On Courage

I don't know if this is a follow up to my recent posts on bravery or if it is just a crazy coincidence (only "crazy" because it is from my favorite Crazy Aunt Carol), but I just had to share.  I admire her courage as she begins life without her husband of 39 years.  I admire all of us who climb out of our warm beds each morning (way too early) and face our days, whatever we they may bring. 

This reminds me that we are all braver than we know.

I love it.





When Courage is Not an Option
by Fr. John Catoir, Catholic News Service

We often think of courage as a battlefield virtue. However, another kind of bravery exists in more familiar circumstances. Day after day, real courage often takes place at home, in the form of patient endurance, loyalty, constancy and the will to face a scary future with grace and determination. These qualities are all signs of the kind of courage that women possess in admirable proportions.

One of the most important qualities anyone can master in life is found in the art of putting on the will to bear discomfort. The golden rule requires it, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

In order to be charitable, we need to become less preoccupied with our personal needs. This requires sacrifice.

Mothers are famous for their ability to perform many difficult and monotonous duties. They practice privation. Privation occurs when one gives up the comfort of feeling free to do as one pleases.

Of course, men possess this noble virtue, too, but women excel in it, especially the mothers of young children. They persevere in difficult times showing us over and over again the noble virtue of love in action. As they try to love their children and husbands without counting the cost, they make the necessary sacrifices to keep the family alive and well. We are in admiration of their courageous commitment.

Admittedly, not everyone succeeds in being as brave as they wished they could have been. We do not judge them. Any human being can be overwhelmed at times by the crushing burdens of life. This truth makes women all the more praiseworthy. By the grace of God, many have persevered. Others have not.

To understand the nobility of courage more fully, we need to look at the relationship between courage and cowardice. The two are direct opposites. Cowardice is found in those who shirk their duties and descend into the quicksand of escapism. They always seem to blame others for their failures. When they do wrong, they refuse to own up to it and have a curious inability to say they're sorry.

Many cowards suffer from addictions of one kind or another. For them, repentance is a remedy they despise. Acknowledging the wrongs they have done and making amends in a spirit of genuine atonement is the only way to gain back their self-respect, but they are repelled by the thought of it. The 12-step program lays this out for recovering addicts.

One can only hope that they will experience that shocking moment of recognition called "hitting bottom." Until they wake up to fact that they're in danger of death, the addict is lost in a blinding fog. The truth that their habit is self-destructive is either hidden from their eyes or they have a death wish so far advanced that they have unwittingly become their own worst enemy.

When one descends into such a state of deep denial, he or she is blind to the sad truth that death is near. Everyone else around them sees it too clearly, which is why crisis intervention is so necessary. With God, all things are possible. Every saint-in-training has a past, and every sinner has a future. Never give up!

This is why we come to see that, after all is said and done, courage is not an option.