The practice of freedom: learning to live the virtues part 8

More courage!

The Freedom to Face What We Fear

If you look up pictures of Kakabeka Falls today, you will see a massive, engineered steel highway bridge—sturdy enough to carry a fleet of semi-trucks.
But sixty years ago, when my grandparents took me there, crossing the river was a completely different story!
Visitors had to cross a narrow wooden-plank footbridge suspended over the roaring gorge.
It vibrated under your feet, and the mist from the falls made the boards slick.
As a child, I was terrified.
My grandfather, who travelled extensively around the world, had a fascination with such things.
He kept records of the bridges he crossed, the heights of waterfalls, the size of trees and all manner of other things that I found rather less interesting than he did!
So I said to him, “You go first. If you make it across, maybe I’ll think about going.”
I never did. Later that morning my grandfather told me, “It’s all right that you didn’t cross.
But always remember this: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
And there it was. A grandfather had just found a way to get a frightened young boy to memorize Holy Scripture!
More that that, he had given me a concrete example to remember about courage.

Courage does not mean that we are never afraid. Courage means that fear does not have the final word.
I have been thinking about how closely the virtue of courage is connected with patience. We often think of patience as simply waiting.
But for the Church patience is much more demanding than that. To wait faithfully requires courage.
It takes courage to remain faithful when the answer does not come. It takes courage to endure a difficult season without becoming bitter.
It takes courage to keep praying when God seems silent. It takes courage to continue doing what is right when there appears to be no immediate reward.
The Scriptures repeatedly call God’s people to this kind of courage: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” And : “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:1, 14)
Notice how courage and waiting are placed together. Wait for the Lord.” “Be strong.” “Let your heart take courage.”
Waiting is not passive when done in faith. Sometimes waiting is one of the bravest things we will ever do.
This is why Christ so often speaks to His disciples about fear. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
And: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.”
Then Jesus gives us the proper ordering of fear: “Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell.” (Luke 12:32, 4–5)
And later: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Courage in Christ, then, is not recklessness and is not pretending that danger is not dangerous.
Courage is not shouting loudly, taking foolish risks, or proving how tough we are.
True courage is knowing Whom we belong to-Christ our God. The Apostles understood this.
“Be vigilant, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13)
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand.” (Ephesians 6:10)
And St Paul says to Timothy: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:1) Notice that last phrase.
Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus!
For the faithful Church courage is not manufactured by our own willpower, but is strength received from God the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t just show us a picture of Christ’s courage and tell us to copy it. That would be exhausting.
Instead, the Holy Spirit acts like a spiritual blood transfusion.
He takes the literal courage, the literal peace, and the literal faith of Jesus Christ and pours it into our hearts.
We don’t just learn that Christ is brave; we are given His bravery to live out our daily lives. We naturally associate courage with dramatic events.
We think of soldiers, martyrs, rescuers, people standing up to bullies, or someone facing a great crisis. But courage is also revealed in the smallest things.
In the parable of the talents, the servant who received one talent buried it in the ground. When the master returned, the servant explained:
“I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” (Matthew 25:25) His failure was not that he had been given little.
His failure was that fear prevented him from using what God had given him.
This is important because most of us will never be asked to conquer an empire or face a firing squad.
But every day we are given small opportunities to be faithful. To tell the truth. To apologize. To forgive. To keep a promise.
To pray when we do not feel like praying. To resist a temptation. To speak when silence would be cowardice.
To remain silent when speaking would merely wound. To keep doing good when nobody notices. Faithfulness in little things requires courage.
And those little acts of courage gradually form the kind of person we become.
This brings us to this very important reality about freedom in Christ.

We live in a culture that often defines freedom as the right to do whatever we want.
But the ancient wisdom of the Church offers us a radically different understanding.
True freedom is not the ability to choose our chains, but the power to break them.
A person can have unlimited choices and still be a slave. Slave to anger. Slave to lust. Slave to resentment. Slave to approval.
Slave to fear. Slave to comfort. Slave to the opinions of other people. Slave to an addiction. Slave even to the desire always to have our own way.
This is where the ancient Christian understanding of courage becomes so important.
The Greek  word used in the early Church is andreia—courage or fortitude—understood as a strength of soul.
Courage enables us to stand firm against what seeks to enslave us and teaches us to direct our strength toward the real battle.
Our deepest enemy is not another person. The fiercest battlefield is often hidden within our own heart.
The Saints spoke of the “incensive power of the soul”—the power within us capable of anger, energy, determination and resistance.
That power can be distorted and turned against other people.
But can also be purified and directed toward the battle against sin, temptation and the destructive thoughts that seek to rule us.
Courage says: No. I do not have to obey this thought. No. I do not have to surrender to this passion.
No. I do not have to live according to the expectations of the crowd. No. I do not have to remain the person I have always been.
That is freedom.

