Chapel of Mary, Virgin of the Poor
Society of Our Lady of Guadalupe – San Francisco
Fr. Raymond A. Olinger
4213 Collinwood Dr., Melbourne, FL 32091-6701
Phone: 321-271-4341
18th Sunday after Pentecost – October 16, 2011
(Matthew 9: 1-8)
At Apocalypse 3: 15, 16 Christ, through St. John, addresses the Angel of the Church at Laodicea. It is addressed to all the faithful, but particularly to the Bishop of Laodicea, as he is the angel, the messenger, of Christ’s Church. “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” This was a warning to the Church at Laodicea and, of course, to us today.
Are you bad or good or lukewarm. If you are lukewarm, what can you do to escape this condition that is so dangerous that God will actually vomit you out of His mouth. The bishop of Laodicea was lukewarm, meaning he led what most would consider an upright life, spending no money on unjust things, opposing vice and corruption, giving no bad example to others, but not giving his all to God. This warning should fill all of us with fear because there are very few in the world who are positively bad, and very few also who are positively good. That places most of us in the lukewarm category, the dangerous category.
How do we know which category we are in? Consider those who never go to Confession or Communion. These are not lukewarm. They are cold. Those who will enjoy the happiness of heaven will be selected from those who make frequent use of the Sacraments. Also, consider those who want to belong to the world and also belong to God. One moment they will be on their knees before God, and the next on their knees to the things of the world, but promising to give themselves to both God and the world, they finally tire of this impossible task and give themselves entirely to the world. These are also not lukewarm.
The faith of a good soul is not content just to believe all the truths of our faith. He loves them and tries to learn what he can about them. The more he hears the Word of God, the more he wants to hear it. He is always aware that God watches him and will judge him at the hour of death. He trembles at the thought of this, and so he seeks to improve himself every day and find new ways to do penance. His hope is firm and his trust in God is never shaken. He never loses sight of the next life, and never forgets the sufferings of Jesus. He thinks of hell at times to picture the eternal agony of sinners who die unrepentant. He will also raise his thoughts to heaven to arouse his love of God. He remembers the happiness of those who prefer God above all things. He does not fear death at all because he knows that death will deliver him from the miseries of life and unite him with God forever. He will do whatever is necessary to avoid the near occasions of sin. He considers that everything that displeases God also displeases him. He sees himself on the bottom rung of a ladder and knows that there is no time to lose to reach the top. So every day he advances from rung to rung, from virtue to virtue, until he enters eternity. This is a good soul.
The lukewarm soul: This soul is not yet dead in the eyes of the Lord because faith, hope and charity are not completely extinguished. However, his faith is without much enthusiasm or devotion. His hope is without much desire, ambition or achievement. His charity is without much generosity or warmth. He does not doubt that the Lord watches over him and will judge him, but even believing this, he does not sin any less. He falls into sin as easily as if he didn’t believe anything. He knows that while he is in this condition he is an enemy of God, but he makes no effort to improve his condition. He confesses his serious sins, but often makes no serious effort to amend his life or do anything to merit the happiness of a life of grace. If you talk to him about heaven he is uninterested. He is bored with the Word of God. He dislikes long prayers. He does not seriously consider the next life. The devil easily convinces him to make resolutions to do better, but this never changes the way he lives. For twenty years or more he has made good resolutions, without every losing any of his bad habits. God will send the lukewarm soul a cross to bear to help him detach from this world and bring himself closer to God, but instead he is bitter and complaining and often gives in to despair. He asks what he did to deserve this, as if there were other souls guiltier than he who have not received the same cross to bear. He is not seriously interested in making himself acceptable to God.
Each of us needs to examine our own souls to see if we stand with the sinner, the good souls, or the lukewarm. Which of us can say we are not a sinner, not lukewarm, but definitely one of the elect? The lukewarm souls is in greater danger than those who live in mortal sin. A sinner will sincerely repent when his conscience awakens. But a lukewarm soul never thinks of quitting that state and can even fool himself that he is in good standing with God. What can we conclude from that? The same thing God has concluded and told us about in the Apocalypse: “I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.”
The worst sinner is more easily converted than a lukewarm soul. If you wish to shake yourself out of lukewarmness, then in your mind take yourself occasionally to the entrance of hell. Listen to the howling and shrieking of the lost souls and you will get an idea of what suffering they go through because during their lives they neglected their salvation. Raise your thoughts also to heaven to behold the glory of the Saints who during life fought the devil at every opportunity, who lived for God, and who loved their neighbors as themselves. Think about how the Saints forgave those who persecuted them, how they carefully avoided the near occasion of even the least sin, and how many tears they shed over their past sins. Let us pray with our whole hearts that God will grant us the grace to follow the footsteps of the Saints and that at the end of life we find ourselves in the state of a good soul and so gain eternal bliss with God in heaven. +++
(Thanks to St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, for today’s sermon.)
We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass
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