Chapter 21 Return To Virtue

Chapter 21

Return to Virtue

“…rebuild my church…”

Is it reasonable to assume that those words, though spoken centuries ago to St Francis of Assisi by our God, the Father, were meant for us in the year 2010?

The Church needs rebuilding. The builders are to be us, the children of God. The builders are to be virtuous, but if they are not virtuous, fear not, the builders will be those who are available. God doesn’t need the most talented, the most intellectual, the most organized. He doesn’t really even need the most holy, the most prayerful or the most spiritual either. He just needs those who make themselves available. That could be practically anyone. And if that “anyone” happens to be you, then it would be prudent to be prepared although not necessary. (Jesus was happy to take up with Zacchaeus on “short” notice, but He was most pleased when Philip introduced Nathanial (soon to become one the Jesus’ twelve apostles) whom Jesus described as “… an honest man, a true son of Israel.”)

To rebuild Christ’s beloved Church, we must first acquire virtue. We are the Church. This renewal that is so desperately needed involves a renewal of virtue – our virtue. We have become lukewarm and are at risk of God fulfilling His promise to “spew us” from His mouth. Virtue must be sought and practiced continuously if it is be attained. Its attainment orders a right relationship with God, the Church and the rest of creation. If our relationship with Creator and Creation are rightly ordered, joy may be the fruit of this earthly life we live. We must strive to remake ourselves into a people of Faith, Hope and Love (the supernatural virtues) and seek the ordered life that grows out of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude (the cardinal virtues).

Just as the world cries out for God and yet rejected the Christ, so does the world reject what it most needs today - the Church. We are the keepers of the faith, the builders of Christs’ church. We are the Church.

St. F of A