And this brings us to perhaps the greatest act of courage of all. Repentance.
We often imagine courage as standing up to someone else.
But sometimes the person we most need the courage to face is ourselves.
The ultimate act of bravery is not conquering an empire.
It is looking honestly into the mirror of the soul and saying: “Lord, show me what needs to change.”
The Greek word from Scripture is metanoia, often translated as repentance, but means much more than simply feeling sorry.
Repetnance is a turning of the mindset, the heart and the whole person toward God. And that requires enormous courage.
Because repentance asks us to stop hiding.
Repentance asks us to surrender our carefully constructed excuses and asks us to stop blaming everyone and everything else.
Repentance asks us to let go of our self justifications. and asks us to admit that perhaps the problem is not always “out there.”
Perhaps something in me needs to change! That can be frightening. Our pride wants to defend itself!
Our fear wants to hide. Our worldly  passions want to continue as they always have.
But the courageous follower of Christ says: “Lord, have mercy on me. Show me the truth, and give me the grace to change.”
That is not self-loathing. but is the beginning of freedom.
The Church does not call us to repentance because God delights in making us feel miserable.
God calls us to repentance because He desires to restore us.
Repentance is not a punishment for beginners but the continual posture of the Life in Christ
Even the Great Saints never outgrow repentance.
In fact, the closer a person comes to God, the more clearly he or she sees the places that still need healing.
That is not despair. That is humility. And humility requires courage.
There is also a paradox here.

The more deeply we learn to fear God—not with the terror of a slave before a cruel master,
but with reverent awe before the One who loves us—the less we need to fear the world.
If God is the One whose judgment finally matters, then the opinions of other people lose their tyranny over us.
If Christ is our life, then failure cannot finally destroy us. If Christ has conquered death, then even death itself no longer has the last word.
This is why the Saints could stand firm when others mocked them, persecuted them, or threatened them.
They were not fearless because they were made of different material from the rest of us. They had learned whom to fear and whom to trust.
And there is another beautiful paradox. Courage stands between two false forms of strength.
On one side is cowardice—the refusal to act because we are afraid.
On the other is audacity—the reckless confidence that imagines we can manage everything by ourselves.
For the Church courage is neither- not weakness…not bravado but the quiet, immovable strength of a person who knows:
“I can’t do this by myself, but Christ is with me.” And that is why the truly courageous person is often also the most humble.
True freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want, whenever we want. That can simply become slavery to our own desires.
True freedom is the capacity to remain steady, joyful and loving even when the world around us is shaking.
The freedom to tell the truth when lying would be easier. The freedom to forgive when resentment feels justified.
The freedom to resist temptation when surrender would be easier.
The freedom to endure patiently when we can’t change our circumstances.
The freedom to repent when pride tells us we have nothing to repent of.
And the freedom to love another person sacrificially when self-protection would be much easier.
That is the freedom courage unlocks.

And for the Church courage is not something we manufacture by gritting our teeth and trying harder.
Courage is built through a thousand small acts of faithfulness. Every time we choose truth over convenience.
Every time we choose prayer over despair. Every time we choose forgiveness over resentment.
Every time we choose repentance over self-justification. Every time we choose faith over fear.
The courage grows.
And perhaps that is what my grandfather was really teaching me all those years ago at Kakabeka Falls.
I didn’t cross that bridge. I was afraid—and perhaps, as he wisely recognized, I simply wasn’t ready.
But he taught me something far more important than how to cross a frightening bridge.
He taught me where our help comes from: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
That is the courage of the faithful Church-thanks for this life long wisdom Willo Sopher!
Not pretending that the bridge is safe. Not pretending that we are not afraid.
But taking the next faithful step because the Lord is with us.
And sometimes the bravest step we can take is simply this: “Lord, I am afraid. But I will trust You.”

A question(s) for reflection
Where in your life do you need spiritual courage right now? Is it the courage to look honestly inward? The courage to endure a trial patiently?
The courage to speak the truth? The courage to forgive? The courage to resist an old habit? Or perhaps simply the courage to take the next faithful step?

Whatever it is, remember: this short prayer: Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Amen