7^th Day of Novena to St. Thomas More

June 20, 2008

Homily Preached by Fr. Ed Scott for the Anglican Usage Mass

of the

St. Thomas More Society

celebrated at

St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church, 1013 Wood Street

Scranton, PA

“The Virtue of Fortitude”

            One day, when I was pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Lake Ariel, a colleague of mine stopped by.  He was on his way to visit some relatives of his who lived in the area, and he wanted to say hello, but also to use my phone to tell his relatives that he was on his way.

            When he picked up the telephone and dialed his relatives, this is what I heard: “Hello, This is Father Joe.  I’m down here at Tommy More’s place. . . .”

            Tommy More’s place?  I don’t think Sir Thomas would have appreciated that.  He was a rather formal gentleman and considered it a matter of courtesy to address everyone by his or her proper title.

            But on the other hand, I thought, Sir Thomas was indeed a Man for All Seasons.  He was as at home in his prison garb in the drab, dark, damp Tower of London as he was receiving foreign dignitaries at the Court of King Henry VIII.  His demeanor was always the same—dignified, self-possessed, humble, courageous, and totally trusting in God.

            So maybe if someone referred to a church dedicated to his honor as “Tommy More’s Place”, he wouldn’t have been as taken aback as I was.

            Prior to his martyrdom, as you know, Thomas More was imprisoned in the Tower of London for having refused to sign the Act of Supremacy, which would have recognized the King as the Head of the Church in England.  He had lost everything—his position as Lord Chancellor, his law practice, his home, his freedom.  Even his books and writing materials had been taken away from him when the king learned that he had such things in his cell.  But one of his greatest trials came from members of his own family.  His wife, Lady Alice, and his daughter, Margaret, out of misdirected love for their husband and father, urged him to go along to get along.  Sign the stupid document, you don’t have to believe it.

            But Thomas, man of integrity that he was, could not put his name to something in which he did not believe and thereby give scandal and bad example to the whole realm.

            On one occasion, Margaret wrote to her father, in prison, a letter, the gist of which was, “What are you trying to do, be a hero?”

            Thomas replied—and I’m paraphrasing here—“My dear Meg.  No one is less likely to be a hero than your poor father.  I pray that it doesn’t come to that.  But if it does come to that, I pray that God will give me the courage to go through with it.”

            As we know, it did come to that.  And God did give Thomas the grace. And he did go through with it.

            When we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Holy Spirit comes to us, pouring out upon us His Sevenfold Gifts:  Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord (perhaps better rendered as Awe and Wonder), and Fortitude.

            These gifts are always available to us as we need them and when we ask for them.  Fortitude is the Gift which we associate most closely with martyrdom, from the Christians of first century Rome who allowed themselves to be devoured by lions rather than renounce or compromise their faith, to the English martyrs of Reformation times who died in defense of their Catholic faith, to the martyrs of our own times, such as the Jesuits of El Salvador.

            But the vast majority of us will not have the privilege nor endure the challenge of martyrdom.  And if we did have to confront that challenge, would we be equal to it?  I can understand Thomas More’s desire to avoid martyrdom and his fear that he might waver in the face of death.  He was a reluctant martyr and did everything he could, short of compromising his conscience, to avoid his fate.  With him, I would have to say, “I pray that it doesn’t come to that, and if it does, I pray that God would give me the courage to go through with it.”

            But the gift of fortitude does not come into play only when we are faced with the stark, ultimate choice of standing by our faith or dying.

            John Henry Newman needed the Gift of Fortitude to walk away from his prestigious position as a leading clergyman on the nineteenth century Church of England to embrace the Catholic Faith.  He needed it to endure the hostility of his former co-religionists, and the coldness and envy of so many of the Catholic clergy whose colleague he became, and the loneliness and nostalgia for his former life.  He wrote that when riding the train, he never passed the towers of Oxford, the site of his former ministry, without having to suppress a wave of longing for the “good old days”.

            You have had to face similar situations on your own journey of faith, and you have needed and have received fortitude.

            We need the Gift of Fortitude when we have to face the death, or impending death, of a beloved family member or friend.  We need it when we have to confront our own failing health, the aging process, the loss of a job, or financial reverses.  We need courage when we have to take an unpopular stand, when we are called upon to give our Christian witness, by word and example to a society that is increasingly paganized.  In an election year, we need to raise touchy issues, such as where candidates and political parties stand on matters like the sanctity of human life and of marriage as a permanent union of one man and one woman.

            We need the Gift of Fortitude just to continue our day-to-day journey of faith, not to falter from spiritual fatigue or grow weary of well-doing.  It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.  We are surrounded by evil, sin and darkness.  Jesus said to us, His disciples, “You are the light of the world.”  I like the image of the Easter Vigil when the church building is in darkness.  And then, one candle is lighted, the large Paschal Candle symbolizing Christ.  And from the Christ candle, the smaller congregational candles are lit until the church is ablaze with candlelight.

            We take our light from Christ, and with it go out to light the darkness of the world.  It is a daunting task.  But as the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, we have a Cloud of Witnesses cheering us on and leading us by their example.  These are St. Thomas More and the hundreds of thousands of other martyrs before and after him down to our own day.  They are the millions who courageously professed their faith and continue to do so in the face of difficulties and obstacles of every kind.

            Do you know the mandate that is given in the Scriptures more than any other?  It is “Fear not”, “Don’t be afraid.”  Three hundred and sixty-six times this mandate is given to us in the Old and New Testaments.  You might say, once for every day in the year and once extra for leap year!  Jesus tells us not to be afraid, as do the Psalmists, the Prophets, the Apostle Paul.

            And why should we not be afraid?  The Holy Spirit with His sevenfold gift is with us.  Among these gifts is that of Fortitude.   Like our Patron Saint, Thomas More, we can rise above our fears and hesitation.  For it is not by our own power, but that of God, that we prevail.