The Gift of Fortitude

The Gift of Fortitude

The gift of Knowledge has taught us what we must do and what we must avoid in order that we may be such as Jesus, our divine Master, wishes us to be. We now need another gift of the Holy Ghost, from which to draw the energy necessary for our persevering in the way he has pointed out to us. Difficulties we are sure to have; and our need of support is proved enough by the miserable failures we are daily witnessing. This support the Holy Ghost grants us by the gift of Fortitude, which, if we but faithfully use it, will enable us to master every difficulty, yea, will make it easy for us to overcome the obstacles which would impede our onward march.

When difficulties and trials of life come upon him, man is tempted, sometimes to cowardice and discouragement, sometimes to an impetuosity, which arises either from his natural temperament or from pride. These are poor aids to the soul in her spiritual combat. The Holy Ghost, therefore, brings her a new element of strength—it is supernatural Fortitude, which is so peculiarly his gift, that when our Savior instituted the seven Sacraments, he would have one of them be for the special object of giving us the Holy Ghost as a principle of energy. It is evident that having to fight during our whole lives against the devil, the world, and ourselves, we need some better power of resistance than either pusillanimity or daring. We need some gift which will control both our fear and the confidence we are at times inclined to have in ourselves. Thus gifted by the Holy Ghost, man is sure of victory; for grace will supply the deficiencies and correct the impetuosities of nature.

There are two necessities which are ever making themselves felt in the Christian life;—the power of resistance, and the power of endurance. What could we do against the temptations of Satan if the Fortitude of the Holy Spirit did not clad us with heavenly armor and nerve us to the battle? And is not the World, too, a terrible enemy? Have we not reason to dread it when we see how it is every day making victims by the tyranny of its claims and its maxims? What, then, must be the assistance of the Holy Ghost, which is to make us invulnerable to the deadly shafts that are dealing destruction around us?

The passions of the human heart are another obstacle to our salvation and sanctification; they are the more to be feared, because they are within us. It is requisite that the Holy Ghost change our heart, and lead it to deny itself as often as the light of grace points out to us a way other than that which self-love would have us follow. What supernatural Fortitude we need in order to hate our life, as often as our Lord bids us make a sacrifice, or when we have to choose which of the two Masters we will serve . The Holy Spirit is daily working this marvel by means of the Gift of Fortitude: so that, we have but to correspond to the Gift, and not stifle it either by cowardice or indiscretion—and we are strong enough to resist even our domestic enemies. This blessed Gift of Fortitude teaches us to govern our passions and treat them as blind guides; it also teaches us never to follow their instincts, save when they are in harmony with the law of God.

There are times when the Holy Spirit requires from a Christian something beyond interior resistance to the enemies of his soul:—he must make an outward protestation against error and evil, as often as position or duty demands it. On such occasions, one must bear to become unpopular, and console one’s self with the words of the Apostle: If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But the Holy Ghost will be on his side; and finding him resolute in using his Gift of Fortitude, not only will he give him a final triumph, but he generally blesses that soul with a sweet and courageous peace, which is the result and recompense of a duty fulfilled.

Thus does the Holy Ghost apply the gift of Fortitude, when there is question of a Christian’s making resistance. But as we have already said, it imparts also the energy necessary for bearing up against the trials, which all must go through who would save their souls. There are certain fears, which damp our courage, and expose us to defeat. The gift of Fortitude dispels them and braces us with such a peaceful confidence that we ourselves are surprised at the change. Look at the Martyrs; not merely at such a one as St. Mauritius, the leader of the Theban Legion, who was accustomed to face danger on the battlefield, but at Felicitas, a mother of seven children, at Perpetua, a high-born lady with everything this world could give her, at Agnes, a girl of thirteen, and at thousands of others like them; and say, if the gift of Fortitude is not a prompter to heroism? Where is the fear of death—that death, the very thought of which is sometimes more than we can bear? And what are we to say of all those lives spent in self-abnegation and privation, with a view to make Jesus their only treasure and be the more closely united with him? What are we to say of those hundreds and thousands of our fellow creatures who shun the sight of a distracted and vain world, and make sacrifice their rule? whose peacefulness is proof against every trial, and whose acceptance of the cross is as untiring as the cross itself is in its visit? What trophies are these of the Spirit of Fortitude! and how magnificent is the devotedness he creates for every possible duty! Oh! truly, man, of himself, is of little worth; but how grand when under the influence of the Holy Ghost!

It is the same Divine Spirit who also gives the Christian courage to withstand the vile temptation of human respect, by raising him above those worldly considerations which would make him disloyal to duty. It is He that leads man to prefer, to every honor this world could bestow, the happiness of never violating the law of his God. It is the Spirit of Fortitude that makes him look upon the reverses of fortune as so many merciful designs of Providence; that consoles him when death bereaves him of those who are dear to him; that cheers him under bodily sufferings, which would be so hard to bear but from his taking them as visits from his heavenly Father. In a word, it is He, as we learn from the Lives of the Saints, that turns the very repugnances of nature into matter for heroic acts, wherein man seems to go beyond the limits of his frail mortality and emulate the impassible and glorified spirits of heaven.

