. He who strengthens his own himself received this comfort, taking to the end the way of our weakness. And at the moment of entering his Passion, he leaves his own his victory as the foundation of their courage: “You have tribulations in the world; but take confidence, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

The Spirit of fortitude

Fortitude is also a gift of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah announces it resting on the Messiah: “On him will rest the Spirit of the Lord, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and of fortitude.” Isaiah 11:2. This gift strengthens the soul beyond its resources, and Pentecost shows its effect: the apostles who had fled at Gethsemane announce the Risen One before those who condemned him. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaimed the word of God with assurance.” Acts 4:31. Peter, who had denied before a servant girl, stands up to the Sanhedrin: the difference between those two nights is the Spirit received. Christian fortitude is a work of God in man, and this is why it is asked for in prayer.

The good fight

Christian life is a combat, and the Apostle names its true adversary: “We have not to struggle against flesh and blood, but against the princes, against the powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness.” Ephesians 6:12. For this combat, God supplies the equipment: “Be strong in the Lord and in his all-powerful might. Take the armour of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day, and, having overcome all, to remain standing.” Ephesians 6:10-13. To remain standing: this is the proper act of fortitude, and Paul commands it as a watchword of vigilance: “Watch, stand firm in the faith, be men, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13. The term of the combat is the faithfulness that holds to the end, that of the martyrs, and it carries a promise: “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.” Revelation 2:10. Paul, at the evening of his course, gives the last word: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7.