“No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth.” (3 Jn 1:4).
These are words from the third letter of Saint John, addressed to a certain “Gaius,” about whom we have no further information. We can undoubtedly put these words in the mouth of our Heavenly Father. As this entire epistle attests, our life must be lived in accordance with the truth, both in word and deed, bearing witness to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed” (Lk 11:21).
The gift of fortitude is responsible for strengthening the soul to be ever more courageous in the service of the Lord. It gives us the strength to follow the motions and impulses of the Holy Spirit, to accept everything and to want everything that God wants.
The virtue of fortitude alone reaches its limits when confronted with the highest demands of the spiritual life. It can happen, for example, that we want to give ourselves completely to God, but we are still afraid to let go completely and abandon ourselves entirely to Him. Although we recognise what God wants from us, and in principle we want it ourselves, we are too weak to realise it. God then intervenes directly with the spirit of fortitude, thus helping us to take the decisive steps. The strengthened soul is then ready to do the will of the Father, even at the cost of great sacrifices.
