Sermon: True Courage
Posted on 25 Aug 2024 @ 8:28am by Lieutenant JG Hovar Kov
1,657 words; about a 8 minute read
[ON]
"Friends,
Before I start this sermon, I have a very brief announcement. There are still slots available for the Hour of Power program during this upcoming shore leave, which is giving an hour of your off duty time for either prayer, meditation, or any philosophical contemplation of your choice. This is a self-guided program with a few prompts to help you focus on certain topics to consider as well as a few words of encouragement. At the conclusion, there will be a communal hour followed by fellowship for everyone to share their experiences. This does count as Continuing Education from the Counseling department so please consider. A survey will be sent to you for anonymous feedback about the program at the conclusion of the program.
Okay. Onto the sermon.
When people think of the virtue of courage, one of the images that comes to mind is the sight of a rear guard giving up their lives valiantly so that others might escape. There are ideas of the brave warriors who fought the Dominion during the war, both the survivors and the casualties. It is the image of the brave who performed above and beyond what they thought they were capable of in order to accomplish their objectives. Those are the ones who have songs written about them, who are adorned with medals of honor and valor, who are graced with being among the rare few who will take their place in the history books. Those are the ones who did not let their fears paralyze them for the sake of their shipmates, their fellow brethren, and of their cause.
That type of courage, which is commendable and should be valued, pales in comparison to the type of courage that you will need to do the one thing very few, if any of us, want to admit. This type of courage goes beyond that of anything we will ever be asked by Star Fleet. Ah, I see the look of confusion on your faces. I can also see everyone's vanity coming into play. "What do you mean, Chaplain? I am a member of Star Fleet, among the few and proud members of the deep-space exploration arm! I have more courage flowing through my veins than you, Klingon!" Perhaps, perhaps. However, are any of you willing to steel that same courage for yourself?
I dare all of you to do one simple thing. I dare you to go to the Counselor's Office, look at either Counselor Carlisle or myself, and not lie to us when you say the following:
"I need help."
That's it.
Those three words are all you need to say. If you are not okay, but you lie saying you are, you are not just a liar, but a coward. Of course, as a Christian, I will freely admit that I need help as well, although in different ways. I constantly beg for mercy not only for myself, but for the whole galaxy. You can lie to yourself, you can lie to us, you can lie to everyone all the way until you fall asleep into eternity. By then, there will be nothing you can do about it. You will die in your lie, and you will die a coward's death without honor. At that point, no one will help you. Hopefully, you will die surrounded by loved ones who you can mourn over your death.
This seems harsh, very harsh. I fully agree with you. However, I ask you, why do you think it is harsh? Is it harsh because you expected a gentle priest to hold your hand and to let you live in a lie in peace because I love you like my kin? Or, is it harsh because I'm bringing light to your most darkest thoughts and I am refusing to let you life in a lie under any circumstance. I assure you, it is the latter. I will not allow a shipmate, my brethren, no...my friend, to die in their sin.
It is not down to me, but to each and every one of you. As much as it requires courage to admit to yourselves that you are not okay, it requires even more courage to look at someone else and say that they are not okay. Why? Imagine the following scenario. You see someone who looks more stressed than usual. Their tempers are shorter, their performance is suffering, their patience is just the same. Imagine if you leave them unchecked, to "let them handle it," to refuse to advise either your superiors, Counselor Carlisle, or myself of a possible issue. Your reasons could be well meaning and understandable. You look after your own, you do not want to be deemed a Blue Falcon, or worse, "am I my brother's keeper?" Let me tell you, Cain used that excuse as he killed his younger brother.
Our honorable Commanding Officer told me when I first came aboard that it will take months to reach the nearest Star Base, months, for us to have any support if one of you goes down because of a mental health issue. Your inaction, either out of ignorance or out of vanity equally fatal, will affect everyone on board because everyone is valued aboard this ship. Refusing to tend to your fellow shipmates when they are in distress, or yourself when you are the one in distress, makes you in equal measure to the evils brought about by the Borg. It makes you kindred to those who use their strength to spread death and destruction against the innocent for their own selfish aims.
In fact, it makes you twice the spawns of Hell as those who carry the same DNA as I do for the sake of their own pride!
BY FAILING TO STAND UP FOR YOUR BRETHREN, YOU BECOME THE ENEMY OF YOUR BRETHREN!
Please forgive me of that outburst.
For those of you who have known me, what is my deal? What is my motto? What is it I always say? What is it I always tell you when any of you come up to me calling me Sir or Lieutenant? Why is it I insist on being addressed as Chaplain? Why is it I wish I do not care for honorifics or hide behind the masks of customs and courtesies?
We are brethren before any other rank.
Why do I say that?
There are sixty of us on board this ship. We do not share the same blood, the same upbringing, or even the same planet. However, Jesus Christ of Nazareth said, when asked who is his mother and his brethren spoke, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matthew 12:50). In my eyes, in my humble opinion, we do the will of the Father by seeking the truth: no matter what kind of truth we seek. We all share in that mission to seek the truth, regardless of our race or creed, philosophy or religion, or rank and position. Yes, we are bound my Star Fleet Regulation. Yes, we are bound by the vow of obedience that we took upon our enlistment or our commissioning to our superior officers. Yet, we are all bound by our higher calling.
What is that higher calling? To come together as a crew, all sixty of us, to look after each other to seek the truths of Creation. With that said, we must all come together, as brethren, to look out for each other. Captain Tarin spoke to me about how when the Red Alert is ordered, all of us are to respond. All of us are to do what we can to nurture and care for each other when any of us are wounded. This requires a level of courage that remains secret to all of us. This courage is not out of our own pride or vanity, but out of mutual concern for each other as a crew, as brethren. All of us will need to find that courage within each other, for each other, because when that alarm sounds, each other is all we are going to have.
This is why we are brethren before any other rank.
I wish to conclude a personal note, after I completed my second Rite of Ascension at 15, I felt like I could take on the universe by myself. I spoke this to my father, and she smacked me right in the face, tossing my weakened body onto the ground. I will spare the details of the ritual, but it hurts, and there is my father who punched me in the face with all of his might in the face. He then took my knife and placed it on my neck.
My father then told me the point of this sermon: there is a very fine line between foolishness and courage. If you want to fight your greatest enemy, look in the mirror and fight that enemy. If you want to prove your worth, look at how many lives you save, not how many lives you take. If you want to die wearing medals and being buried under a statue, those are a dime a dozen. The true heroes, those with courage, are those who are willing to stand up not to their brethren, but for their brethren. Jesus of Nazareth, just like every other hero throughout time regardless of them being Human, Vulcan, Andorian, or even Klingon, died not for themselves but for everyone around them.
That, is courage."
Hovar paused, taking a breath, and then he reached for his PADD, stopping the recording. He turned around and walked back to the alter, pausing for a moment as the signal to everyone who did not wish to stay for the rest of the service to make their quiet departure.
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