October 8, 2008 | In: Divine Law, Virtue
The Peace of Supernatural Fortitude
Natural fortitude is the firm habit of sustaining all dangers and difficulties in pursuit of what is good. Supernatural fortitude is the confidence that God instills into the soul that is in relationship with Him that all dangers and difficulties will be overcome by His help. In Divine Pity, Dr. Vann describes the beauty of being fortified with God’s peace:
So it is the gift of fortitude that you see in the joy and gaiety of the martyrs, who have confidence that their torments will not cause them to falter, and rob them of eternal life, but, on the contrary, will take them, through the power of the Spirit, straight to the arms of God. And we can see the same sort of confidence and quiet joy in all the works of the saints: what they build, they build steadfastly and in tranquility, and neither apparent failures during their lives nor the advent of death can dismay them or cause them to lose their confidence in the final outcome; for all their building is in the hand of God, and in Him they trust, with all the child’s unquestioning trust that what the father has begun he will see to its conclusion. So, to hear what the Spirit says, to accept His guidance, is to work with all one’s strength in the present, but to leave the future in quiet and humble confidence to Him. it is to be zealous, to have the strength of will of the man, but it is also to be filled, through the power of the Spirit, with the freshness and spontaneity, the zest and the enthusiasm, of the child.
While the steadfastness of the martyrs is always beautiful, I was especially drawn in meditation to the peaceful steadfastness of the saints. As Fr. Vann is fond of saying, the saints “care but do not care.” They are passionate about the work that God called them to do, but they rest in the assurance that they do God’s work, and that God’s work will carry on with or without them. Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s statement, “God does not call me to be successful. He only calls me to be faithful,” is sometimes misinterpreted as a statement of diligence in the midst of futility – as if success isn’t possible, and isn’t really important. Mother Teresa’s statement is actually the utmost confidence that if she is faithful to what God calls her to do, God will bring about the success.
This is exactly the quality that I crave in my present state of conversion. I get impatient that my apostolate isn’t growing as quickly as I want it to, that not enough visitors come to the website, that I’m not even sure if my work is doing any good. Yet, I know that the work God has called me to has touched lives. I need to cooperate with the assurance that God wants to give me that He will bring about the success that He wants for my work. I need only be faithful in doing the work as well as I am able. Peace — tranquility — quiet confidence — just three more reasons to live the moral life and to seek the Joy of the Truth.
The Divine Pity by Fr. Gerald Vann.
Father Vann uses the beatitudes as a springboard for a discussion on living the Divine Life as fully as possible. He identifies the subtle ways that Christians fail to fully live out the beatitudes, the virtues and the life of love. The social implications of the Beatitudes (the subtitle of the book) comes in with Father Vann’s persistent theme that we do not exercise the Christian life in a vacuum, but within a family.
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