We’ve been considering the virtue of fortitude this week, in light of the story of David and Goliath. On Monday, we wondered: What if David had lost?
Well, let’s change the story again. What if David was the Philistine and Goliath was the Israelite? Does courage care what we’re fighting for? Listen to what David says to Saul at the end of making his case for going out to fight Goliath:
“Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Later, when David is on the battlefield with Goliath, he says to the giant that he will kill him, so “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” David was not fighting for himself, or for money, or for personal glory, or for power, or for revenge. He was fighting to defend the name of the living God.
But if David were on the other side, and Goliath was the one fighting in the name of the living God, the odds of victory still would have looked slim for David. He would still be an underdog in a fight to the death. Is that all it takes to be courageous? Fighting as an underdog? What about Hitler or Genghis Kahn—were they courageous when they were underdogs rising to power? How about Benedict Arnold, the notorious traitor, who risked his life to betray the American cause against the British—would we call him courageous? How about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Americans who spied for the Soviet Union and gave away American nuclear secrets to our enemy. I’m sure that was scary for them at times, and they risked their lives—but would we say they had fortitude?
Thomas Aquinas said: “Now fortitude is a virtue; and it is essential to virtue ever to tend to good; wherefore it is in order to pursue some good that man does not fly from the danger of death.” What we’re fighting for matters.
Criminals, traitors, tyrants—they can all be bold, daring, perhaps even brave. But in the end, real fortitude depends on whether our courage is in pursuit of something good.
Have a wonderful day.