The Virtue of Courage (Part 1): What does it Take? Courage comes from conviction

By Dr Gerard Gaskin, Director of Catholic Education Tasmania

Have you ever had the experience of being the odd one out – the person who stood out from the crowd – out of step with the rest of the group? How did it feel to be the only person in the room holding one opinion while everyone else had the opposite one? It’s uncomfortable to be different. It might be OK to support a different sporting team, or to like a different type of music from the rest of the group, but in the big things, being different can be very hard.

At some times, in our day-to-day lives, we could find ourselves to be the odd one out in a serious matter of right versus wrong.

As Sister Patricia, a kindly Mercy nun, taught us in second class, it doesn’t matter, even if everyone else in the room is against you, you must always stand up for what is right. To do that takes the virtue of courage.

So far, in our series of articles on the virtues, we have covered Prudence, Justice and Temperance. Today’s article is about courage – a courage that comes from the sure belief that you must always do and say what is right – despite the opposition. This is called the courage of conviction – a courage that is based on doing what is right – whatever the cost.

Some of the greatest world leaders: Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Mahatma Gandhi, and saints like Mother Theresa, Mary MacKillop and Dominic Savio were called to show the greatest courage of their convictions.

Despite calls to appease the Germans during World War II, both Churchill and De Gaulle refused to give in to pressure and, instead, stood defiant against the overwhelming force of their Nazi enemies. Mahatma Gandhi of India, and Nelson Mandela in South Africa, courageously followed only peaceful solutions to racial violence and hatred in the leadership of their countries. Mother Theresa and Mary MacKillop courageously followed the path of prayer and poverty in their care of the sick and the uneducated even when faced with unfair opposition.

Dominic Savio, a twelve-year-old Italian boy, stood up to his classmates who were degrading themselves with pornography and vice. In 1849, at the age of seven on his First Holy Communion Day, he had made the following promises:

1. I will go to Confession often, and frequently to Holy Communion.

2. I wish to sanctify the Sundays and festivals in a special manner.

3. My friends shall be Jesus and Mary.

4. Death rather than sin

Dominic had the courage of his Christian convictions. He lived them every day. He is a worthy example to all the Catholic students of Tasmania. He, and the recently beatified fifteen-year-old Carlos Acutis, are outstanding models of heroic virtue to us all.