Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmidt, and this is Ascension Presents.
So, I've been reading a lot lately about World War II and it just has been fascinating, but one of the...one of the characters that is just
I've been reflecting on a lot is man named
Neville Chamberlain. Neville Chamberlain, I believe the Prime Minister of Great Britain as Hitler was coming to power
In 1938 Neville Chamberlain adopted, when it came to the Nazis, he adopted a what they called the policy of appeasement.
Policy of appeasement was can we're not gonna declare a war on Hitler, and we're just gonna continue to kind of negotiate with him.
We're gonna compromise with him. People will say that makes sense.
But why? Because Chamberlain his family, in fact the whole country of Great Britain, they had lived through World War I.
They did not want to go to another war.
If they could avoid war at all that's what they wanted to do. It kind of makes sense that they would say whatever we can do to avoid a fight...
let's do that. To care for our people, let's do that thing.
And yet, this is so important, and yet, what were they doing?
They were having a policy of appeasement.
They were compromising with a man who made it very, very clear that he did not respect other countries borders, but oh oh I'm gonna respect your border
That even, Chamberlain knew this, he said it's become abundantly clear to us at this point that the only
thing that Germany understands is violence and...Nazi Germany understands is violence.
And yet, he still adopted that policy of appeasement.
And I think it's pretty safe to say that that policy is now known as being cowardly.
Well I've been thinking a lot about cowardice lately.
Well actually, I've been thinking about the opposite of cowardice, which is what we call courage or what we call fortitude.
And if there's one thing that our culture needs more of and has less of its courage its fortitude.
And listen, let's not make it a cultural thing, let's make it a personal thing.
If there's one thing that most individuals that need more of and have less of, it is courage.
So what is courage? What's, what's fortitude?
There's a lot of great definitions that the Church offers us, but one of the things I like...
One of the definitions I like the most is by CS Lewis. He he offers, he says
Fortitude, courage, is all of the other virtues at the sticking point.
So courage, fortitude, is all the other virtues at the point of being tested.
I'll say it like this. I'll say it in my very simple third-grade way.
It's easy to be good when it's easy to be good.
It's easy to be just when it's easy to be just. It's easy to be prudent when it's easy to be prudent.
It's easy to be honest when it's easy to be honest.
But it's difficult to be honest when it's gonna cost me something. And that's when I need courage, that's when I need fortitude.
In fact Catholic people have said for thousands of years if I don't have fortitude, I don't actually have any of the other virtues:
that I don't truly have temperance if I can't be temperate when it really counts or when it's really difficult.
I mean think about it. Again let's get really personal here.
Not like super big stuff, but just like in my own life. Not like a heroic moment, but just in this one moment in my life.
It's Lent and we have fast days and let you know Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
We also have days of penance in Lent. Right? Every Friday throughout the whole year is the day of penance
Well you see on that fast day, here's what I find.
In beginning the fast and like this is a piece of cake. At the end of the fast day, I'm like oh man I want a piece of cake.
Right? Because it gets difficult as it goes on. In the morning. It's easy at the evening it's difficult.
But the evening as when I need courage to still do the thing I already decided to do.
If you decided to do some kind of prayer this Lent or any time in your life, it's easy to pray when it's easy to pray.
But when it's difficult to pray you need, I need to be courageous,
But we're often, we're often appeasers right we're often compromisers.
We're often cowards when it comes to even saying no to ourselves.
So we can say yes to something we already know that we want, and so we're cowards.
We appease and we compromise.
Even though we know that the enemy the great enemy, Satan, he will not compromise
We say "Oh no no no. I mean I know he crosses borders, but he won't he won't cross all borders."
No, he will he'll take as much land as he could possibly can get.
Even our own, not not simply the devil, but also our own fallen human nature, out own fallen flesh.
We recognize this. we recognize that if I...I recognize in myself...
If I appease and compromise with my own fallen nature, it's never like "Ok now I'm satisfied."
It's always like "Thanks for that. I want more."
And that's why you guys I need courage as well.
And that's why the Lord keeps telling us be courageous. In fact in Joshua Chapter One,
I love this, here's Joshua and he's leading the people of Israel across the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
What has God done? God has set them free. He's led them through the wilderness and now he's bringing them to the place He's created them to live.
But Joshua says "But you people be strong and courageous."
And this is the same thing for us Christians. The Lord Jesus has set us free in Baptism.
And he's leading us through this wilderness, and he's destined us for Heaven.
But we will not get there unless we're courageous.
So the Lord, what he said to the people of Israel through Joshua, He also is saying to us.
Be strong and courageous. I did all this for you.
But now you have to embrace this you have to have courage you have to have fortitude.
What did St Paul say to Timothy?
God did not give you a spirit of timidity, the spirit of cowardice.
He gave you the spirit of power, and of love and of self-control. He gave you a spirit of courage.
It's one of the things I love. Sirach Chapter 2 verse 1. He says my son when you come to serve the Lord prepare yourself for trials.
Question:
The way you and I live our lives, are we preparing ourselves for trials?
Do we do we pick up our cross daily and follow after Jesus?
Or do we think "Well no following Jesus. It's a matter of comfort.
It's a matter of like you know when I feel like it.
It's a matter of like I don't let, I don't let my Christianity show in such a way that people like actually notice because that'd be weird.
But I'm just, I blend in with everybody."
Or is it a way of living the Gospel that demands that I'm courageous?
I'm not staying on the street corner necessarily.
I mean in the silence of my heart, in my own hidden room...
Do I fast? Do I pray? Do I give alms? Do I care for people? Do I say no to myself?
"My son when you come to serve the Lord prepare yourself for trials."
Are you, am I, today preparing myself for a trial?
Because I will face it and you will face it.
And that will be the difference. Jesus has done everything he needs to do.
But whether I'm courageous or not will be the difference.
In fact there is no saint who ever lived who was not courageous.
There's no saint who ever lived who didn't have fortitude.
And I want to be a saint. And I know you want to be a saint as well, which means we need to embrace courage and fortitude.
In fact Pope Benedict, when he was asked about St John Paul the Great...
They asked, they asked "Did you know that he was a saint when he was around, when you were working together?"
Benedict thought about it. He said "Yeah, I could recognize this holiness. He had an intense intimacy with the Lord."
But also he said "For me courage and truth is the primary measure of holiness."
"For me courage and truth is the primary measure of holiness."
And John Paul had courage and truth even when people persecuted him, tried to, literally tried to kill him...
for his faith and for what he was saying, standing up against communism, standing up against other regimes,
standing up for the Gospel.
He had courage and truth the primary measure of holiness
If you want to be a saint, I know you do,
today embrace the cross, embrace Jesus, and embrace courage.
I know that you can.
From all of us here from Ascension Pres... Ascension Presents. My name is Father Mike.
God bless.
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