“Having courage does not mean that we are unafraid. Having courage and showing courage mean we face our fears. We are able to say, ‘I have fallen, but I will get up.’”
—Maya Angelou
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“Grace under pressure.” That is how American author Ernest Hemingway defines courage. British statesman Winston Churchill believes courage “is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others.”
During the reign of England’s Mary I – more popularly known as Bloody Mary – Reverend John Hooper was imprisoned for his religious belief and sentenced to die.
On the morning of February 9, 1555, at approximately 9 o’clock, Hooper was brought to the center of Gloucester, where around 7,000 individuals had gathered for market day. The reverend was observed to “nod cheerfully” at acquaintances before reaching the stake, where he proceeded to remove his outer garments while sacks of gunpowder were affixed to his armpits and between his legs.
As the silent assembly looked on in horror, Hooper raised his voice, inviting them to join him in reciting the Lord’s Prayer. The winter sky resonated with the collective voices of 7,000: “Our Father which is in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven…”
Upon concluding with the final “Amen,” the crowd, with tear-filled eyes, witnessed a metal hoop being secured around Hooper’s chest to bind him to the stake. The fire was ignited; however, the use of excessive green wood and strong winds resulted in a “slow torture,” as Hooper’s hair began to burn and his skin swelled from the heat, yet no lethal flames emerged.
The lower portion of his body began to emit smoke as the executioners ignited a fire. Even as his face and mouth became charred, he could be observed praying until his lips ultimately disintegrated.
John Foxe, author of Book of Martyrs, wrote:
“Hooper struck at his chest until one of his arms fell off, and then continued striking his chest with the other hand while fat, water, and blood spurted out his fingertips. Hooper was about 45 minutes to an hour in the fire. Even so, he was like a lamb.”
“Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage,” said Jean Anouilh. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once,” William Shakespeare once penned.
In life, whatever we do, we need courage. “Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you, you are wrong,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote. “There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action, and follow it to an end, requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”
“Fighting spirit,” to quote the words of George Allen, is what we all need. Gail Brook Burket summons: “I do not ask to walk smooth paths nor bear an easy load. I pray for strength and fortitude to climb the rock-strewn road. Give me such courage I can scale the hardest peaks alone and transform every stumbling block into a steppingstone.”
Don’t worry; be happy, urges one song. What worries you, masters you. Victor Hugo counsels, “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”
To live in this world is to be courageous. Take time to learn something new each day. “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new,” recommends Alan Cohen. “There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”
Perhaps some of the most courageous people are those who admit they are sometimes wrong. It happened to Hollywood actor David Niven, as related in Reader’s Digest’s “Personal Glimpses.”
Niven was at a fancy ball, standing at the bottom of a grand staircase, talking to a man he had just met. Two women at the top of the stairs started to descend.
The award-winning thespian told the man, “That’s the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen.” The man stiffened: “That’s my wife.” Embarrassed, Niven quickly said, “I meant the other one.” “That’s my daughter,” the man told the actor.
Niven looked the man calmly in the eye and said, “I didn’t say it!” Of course, only a Niven can get away with such a situation.
There are always two sides to a coin, so they say. If there are people who are courageous enough, there are also those who are cowards. What’s the difference?
“Courage and cowardice are antithetical,” points out Martin Luther King, Jr. “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and frightening situations; cowardice is a submissive surrender to circumstance. Courage breeds creative self-affirmation; cowardice produces destructive self-abnegation. Courage faces fear and thereby masters it; cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it.
“Courageous people never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly people, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear,” King, Jr. added.
“Courage,” said Mark Twain, “is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.” So, “keep your fears to yourself,” advised Robert L. Stevenson, “share your courage with others.”