O divine Spirit of Fortitude! take full possession of our souls, and keep us from the effeminacies of the age we live in. Never was there such lack of energy as now, never was the worldly spirit more rife, never was sensuality more unbridled, never were pride and independence more the fashion of the world. So forgotten and unheeded are the maxims of the Gospel, that when we witness the Fortitude of self-restraint and abnegation, we are as surprised as though we beheld a prodigy. O Holy Paraclete! preserve us from this anti-christian spirit, which is so easily imbibed! Suffer us to present to thee, in the form of prayer, the advice given by St. Paul to the Christians of Ephesus: Give us, we beseech thee, “the armor of God, that we may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Gird our reins with truth; arm us with the breastplate of justice; let our feet be shod with the love and practice of the Gospel of peace; give us the shield of Faith, wherewith we may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one; cover us with the helmet of the hope of salvation; put into our hand the spiritual sword, which is the Word of God,” and by which we, as did our Jesus in the Desert, may defeat all our enemies! O Spirit of Fortitude! hear, we beseech thee, and grant our prayer!

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The woman and the lost groat. Money or man?

Douay Rheims Version

The parables of the lost sheep and of the prodigal son. 

NOW the publicans and sinners drew near unto him to hear him.

2. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying: This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.
3. And he spoke to them this parable, saying:
4. What man of you that hath an hundred sheep, and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after that which was lost, until he find it?
5. And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing?
6. And coming home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost?
7. I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance.
8. Or what woman having ten groats, if she lose one groat, doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently until she find it? 

Ver. 8.—Either that woman having ten pieces of silver, &c. “Sweep,” or as the Arabic renders it, “cleanse;” not “overturn,” as some read with S. Gregory. 

The “piece of silver,” or drachma, was a coin weighing the eighth part of an ounce. Hence S. Cyril explains, that by the parable of the lost sheep we are to understand, mystically, that we are the creatures of God who made us, and the sheep of His pasture, but that by this second parable we are taught that we were created in the image and likeness of God, just as the coin bears the image of the king. 

S. Gregory (Hom. 34), very fully explains the parable, and applies it in the following manner: “He who is signified by the shepherd, is signified also by the woman. For it is God Himself—God and the wisdom of God. And because there is an image impressed on the piece, the woman lost the piece of silver when man, who was created after the image of God, by sinning fell away from the likeness of his Creator. The woman lighted a candle, because the wisdom of God appeared in man. For the candle is a light in an earthen vessel, but the light in an earthen vessel is the Godhead in the flesh, and when the candle was lit she overturned (evertit) the house. Because as soon as His divinity shone forth through the flesh, all our consciences were appalled. But the word ‘overturn’ differs not from the ‘cleanse’ or ‘sweep’ of the other MSS. Because the corrupt mind, if it be not first overthrown through fear is not cleansed from its habitual faults. But when the house is overturned the piece of silver is found, for when the conscience of man is disturbed, the likeness of the Creator is restored in him.” And again, “Who are the friends and neighbours but those heavenly powers afore mentioned, who are near to the Divine Wisdom, inasmuch as they approach Him through the grace of continual vision?” Hence in conclusion he says, “The woman had ten pieces of silver, because there are nine orders of angels, but, that the number of the elect might be filled up, man, the tenth, was created, who even after his sin did not fall utterly away from his Maker, because the eternal Wisdom, shining through the flesh by His miracles, restored him by the light of the earthen vessel.” 

Or, as Theophylact interprets it, “The friends are all the heavenly powers; but the neighbours, the thrones—cherubims and seraphims—which are most nigh unto God.” 

Lastly, S. Gregory Nyssen, says, “The ten pieces of silver are so many virtues, of which we ought to lack none, for like the commandments they are complete in themselves (decem). The candle is the divine word or perhaps the torch of repentance; the neighbours, reason, desire, anger, and such like affections.”

The Gift of Wisdom

The Gift of Wisdom

The second favor destined by the Holy Ghost for the soul that is faithful to him in action is the gift of Wisdom, which is superior to that of Understanding. The two are, however, connected together, inasmuch as the object shown by the gift of Understanding is held and relished by the gift of Wisdom. When the Psalmist invites us to draw nigh to God, he bids us relish our sovereign good: Taste, says he, and see that the Lord is sweet! Holy Church prays for us, on the Day of Pentecost, that we may relish what is right and just—recta sapere—because the union of the soul with God is rather an experience or tasting, than a sight, for such sight would be incompatible with our present state. The light given by the gift of Understanding is not intuitive; it gladdens the soul, and gives her an instinctive tendency to the truth—but its own final perfection depends upon its union with Wisdom. which is, as it were, its end.

