By Tessa Gallagher
During the last four years I’ve seen great courage in people close to my heart. My husband, sister, son and recently my brother, faced death as they did life, with fortitude, unfailing love and heroic bravery. It was both heartbreaking and inspirational. I’ve have been moved by scenes of courageous deeds on television. I’ve been stunned when reading about acts of tremendous courage shown in the face of extreme adversity, under horrific conditions. Large or small, all involved struggle and fear, which were faced with unimaginable courage . Courage is an attitude of mind that enables people to endure the unendurable. It takes courage to live life on life’s terms or to stand against the odds. We know from Peter that with cowardice comes the agony of shame. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have had the courage to even be in that courtyard. Originally courage meant to speak your mind by telling what was in your heart.’ Courage,’ Nelson Mandela reminds us, ‘is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.’ If we accept the call to courage we will be led to the possibility of hope.