Spirit of Courage

We are all called to Mission that is to proclaim the Good News to all we meet. Not in a confrontational manner but to display the fruits of the Spirit so that all may see God working within your soul.

Many tend to think that evangelizing our Faith is the priority of our Priests and Religious and the missionaries sent out to far of lands. We forget that there is a responsibility for each of us to give the reasons for our joy.

But in order for us to spread the Good News, we must also live it. To speak one thing and live another is to dishonour God and your calling, which will bring discredit not only to yourself but to all your brothers and sisters in Christ. So in order to be effective Christian examples we need to embrace and live obediently to what God teaches us through The Word and the Teachings of our Church. This can only be achieved if we partake of the Sacraments of the Church with fidelity in full knowlege of our own human frailities.

We have a responsibility to live fruitful lives of piety and obedience to one's station in life. We are the face of Christ to all we meet in our communities and also within our families. Saint Francis of Assisi also warns us in our Christian walk, "It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching....Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."

As Christians we are called to be holy examples with a human face of the joy that we have received from God and then to live this Grace within our daily lives. This is not to say we will not make mistakes, indeed we shall make mistakes but it should make us compassionate to others as fellow travelers on an often perplexing path. But we must also learn that in order to live our Faith effectively we must embrace and speak Gods Truth, which takes courage. For we must never capitulate our beliefs in order to go along with the pervading and corrupting influences of society, just so that we wont be thought 'judgemental'.

When we look at the lives of the Saints we can see that, our Saints were made of steely material. They were tough people who lived lives of extraordinary love and compassion without compromising the Truth of God's Word or the Teachings of the Church. They were not wishy washy in order to attain friends, they stood firm on the Truth alone sometimes at the cost of their lives. Why do we think less is expected of each of us?

We are full of admiration when we look at the courage displayed by our greatest Saints. They displayed their heroic virtues which they lived unashamedly. These heroic figures were not afraid of name calling or threats to their lives; they were not swayed by the latest 'fad' or another way of 'enlightened thinking'. For these courageous people held the pearl of great price and they made no concessions to 'worldly ways', but instead loved God which expressed itself in charity to all they met. As St, Francis once again says, "While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart." When we look to Jesus and the Saints without the sentimentality that sometimes pervades our thinking we realise that the Saints were made of stern stuff. These heroic Saints ran the good race and kept the faith, are you doing the same?

In order to be courageous and speak God's Truth unflinchingly we must understand that we are not placed on this earth to be amenable to every pervading fad or thought. As Christians we must not be fainthearted but instead to stand on Truth alone, lest we find ourselves living...a lie.