On Being Lukewarm

Meditation

Many Catholics no longer believe Jesus is truly present in consecrated Hosts. It is very, very sad because He is no longer shown the proper reverence. The lit red lamp signifies that our Blessed Lord is in the Tabernacle. We are close to Jesus, just not in the same manner as He was 2,000 years ago. So we must get the fundamentals right. When Jesus broke and blessed the bread, He said, “This *is* My Body.” And if this is not true, then nothing else is either.

We are beloved sons and daughters of God. Jesus died for you and me and all the others. So we don’t want to be minimalists, as in seeing how far we can get to the edge before falling off the cliff.

In Revelations 3:16 it’s quite ugly what will happen to lukewarm people: So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Yikes! So what does it mean? You are neither hot or cold, but being lulled into spiritual drowsiness. You lose the horror of sin, settle for mediocrity. Little by little you lose a moral life and will fall into mortal sin.

Our Lord says that those whom He loves, He rebukes and chastises. At times He is harsh but it is to jolt us out of lukewarmness. He doesn’t want to lose us.

So change. Begin again. Ask the Lord to help you. Ask the Blessed Mother. Your guardian angel. Ask the saints, especially the Little Flower.

Jesus, show me how to love with the little things. We have to start with little things because that is how we fall into lukewarmness, by despising the little things.

Father Bob shared a story while he was in Rome. All the priests need to do some sort of work, whether it is fixing cars or painting. Alas, Fr. Bob had no talent for the mechanical. So they asked him to work as an exterminator of the woodworm. It has a little beak and it makes a clicking sound so you have to look for little holes with fresh sawdust and listen for the clicking with a stethoscope. When you find it, you fill the hole with varnish using a syringe. It’s very satisfying work because you look and listen and you make progress inch by inch. There was a gilded wooden frame around a picture of Our Lady. It looked perfect … but when he picked it up, the frame crumbled. It was hollow on the inside. That’s what happens to us when we’re lukewarm.

There is no zeal, no heart, no real love. We are easily satisfied. Feel cynical about true piety. Faith diminishes. There is no charity. How many people miss the presence of angels?

Fr. Bob recounted another story. When he went to Sri Lanka it was hot, steamy, and everything grows and millions of critters that made him jump. If you walked even a little distance from your hut, you’d be in a jungle with 8 ft crocs, bats with a span of a meter, and 8,000 elephants. But the most difficult thing to deal with aren’t these, but the little mosquito. You have to do a thorough check before you settle into bed because it’s no fun being trapped with a mosquito.

And such is life. It’s always the little things. Murder is not a typical temptation, rather it’s the snide comment. It’s a lazy prayer life. Judas didn’t become a traitor right away. He was stealing small amounts of money. He went into a self-destructive mode because he had no real love.

A little act of love is worth a lot. So be a little flower. Be like the Little Flower.