Paying witness to faith even at the cost of life

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have told you all this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues, and indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy service to God. They will do these things because they have never known either the Father or me. But I have told you all this, so that when the time for it comes you may remember that I told you. I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you. (John 15: 26; 16: 4)

Without the help of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person in the Trinity, we would never be able to overcome our evil tendencies and consequential weaknesses, including our own fears. One of the gifts we receive from the Holy Spirit is, in fact, fortitude. Courage allows us to endure trials that are insurmountable by reason alone, such as persecutions. It permits us to pay witness to our faith in God. May we, therefore, incessantly call upon the Holy Spirit to grant us the gift of fortitude to give witness to our faith in Jesus, even if it costs us our lives.