Bible Study: Acts 22, 30 to 23, 6 to
11 and John 17, 20 to 26.
After his resounding victory
at his trial owing to the division between the Pharisees and the Saducees,
Jesus Christ appeared to Paul and said to him; “Take Courage, for as you have
testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.”
One of the gifts of the Holy
Spirit is Fortitude. To be courageous, is to have the gift of Fortitude. In our
novena to the Holy Spirit, we get to learn that “by the gift of Fortitude the
soul is strengthened against natural fear, and supported to the end in the
performance of duty.
“Fortitude imparts to the
will an impulse and energy which move it to undertake without hesitancy the
most arduous tasks, to face dangers, to trample under foot human respect, and
to endure without complaint the slow martyrdom of even lifelong tribulation.
"He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved."”
Whether we like it or not,
the world hates us, people prefer darkness to light, they prefer evil to
goodness; people would rather take pleasure in hearing about bad news than in
hearing about goodness. If the world could reject Jesus our master and sentence
him to death, we shouldn’t expect that the world would love us for our
goodness.
To survive the hostilities
we are bound to face, we need to be courageous. We need to pray for this gift
of the Holy Spirit. We need our hearts to be fortified by the gift of Fortitude
so that we can look at evil in the face and be able to trample it down, we need
strong hearts to be conquer the fear of human beings and say the truth. We need
strong hearts to keep believing and trusting in God even when we face
tribulation and it seems as if the enemies are triumphing over us.
In the Gospel passage, we
hear Jesus praying for us. At this point, Jesus was just about to make the
ultimate sacrifice of his very life. It was with Courage that he prayed. For many
of us in a similar situation, we would have sunk into despair and the feeling
of being abandoned by God but Jesus knew that his imminent death was not a sign
of God’s weakness for an act of Love for the salvation of the world.
Fortitude helps us see
things in their correct perspective. It helps us think straight even in the face
of danger. With fortitude, we would not give up on our goodness no matter how bad
things become. With fortitude, we would not give in to the threats of the evil
one. With fortitude, we would continue to pray even when it seems prayer is
useless. With fortitude, our fears melt away. With fortitude, we will always be
victorious.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus, fill
me with your Holy Spirit that I may be strong and courageous in my heart to
face whatever danger may come my way.
God bless you. Good morning. Be
Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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