How great must have been Saint Francis’ reverence for God’s name and God’s love! And how brave he was and principled, like the good knight he wanted to become when he was a young man. He speaks out for his Lord, who is God himself. He doesn’t remain silent when he perceives that his Lord’s name and honor is being taken in vain, or spoken of lightly.
How callous we’ve become. How lightly and sometimes sinfully we utter God’s name. And how easily we use God’s name and God’s attributes to serve our own needs, our own point of view, our own ideology. How many evil things have been done in God’s name, and how blissfully we ignore or deny their consequences.
—from the book The Simple Way: Meditations on the Words of Saint Francis
by Murray Bodo, OFM