Understanding, therefore, is light; Wisdom is union. Now, union with the sovereign good is attained by the will, that is, by love, which is in the will. Thus, in the angelic hierarchy, the Cherubim with their sublime intellect are below the Seraphim, who are inflamed with love. It is quite true that the Cherubim have ardent love, and the Seraphim profound intelligence; but they differ from each other by their predominating quality; and that choir is the higher of the two which approaches the nearer to the Divinity by its love and relish of the sovereign good.

The seventh gift is called by the beautiful name of Wisdom which is taken from its uniting the soul, by love, to the Eternal Wisdom. This Eternal Wisdom, who mercifully puts himself within our reach even in this vale of tears, is the Divine Word, whom the Apostle calls the brightness of the Father’s glory and the figure of his substance. It is he who sent us the Holy Ghost, that he might sanctify us and lead us to himself; so that the sublimest of the workings of this Holy Spirit is his procuring our union with Him who, being God, became Flesh and, for our sakes, made himself obedient unto death, even death of the Cross. By the mysteries wrought in his Humanity, Jesus enabled us to enter within the veil of his Divinity; by faith, enlightened by supernatural Understanding, we see the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father; and just as he made himself a partaker of our lowly human nature—so does he give himself the uncreated Wisdom, to be loved and relished by that created Wisdom, which the Holy Ghost forms within us, and is the noblest of his Gifts.

Happy, then, they who possess this precious Wisdom, which makes the soul relish God and the things that are of God! The sensual man, says the Apostle, perceiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God; and in order that he may enjoy this Gift, he must become spiritual, and docile to the teachings of the Holy Spirit; and then there would happen to him what has happened to thousands of others, namely, that after being a slave to a carnal life, he would recover his Christian freedom and dignity. The man who is less depraved than the former, but still imbued with the spirit of this world, is also incapable of receiving or even comprehending the gifts of Understanding and Wisdom. He is ever ridiculing those whom he cannot help knowing possess these gifts; he never leaves them in peace, but is ever carping at their conduct, setting himself in opposition to them and, at times, seeks to satiate his jealousy by bitter persecution. Jesus assures us that the World cannot receive the Spirit of Truth, because it seeth him not, nor knoweth him. They, therefore, who would possess the supreme good must first divorce themselves from the spirit of the world, which is the personal enemy of the Spirit of God. If they break asunder the chain that now fetters them, they may hope to be gifted with Wisdom.

The special result of this Gift is great vigor in the soul, and energy in all her powers. Her whole life is, so to speak, seasoned with it; the effect may be likened to that produced in the body by wholesome diet. There is no disagreement between such a soul and her God; and hence, her union with him is almost inevitable. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, says the Apostle, there is liberty. Everything is easy to the soul that is under the influence of the Spirit of Wisdom. Things that are hard to nature are sweet to such a soul; and suffering does not appal her, as once it did. To say that God is near to her is saying too little;—she is united with him. And yet, she must keep herself in an attitude of profound humility, for pride may reach her even in that exalted state, and oh! how terrible would be her fall!

Let us, with all the earnestness of our hearts, beseech the Holy Ghost to give us this Wisdom, which will lead us to our Jesus, the Infinite Wisdom. One who was wise under the Old Law aspired to this Gift, when he wrote these wordst, of which we Christians alone can appreciate the full meaning: I wished, and Understanding was given to me; and I called upon God and the Spirit of Wisdom came upon me. So that we are to ask for this gift, and with great fervor. In the New Covenant, we have the Apostle St. James thus urging us to pray for it: If any of you want Wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him; but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. O Holy Spirit! we presume to follow this injunction of the Apostle, and say to thee: 0 thou who proceedest from Power and Wisdom! give us Wisdom! He that is Wisdom has sent thee unto us, that thou mayst unite us to him. Take us from ourselves, and unite us to Him who united himself to our weak nature. O sacred source of Unity! be thou the link uniting us for ever to Jesus; then will the Father adopt us as his heirs, and joint heirs with Christ! 

The series of the Mysteries is now completed, and the Moveable Cycle of the Liturgy has come to its close. We first passed, during Advent, the four weeks which represented the four thousand years spent by mankind in entreaties to the Eternal Father that he would send his Son. Our Emmanuel at length came down; we shared in the joys of his Birth, in the dolors of his Passion, in the glory of his Resurrection, in the triumph of his Ascension. Lastly, we have witnessed the descent of the Holy Ghost upon us, and we know that he is to abide with us to the last. Holy Church has assisted us throughout the whole of this sublime drama, which contains the work of our salvation. Her heavenly canticles, her magnificent ceremonies, have instructed us day by day, enabling us to follow and understand each Feast and Season. Blessed be this Mother for the care wherewith she has placed all these great Mysteries before us, thus giving us light and love! Blessed be the sacred Liturgy, which has brought us so much consolation and encouragement. We have now to pass through the Immoveable portion of the Cycle: we shall find sublime spiritual episodes, worthy of all our attention. Let us, then, prepare to resume our journey: let us take fresh courage in the thought that the Holy Ghost will direct our steps and, by the sacred Liturgy of which he is the inspirer, will continue to throw open to us treasures of precept and example.