A scout is reverent

I am trying to get back into the regular routine and groove of seminary and school life after coming off of a good two week practicum in the parish and shortly followed by a great fall break.

This past Sunday I had the privileged of being asked to speak at the Eagle Court of Honor of a young man in my parish on the relationship of Faith and Scouting. I am an Eagle Scout myself and Scouting has been a major influence in my life, so naturally I was excited to speak at the biggest event in this scout's life in scouting.

I truthfully had little direction, only the phrase Faith and Scouting, and was admittedly quite nervous to do this. But, I came up wit something and I would like to share some of the thoughts I shared with the scouts and those there.

Scouting has had a tremendous impact on my life. It was through scouting that I came to have a greater appreciation and knowledge of my faith. Scouts do not meet weekly and camp monthly to talk and debate theology- not at all- but they come together to learn, grow, mature and be strengthened as young men seeking to live and good virtuous lives. In this environment with others who share your faith in God, you have the potential to become an extraordinary young man.

Scouting offers us a lot of opportunities to learn skills and talents of all kinds. These things are great in and of themselves for we all desire and need to know as many skills and talents as we can. But, if this is all scouting is, then it is awfully pointless for we can learn 'things' anywhere - scouting fails to be unique.

We need to look deeper into Scouting to find it's value. We need to look at the Scout Law. The Scout Law offers us a litany of 12 virtues that the scout is supposed to be. These virtues drive us to make ourselves better men and the world a better place. Again, this is a great and wonderful thing. But, if we are making ourselves and the world better just for the sake of making them better, what it the point?

There is yet another level of depth that we need to get down to to understand Scouting at its core. The last point of the Scout Law - a Scout is Reverent - is where everything lies. A scout needs to develop, maintain, work at, seek and desire a relationship with God. A scout needs to make himself a better man and make his world a better place because that is the will of God and only then can God be known through him and in the world he seeks to serve. Only with God does scouting make any sense and does it have any true meaning and  uniqueness.

Scouting has at its core - as the pearl of its existence - God. Everything else we do as scouts is done around that core, that pearl. Only God adds ultimate meaning to scouting.

As  an Eagle Scout, you are called upon to live all of this everyday. God needs to be at the core of your very being and you live a virtuous life in honor of your relationship with God. Our skills, talents and knowledge that we gain in scouting only adds to this.

Scouting helped me to see God as the center of my life. Scouting helped me to hear God's call and allowed for me to answer it - it has changed my life forever! When we allow God to be at the center of our lives and everything we do in life, then our lives are transformed and we become the men Scouting asks us to be.