Virtue is a word yellowed around the edges, often relegated to a previous era of history or deemed irrelevant to our own. But in a time of unanticipated challenge, trial, and upheaval, virtue is necessary not only in the dictionary but also in our daily lives. Ready or not, like it or not, we are living in history-making times. Where do we turn, and how do we respond? Let us look to another time not long past—a far more trying one—and to the heroes who exemplified these three wartime virtues that we can use today.
Courage
Rome, 1942. Jews and anti-fascists are in danger from both German Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes, but they seek one haven of refuge: the Vatican. Their ally in the fight to survive is an Irish priest, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who would become infamous to the German Gestapo but renowned to the world for helping save the lives of more than 6,500 Jews and Allied soldiers. Though protected by diplomatic immunity while in the Vatican, O’Flaherty frequently risks capture and death while smuggling refugees to safety throughout his network in Rome. The most surprising of those he helped would be the wife and children of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler, the head of the Gestapo in Rome who had sought many times to kill O’Flaherty. While serving a life sentence in prison postwar, Kappler’s only visitor would be this Irish priest, who would also eventually baptize Kappler into the faith.
What would drive a humble priest to risk his own security for the lives of strangers and even enemies? Courage. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the President of the United States of America during WWII, said that “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something is more important than fear.” It’s difficult to imagine that Monsignor O’Flaherty was fearless in the face of imminent danger and great personal risk, yet he considered the lives of others more important than his own safety.
Fortunately, most of us won’t likely be put in a position where saving others will require us to risk our own safety, but courage takes many forms. We may be afraid of not having enough finances but decide it’s more important to give those in need. We may be afraid of losing our reputation but decide it’s more important to speak up about injustice. Anytime we choose a greater good over our fears, we practice courage.
Learn more about Monsignor O’Flaherty’s story in the book book The Vatican Pimpernel and the 1983 film The Scarlet and the Black (starring Gregory Peck and Christopher Plummer).
Sacrifice
Auschwitz Concentration Camp, July 1941. There has been a prison break, and protocol requires ten men to die for every man who escaped. One of the men called forward to be executed begs for mercy, crying, “My wife! My children!” Though the Nazi prison guard initially disregards his plea, he decides to grant that of prisoner 16670, Father Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteers to take the condemned man’s place. Franciszek Gajowniczek would live to survive the war, and Father Kolbe would later be canonized as a martyr for his sacrifice.
When we think of sacrifice, we often picture heroic acts like Father Kolbe’s—the laying down of one’s life for another. Even if we never face a similar life-and-death situation, we can practice the virtue of sacrifice in a way that positively impacts others’ lives as well as our own. It is a sacrifice to put down your phone and pick up your Bible or rearrange your schedule and make time for a neighbor in need. It is a sacrifice to skip the drive-through line and give to the homeless person or leave your to-do list unchecked and spend extra time with your children.
Learning to offer ourselves in small, everyday ways builds our sacrificial “muscles” and prepares us for greater sacrifices God may be calling us to make in the future. Whether or not we ultimately lay down our lives, offering ourselves each day as living sacrifices pleases God as well (see Romans 12:1).
Read more about Father Kolbe in his biography Maximilian Kolbe: Saint of Auschwitz.
Perseverance
Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, 1944. After risking their lives for years hiding Jews and other refugees in their family home and watch shop, sisters Corrie and Betsie ten Boom now pay for their crimes as political prisoners. They endure oppressive conditions and abuses, but you wouldn’t know it by their attitude or outlook. These women cling to their faith in Christ as their undying source of hope—a hope they freely share with other prisoners. Sadly, Betsie would die less than two weeks before Corrie’s release, yet both sisters would exemplify the virtue of perseverance.
Similar to sacrifice, perseverance is a difficult virtue to live out because it opposes our natural instincts for convenience and comfort. Perseverance is antithetical to anything quick or easy, so why would we want to cultivate this virtue? Because Scripture likens the life of faith to a race requiring perseverance (see Hebrews 12:1-3). James the apostle describes perseverance as a fruit of our trials, one that is vital to our spiritual growth (see James 1:2-4). Living out this virtue is only possible when we set our sights on a goal that transcends our present suffering by—as Hebrews portrays it—“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross. . .” (12:2 NIV).
Perseverance is never an easy virtue to embrace, especially when facing suffering or hardship. But we can endure any trial if we believe that Jesus is worth more than anything we will ever have to suffer. As Corrie and Betsie ten Boom show us through their example, the hope we have in Christ enables us to not only persevere but also share this hope with others.
Read more about Corrie and Betsie ten Boom’s story in the bestselling biography The Hiding Place.
Courage, sacrifice, and perseverance are only a few of the many virtues displayed by WWII heroes (and other heroes in history). What other virtues do you admire, and what heroes exemplify these to you?
Please share in the comments below!
