Yesterday we asked, what if David had lost to Goliath?
Well, don’t forget, King Saul assumed that David would lose. That’s why he told him, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
Let’s be fair: Saul had a point—he was telling David not to be reckless. And David’s response was not, “Oh Saul, don’t be a scaredy-cat. That Goliath is no big deal. Anybody could defeat him.” That would not have been courage, but rather folly.
Thomas Aquinas tells us that “it belongs to fortitude that man should moderate his fear according to reason, namely that he should fear what he ought, and when he ought, and so forth.”
So, what was David’s response to Saul?
“Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear….”
In short, David reasoned with Saul, explaining how he was uniquely equipped to take on Goliath. He had defeated lions and bears defending his sheep. He wasn’t just some kid fearlessly marching to his death—and he didn’t suggest that any Israelite could do the job. He moderated his fear according to reason. Of course, there still was no guarantee that David would win. But after hearing David’s answer, you know what Saul’s reply was? “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
Fortitude is not some overwhelming emotion of fearlessness—it is fear checked by reason. When we’re called to be brave, we’re not called to do crazy things in the face of fear; we’re called to moderate our fear according to what we know to be true. Then we can—and should—go fight Goliath, whatever the outcome.
Have a wonderful day.