More than ever, we need to concentrate on courage.
Like athletes in training for the Olympic games,
we should set our minds and hearts on growing in courage.
Courage is a strength that comes from the heart.
In fact, the very word “courage” is derived from cor,
the Latin word for the heart.
For too long, we have operated as if
the mind is the seat of rationality
and the heart is the space of emotion.
But this dichotomy is false.
We know that deep wisdom emerges from the heart,
even as we can now map emotions
like fear and anger in the brain.
Our times demand new forms of courage.
They ask us to respond to life
from a deeply integrated space
of knowledge, wisdom, care and strength.
Acting courageously does not mean that we feel no fear.
It means, instead, that we do not allow fear, warranted or not,
to override our other human capacities.
A careful reading of the gospels suggests that
the many times that Jesus counseled his friends and companions
not to fear, he was not saying that we should not feel fear,
but rather we should not allow fear to paralyze us
or overcome the strength that we derive
from our connection to God and our connection to one another.
Stay rooted and stay connected.