Untitled - Saints' Books

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92 Material for Sermons. [PARTI
obligations of his state, he makes little of venial sins, he
commits many of them every day without scruple, by
lies, by intemperance in eating and drinking, by im
precations, by distraction at the Office and Mass, by de
tractions, by jests opposed to modesty: he leads a life
of dissipation in the midst of worldly business and
amusements; he cherishes dangerous desires and attach
ments; full of vainglory, of human respect and selfesteem,
he cannot bear a contradiction or a disrespectful
word; he neglects mental prayer, and is destitute of
piety. Father Alvarez de Paz says that the defects and
faults of a tepid soul are like those light indispositions
that do not cause death, but that weaken the body in
such a manner that a grave malady cannot supervene
without destroying the body which has no longer the
power of resisting."
The tepid Christian is like a sick
man who has labored under many light maladies, which,
because they are incessant, reduce him to such a state
of debility, that as soon as he is attacked by any serious
disease, that is, by a strong temptation, he has not
strength to resist, and falls, but falls with greater ruin.
Hence the Lord continues to address the tepid bishop,
saying, / would thou wert cold or hot, but because thou art
lukewarm, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth? Let
him that finds himself miserably fallen into the state of
tepidity, consider these words and tremble.
/ would that thou wert cold! Better, says the Lord,
that you were cold, that is, deprived of my grace, for
then there should be greater reason to hope for your re
covery from so miserable a state;
but by remaining in
" 1
Sunt velut irremissae aegrotatiunculae, quae vitam quidem non dissolvunt,
sed ita corpus extenuant, ut accedente aliquo gravi morbo
2 "
statim corpus, vires non habens resistendi, succumbat." De Perf. 1.
5, p. 2, c. 1 6.
Utinam frigidus esses, aut calidus! sed quia tepidus es, et nee
frigidus nee calidus, incipiam te evomere ex ore meo."