Pope Francis in Santa Marta: Lukewarm spirituality transforms our life into a graveyard
Sep 26, 2019
During his homily in Casa Santa Marta, the pope said that Christians cannot live hidden in uncertainties.
POPE FRANCIS
When we enter this tepidness, this attitude of lukewarm spirituality, our lives transform into a graveyard: there is no life. There is only darkness for these people, light doesn’t get in. Christians say, ‘yes, yes, we are in the ruins but we don’t want to risk getting out: it’s better to stay here in the darkness. We’re already used to living like this.’
Pope Francis said that Christians can’t be content with this false spiritual peace and recommended asking for the grace to not fall into this “half-Christian” spirit.
HOMILY TEXT IN ENGLISH
Source: Vatican News
The pope reflected on the Book of Haigai, urging people to change their behavior by working to rebuild the House of God.
Pope Francis explained that the prophet Haggai was trying to move the hearts of lazy people living in defeat. The Temple had been destroyed, everything was in ruin, but people sat for years without making changes.
The pope said, “The Lord sent the prophet to ‘rebuild the Temple,’ but the hearts of people were bitter and they had no wish to take risks and work.”
Those people had no desire to begin working again. They claimed the time had not come yet, so they would not let the Lord help them.
Pope Francis continued to say this is similar to Christians today who say, “Yes, yes, Lord, it’s fine…but slowly, slowly, Lord, let’s leave it like this…I’ll do it tomorrow!”
Lukewarm faith leads to excuses and uncertainty. The pope said it causes people to waste their life and end in tatters, because they have done nothing but nurture themselves. That is the “peace of graveyards.”
The pope warned Christians that the Lord desires conversion, today. We must not allow ourselves to transform our lives into graveyards, for those places have no life.
Pope Francis said to ask the Lord for grace to not fall into half-Christian spirits, which would make us Christians without substance. He finished by asking the Lord to help us to “wake-up from a tepid spirit.”
© Vatican Media
Santa Marta: Christians Must Avoid a Lukewarm Faith
Don’t Allow Life to Become a Cemetery
The Christian must fight against spiritual lukewarmness so that his life does not become “a cemetery”: this is the invitation of Pope Francis to the Mass he celebrated at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican on September 26, 2019.
Commenting on the first reading (Ag 1: 1-8), the pope pointed out that the people of Israel “did not want to get up, start over; he did not allow himself to be helped by the Lord who wanted to raise him up “.
“It’s the tragedy of this people,” he said, “and ours too, when we are taken by the spirit of lukewarmness … when we say, yes, yes, Lord, it’s okay … but gently, Lord, let’s leave things like this … But tomorrow I’ll do it! “, to say the same thing tomorrow and tomorrow pushes back to the day after tomorrow and the day after tomorrow pushes back to … and so, a life of returning conversion decisions of the heart, change of life. “
For the pope, the one who lets himself be won over by this lukewarmness sees his life end up “in rags because we have done nothing, we have only kept peace and inner calm”. But it is about “the peace of cemeteries”.
“When we enter this warmth, in this attitude of spiritual lukewarmness, we transform our life into a cemetery,” he continued: “there is no life. There is only closure so that the problems do not enter, like those people who say “yes, yes, we are in ruins but do not take risks: it’s better, we are already used to live like this” . “
“Let us ask the Lord for the grace of not falling into this spirit of” half-Christians “or …” Christians with rose water “, like that, without substance. Good Christians, who work a lot – ‘You have sown a lot, but harvested little’. Vines that promised a lot, and in the end did not give anything. “
May the Lord help us, “concluded the Pope,” to wake us up from the spirit of lukewarmness “, to fight against” this sweet anesthesia of the spiritual life “and to embrace” the little things that do not go, that the Lord wants us to change. “
Read the source: https://zenit.org/articles/santa-marta-christians-must-avoid-a-lukewarm-faith/
