Pope urges believers not to be ‘half-Christians’ who respond to God’s calling by saying ‘tomorrow’
"When we are overtaken by lukewarmness, by this attitude of spiritual tepidness, we transform our life into a cemetery: there is no life. There is only closure to keep out problems, like those people that says ‘yes, yes, we are in ruins but we are not at risk: it is better this way. We are already used to living like this."
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning. His homily was inspired by an excerpt from the Book of Haggai, in today’s first reading, in which the Lord, through the prophet, urges the people to reflect on their behaviour and change it by doing something to rebuild the House of God.
In his address, the pontiff called on Christians not to be lukewarm, half-Christians who respond to God’s calling by saying “tomorrow”.
In the scripture, Haggai tries to move the hearts of idle people, resigned to the life of a loser. Their enemies had destroyed the Temple, leaving but ruins, but people had let time go by, so that the Lord sent his chosen one to "re-build the Temple".
Their hearts were bitter and yet they didn't want to work. They said: "But no, no, we do not put ourselves forward; perhaps it is an illusion, better not to risk it; we remain a little like this . . ."
Those people “didn't want to rise up, to start over; they would not let the Lord help them rise again" with the excuse that the right time had not yet come.
"This was their tragedy, and ours, when the spirit of lukewarmness takes us, when that tepidness of life comes, when we say: 'Yes, yes, Lord, all right ... but slowly, slowly, Lord, let us leave things this way . . . But tomorrow I will do it!' only to say the same tomorrow and the next day, and the day after tomorrow . . . in a life of putting off decisions to convert one's heart, to change one's life . . ."
For Francis, lukewarmness often hides uncertainties and puts off decisions. So many people waste their life and end up "like a rag because they didn't do anything, just kept peace and quiet inside themselves". This "is the peace of the cemeteries".
"When we are overtaken by lukewarmness, by this attitude of spiritual tepidness, we transform our life into a cemetery: there is no life. There is only closure to keep out problems, like those people that says ‘yes, yes, we are in ruins but we are not at risk: it is better this way. We are already used to living like this."
All this, Francis warns, also happens to us "with the little things that don’t go well, that the Lord wants us to change", to convert, and our answer to him is tomorrow. Hence, "Let us ask the Lord for the grace of not falling into this spirit of ‘half-Christians’ or, as old women say, ‘rosewater Christians’, without substance. Good Christians, who work a lot - you have sown a lot, but have harvested little. Lives that promised so much, in the end did nothing.”
Finally, “May the Lord help us awake from the spirit of lukewarmness" to fight against "this sweet anaesthesia of the spiritual life".
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