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.
