Thursday, 26 September 2019

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During Holy Mass at Santa Marta on Thursday morning, 26 September, Pope Francis invited the faithful not to be satisfied with a false inner peace that bears no fruit. Commenting on the first reading from the Book of Haggai, he observed that the prophet tried to rouse the hearts of the listless who had resigned themselves to living in defeat, as the temple had been destroyed by enemies and lay in ruins. The people had let years go by without taking any action, the Pope observed. The Lord then sent his prophet to “rebuild the Temple”. But the people’s hearts were bitter; they did not want to work, nor did they want the Lord’s help, and so they used the excuse that the right time had not yet arrived. This is the “tragedy of these people, ours too” when we say “yes, yes, Lord, all right ... but slowly, slowly Lord.... I will do it tomorrow”, the Holy Father said. But then, he added, we say the same thing the next day, and thus postpone decisions concerning conversion of the heart and other life changes.

This lukewarm attitude often hides behind uncertainty and causes procrastination. So many people waste their lives and end up not doing anything, except “preserve peace and calm within themselves”, Pope Francis explained. However, he continued, when we “have this attitude of spiritual tepidness, we transform our lives into a cemetery: there is no life”. Thus while God asks for our conversion, we reply: tomorrow.

Let us ask the Lord for the grace not to fall into this “half-Christian” spirit, without substance. “May the Lord help us to reawaken from a lukewarm spirit” and to fight against “this gentle anaesthesia of spiritual life”, he concluded.

*L'Osservatore Romano, weekly English Edition, n.43, 25 October 2019