The Salvation Of Lukewarm

[Sarah147]

Hello,

I would like to know what the Church teaches about the lukewarm.

Jesus speaks about vomiting the lukewarm; does this mean they go to Purgatory or Hell, which?

Is lukewarm considered a Mortal Sin?

What describes "lukewarm" and how can we live "hot"?


Very important questions for me. Thank you and God bless you!

[Thy Geekdom Come]

St. Lawrence may be the appropriate saint for the lukewarm, given that he was...er...well-done and served to heaven quite warm.

Anyway, my lame and macabre sense of humor aside, the lukewarm are those who are not fervent in their faith, those who claim to have faith but do not live it out, those who may have some faith but would fall away during persecution, etc. We don't know exactly where they will go, although I suspect that when our Lord says they will be vomited out, He means that they will be rejected, which would imply hell. I suspect there is supposed to be some uncertainty about this; we should be less concerned about avoiding hell than we are about attaining heaven and living a holy life out of love for God. If we knew precisely what lukewarm meant, then it would give us the "acceptable minimum" of Christian faith to avoid hell, and I fear many of us would only seek to stay above that minimum. That, of course, would be a bad approach to faith and really very unstable - if Bob is minimalist about his faith, what happens when he faces some sort of trial in life? He will not have strong enough faith.

I don't think being lukewarm is a specific sin or level of sinfulness, I think it is a state or a term describing our overall disposition toward God. We are lukewarm by living lukewarm lives that consist of sins and a two-faced approach to the faith, thinking we can separate faith and life. It's more of a general spiritual trend, not a specific act (although it is certainly lived out in certain acts). It is similar to something like anger. If you go to Confession and say, "I was angry," that really doesn't tell the priest what you actually did (your sin), it just gives him a general sense of where you are spiritually.

So, in short, lukewarmness is a lack of fervor for Jesus Christ, it is approaching Him in a half-hearted manner, or being a follower in name only. It is not sufficient for salvation because salvation transforms us. A lukewarm person has not been transformed. The best way to turn from lukewarmness is to avoid making salvation about avoiding hell and start making it about gaining heaven by accepting Jesus Christ into the center position in your life, loving Him, and preferring nothing to Jesus Christ. So a change of attitude is necessary. God loves us. He wants us to share in His love. It is not that He hates us and chooses to spare those of us who do x, y, and z. It's that He loves us and wills that we should all be saved, but we have to participate in that. We should want every bit of the glory He has prepared for us, by living out our Christian faith, rejecting sin, and opening our lives to His grace through prayer, moral living, the sacraments, and the faith of the Church.

God bless,

Micah

[Slappo]

Also,

I would highly reccomend St. John Vianney's homily titled [i]The Dreadful State of the Lukewarm Soul[/i].

It can be found at:
http://www.theworkofgod.org/Library/Sermons/JdVianey/Sermons.htm#THE%20DREADFUL%20STATE%20OF%20THE%20LUKEWARM%20SOUL



Edit: Quoted homily, but homily is too long of a post. See the link. It is about a 20 minute read.