Homily: 29th Sunday in OT 2016 - Perseverance in Spiritual Matters

About 500 years ago, America was just being explored by men like Ponce de Leon and Cortes, Michelangelo was completing the Sistine Chapel, Machiavelli was writing The Prince; it was a time of political, social, religious, and scientific upheaval in Europe. 

There was a 17-year-old girl named Theresa who had felt God’s call to enter the Carmelite monastery in Avila, Spain. She was a physically beautiful girl, talented, outgoing, affectionate, wise, intelligent, and much in tune with her spiritual life.

About six years after entering the monastery, though, prayer became very hard for Theresa. She began to make excuses not to practice daily mental prayer, she became lax in her devotions. Her enthusiasm for her religious vocation began to wane and she grew lukewarm for her faith.

One day, Theresa was given a vision, a supernatural vision—a vision which was terrifying, but afterwards she saw it as a great gift. She was given a vision of hell; souls were falling to hell in great abundance, like snowflakes, she said, because of their faithlessness. But then she saw specifically the very place the devil had prepared for her soul if she continued down the path of lukewarmness.  And then God allowed her to experience some of the pain, despair, and torment of that place. She said the hopelessness of that place was impossible to put into words.  Such would be the consequences if continued to allow lukewarmness to develop in her heart.

She saw this vision as a gift because it helped her realize the consequences of faithlessness. She found renewal in her own faith and even worked to reform the entire Carmelite Order.

What is lukewarmness? Lukewarm faith?  It’s neither hot nor cold.  The lukewarm are neither on fire with enthusiasm for the faith, nor necessarily icy cold in their hostility toward the faith. But because of their lukewarmness they begin to slide…they stop praying, they stop going to Mass, they stop believing that God is more important than earthly pleasure.

Lukewarmness is like a slow-working disease.  Even a once enthusiastic soul, like Theresa’s can be brought to lukewarmness.  It can slowly sap the willpower needed to pursue the the spiritual perfection to which the Lord calls us. 

What causes this spiritual disease of lukewarmness?  Well, just as our bodies can become malnourished when we don’t eat our fruits and vegetables, so our souls can become malnourished by not taking time for meditation, spiritual reading, examination of conscience, and fulfilling the duties of your vocation. 

The other cause for lukewarmness is sin.  Breaking the commandments, acts of pride and lust and greed cause the soul which is fervent for God to grow cold.  Failure to fulfill the obligation to participate at Sunday mass and Holy Days is often the first step of a slippery slope that leads to perdition.  Why are some Catholics who attended twelve years of Catholic school now hostile to the teachings of the Church and practice of the faith?  You can bet money that missing Mass played a part.

Just because food tastes good—like butterfinger bars and oreo cookies—doesn’t mean it’s good for the body.  Likewise, Just because certain television shows or websites or gossipy conversations can bring some enjoyment, they can be quite dangerous for the life of the soul, where love for spiritual heavenly  things can be replaced with love for perverse and worldly things.

I bring up this story of St. Theresa being awakened out of her lukewarmness, one because today is the feast day of St. Theresa of Avila, but also, I think the story fits well with our readings.

In the first reading from Exodus we hear how Moses had to persevere in keeping his hands raised during a battle with the Amalekites. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel was victorious in battle; but when he let his hands down, the Amalekites, Israel’s enemies got the upper hand.

This is a great metaphor for the spiritual life—when we keep our hands raised before God, persevering in prayer, engaging in the works of mercy, victory is won—our souls grow as they are meant to. When we grow lax, lukewarm, and disobedient, our souls diminish.

The battle between Israel and the Amalekites is just one battle in the Bible. Israel had to engage in quite a few battles in order to take possession of the promised land. All those battles remind us that there is a constant battle going on in our own lives—a constant struggle between two forces.  On one hand the forces of peace and goodness and mercy and forgiveness, and on the other hand the forces which seek the ruin of souls--hatred, violence, self-absorption, resentment.  Which forces do we nurture?

In the spiritual life, when we do fall, when we do grow lukewarm, one of the most important and powerful things we can do is to make a good confession. To humbly acknowledge our sin and our need for the Lord’s mercy can truly be a turning point in our own spiritual battles.

Notice, as well, that Moses was only able to keep his hands raised with “a little help from his friends.” Aaron and Hur supported Moses’ hands—they helped him when he began to grow weary. So too, friends, we are not meant to go through the Christian life by ourselves. We need good Christian friends to support us, to encourage us in the faith. As Christians, we aren’t like sports fans who go our separate ways after the game, we are meant to walk with each other, to share our faith with each other and strengthen each other.

Personally, I get together with a group of brother priests on a weekly basis. We share a meal, we pray together, we go for a walk and discuss the challenges of priestly ministry, we discuss books we’ve been reading, lessons from movies we’ve seen, and we encourage each other in our priesthood.

Every Christian needs that. Here at St. Clare we are blessed to have groups of families that encourage each other in the faith, the families in christ jesus groups, and for two years now, we have had the Arise groups. We need each other: to help each other grow in the faith and keep each other from growing lukewarm.

We need God’s help to fight life’s battles, like Moses and the Israelites. We need to persevere in prayer, like the widow in the Gospel, and to remain faithful to God, we need the help of our Christian friends, who keep us accountable to God’s commandments, who encourage us, and challenge us.

Through this celebration of Word and Sacrament, may the Holy Spirit enliven our faith, rekindling the faith of any who have grown lukewarm. May we recommit to daily prayer and meditation, frequent confession of sins, concern for the souls of our fellow Christians, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.