Courage or Comfort?

We often think of faith as a comfort and a refuge, and it is. But that’s not the goal of faith. It’s more the by-product. Faith, first and foremost, calls us not to comfort, but to courage. To dare. Sometimes even to risk. And in all of that to trust. God’s love doesn’t protect us from difficulties or shield us from suffering. What it does do is encourage us – literally put the courage into us – to embrace life with hope, painful or frightening as it may be sometimes; to seek out the lost and heal the hurting; to serve God in whatever way He gives us, with the gifts He gives us.   Deacon Brett reads a portion of the poem below at the end of his homily; it is attributed to Sir Francis Drake.