To find courage, you don't need a trip to Oz

(Fourth in a series)

Remember the story of Oz? Dorothy from Kansas and her companions head for The Emerald City, in search of things they need to make their lives complete.

Developing the cardinal virtues is a lot like that trip to Oz. Like Dorothy, we're searching for what we need to find our way to our eternal home. Practicing the cardinal virtues helps us find the way there. Better than any ruby slippers, the virtues give us the power to get home. The virtues "are powers rooted in the presence of God, in grace, that enable us to establish and nurture healthy and life-giving relationships with God, the neighbor, the world, and the self" (Catholicism, pp. 926-7).

Just as the Scarecrow needed a brain to help him know what to do, we need prudence to help us decide the right thing to do. And, unlike the Wicked Witch who thought only of herself, we need justice to act rightly toward others.

Living rightly with others -- acting justly -- requires courage. Like the Cowardly Lion, we need to be strong and courageous in adversity.

Fortitude, the virtue sometimes called courage, sustains us in doing what is right -- for however long that takes. It helps us endure suffering, opposition, fear, sorrow, pain, fatigue -- even death. Fortitude comes from the Latin word, fortis meaning powerful and strong, vigorous and brave. Sr. Brid Long, SSL, says fortitude "strengthens our resolution and our ability to resist temptation and overcome obstacles in the pursuit of good and the following of Christ."

When we think of courage in following Christ, we naturally think of the martyrs. And fortitude does bring about an ability "to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1808).

However, fortitude is about more than facing death courageously. It's about living courageously. Jean Porter describes fortitude as "not only the physical courage that is exhibited by soldiers on a battlefield, but also through the moral courage that enables a person to endure social disapproval for one's efforts to attain social justice, and through the patience that enables another to pursue a vocation ... in spite of obstacles."

Perhaps understanding fortitude is easier, not by knowing what it is, but by knowing what it is not.

Fortitude is not fearlessness, which Thomas Aquinas called a vice in opposition to fortitude. Fortitude recognizes and honors fear. Where is the virtue in having no fear to master or to turn into action?

Likewise, while fortitude brings endurance -- and thus a certain patience through suffering -- it is not about resignation. For there is always an element of hope that comes with fortitude. Aquinas says fortitude presupposes hope (II-II, 139,1). Without hope, there would be surrender. With surrender, justice is not served.

Perhaps understanding fortitude is better done by understanding what it is not: "The virtue of fortitude is missing in persons who are always fearful of displeasing others," says Fr. Richard McBrien, "who remain silent in the face of injustice, who shun conflict at all costs, who avoid 'rocking the boat,' and who, therefore, do only what they think is 'expected' or 'safe.'"

Being courageous means doing what has to be done. Therefore, fortitude has two main elements: endurance and daring.

"Endurance," according to St. Norbert College ethics professor, Paul Wadell, is "how we deal with what we cannot control." It is not surrender or resignation, but respect for our own limits and acceptance of what we cannot change.

And because it is endurance, and not surrender, fortitude also has an aspect of daring. Daring is not to be confused with recklessness -- which is similar to fearlessness. Daring involves imagination -- it allows one to see the bigger picture and to strive to bring it about. Daring gives fire to our courage -- it brings insight and uses imagination. Thus we can see what could be and what needs to be changed so that this "could be" becomes reality. Without endurance (also called perseverance), daring would not endure long enough to make a difference. And without daring, one could not suffer in patience, for there would be no hope that the suffering would lead anywhere.

"Fortitude," says Fr. McBrien," is our affirmative answer to the inevitable shocks of human existence. It is the ability to dare and to endure."

One of the most courageous, daring and enduring people in Scripture had to be another girl -- not Dorothy of Kansas, but Mary of Nazareth. There is debate about whether Mary stood at the foot of the cross, as only one evangelist said she did (Jn 19:25).

In practicing crucifixion, the Romans tried to avoid having family members present at the execution, since it inhibited efficiency. But Mary's presence at Calvary seems a natural occurrence considering the virtue of fortitude. Her fiat at the Annunciation was reinforced constantly throughout her life. From the journey to Bethlehem, the prediction of Simeon, the flight to Egypt, the loss in the Temple, to the loss of her Son to his journey of ministry, all of these led naturally to Calvary.

Since we know that the cardinal virtues are built up through practice, the endurance Mary exhibited throughout Jesus' earthly life could not be fulfilled except by her fortitude at Calvary. How else could Mary show her total trust in God's will? Only through hope in things not seen by the eyes, but learned by the heart. Courage comes from a Latin word, cor, which means "heart," because the heart was believed to be the seat of bravery.

Mary, practicing the virtues learned through a lifetime, had enough heart for the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and all of Oz.

Next: Temperance doesn't get off-balance.

(Sources: Catholicism; Catechism of the Catholic Church; Summa Theologica; The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia; and The Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism)