It’s as if Ezekiel was in my head this morning as I continue to promote The Virtue of Virtues all over the 
world. Virtues are given to us by God, exemplified by Jesus, and bolstered by the Holy Spirit. And here was Ezekiel in chapter 18, verses 21-28 in this morning’s first reading:
“Thus says the Lord God: If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statues, and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced. Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? says the Lord God. Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?
“And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and live? None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die. You say, “The Lord’s way is not fair!” Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all his sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.”
Surely today we are past the diverting and separatist point of insisting “man” be changed to “man and woman” or to the less correct and more generic plural of human or human beings in Ezekiel’s writing, which was not meant to be insulting to anyone. All of us are included in that “man.”
Ezekiel is an Old Testament prophet and writer who relied on the law of the Ten Commandments. Ezekiel wrote about history from 613 BCE to 536 BCE, during the Babylonian exile. He preached the same message as did Jeremiah: Repent and be well. Ezekiel brings out personal accountability using the virtues as signposts.
Jesus arrives on the scene around 2536 years later and give us the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. It seems, even then, we forgot how to be virtuous, doing what is right and just, so we need to be reminded. It seems we keep forgetting about the virtues, with the vices shining so brightly in our society. We get distracted, even the most well-meaning among us.
The key is to begin again … and again … and again …
Fortitude is one of the virtues that can help us stay faithful to our promises, faithful to our promises to God and to one another.
Let us have the fortitude to begin again to study and practice the virtues, teaching them along the way. The Virtue of Virtues is a great help to get back on track to a virtuous life, or to help us maintain a virtuous life in times of trials and tribulations.
To get your copy of The Virtue of Virtues, go to:
https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/809142-the-virtue-of-virtues
ISBN: 978-1-5320-9461-3 is $10.99 for soft cover
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