Word to the Wise
Tuesday, November 17, 2020 - Tuesday in the 33th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rev 3:1-6, 14-22 and Luke 19:1-10]"I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, 'I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,' and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked......Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." {Revelation] "Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.: [Luke]
NOVEMBER 17 ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
The great English spiritual writer, C. S. Lewis, once wrote: "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." The words of the Book of Revelation about lukewarm Christianity are tough love!!! "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!" What temperature are we?
It has been frustrating to me as a pastor to battle the competing social priorities that parishioners suffer. Does attendance at Sunday Mass, the minimum level of Catholic observance, truly sit below or at the same level as attendance at an athletic event or festival? Does this battle tire me out as a pastor to the point that I settle for the "lukewarm" in pastoral care on the grounds that "It's better than nothing?" Can I preach only a "sacramental Catholicism" that ignores the list of people in Matthew 25,31-45 - the poor, hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned and alien? Is our faith simply one of many "consumer items" that cry out for time and attention? If Jesus is knocking at our door, are we pretending not to be home because we are afraid of what he might ask of us? Is our response, "See you in church (maybe)?!"
The words of the Book of Revelation go much deeper than devotional observance. They challenge us to "stir into flame the gift" we have received from God in baptism(2 Timothy 1:6) - the gift of faith. What is our "temperature" as a Catholic Christian? AMEN