Untitled - Saints' Books

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CH. v.]
Injury Done to the Priest by Tepidity. 93
it, you shall be exposed to greater danger of rushing
into grievous sins without any hope of ever emerging
from them. Although he that is cold," says Cornelius
a Lapide,
is worse than he that is tepid, yet the con
dition of the tepid
is worse, since the danger of falling
is greater, without any hope of recovery." St. Bernard
says that it is easier to convert a wicked layman than a
tepid ecclesiastic. Pereira adds, that it is more easy to
bring an infidel to the faith, than to renew a tepid
Christian in the spirit of fervor. 2
And Cassian has said
sinners consecrate themselves to God
that he saw many
with their whole heart, but that he knew no one that
had risen from tepidity to fervor. 3 St. Gregory holds
out hopes to a sinner not yet converted, but he despairs
of him who, after having repented, and given himself to
God with fervor, falls into tepidity. Beholds his words:
tepid any one may be, there is
always a hope
that sooner or later his fervor will be reanimated; but
of any one that falls little by little from fervor into
tepidity, we must expect nothing. In fact, we may
count on a sinner for the grace of conversion, but if
after conversion he becomes tepid, we must despair of
his return." 4
In a word, tepidity is a desperate and almost incurable
evil. For in order to be able to avoid danger
it is
necessary to know Now it. the tepid, when they have
fallen into that miserable state of darkness, do not even
1 "
Licet frigidus sit
pejor tepido, tamen pejor est status tepidi, quia
tepidus est in majori periculo ruendi sine spe resurgendi." In Apoc.
iii. 1 6.
2 "
Facilius enim est quemlibet paganum ad fidem Christi adducere,
quam talem aliquem a suo torpore ad spiritus fervorem revocare."
3
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Frequenter vidimus de frigidis ad spiritalem pervenire fervorem,
de tepidis omnino non vidimus." Coll. 4, c. 19.
4 "
Sicut ante teporem frigus sub spe est, ita tepor in desperationequi
enim adhuc in peccatis est, conversionis fiduciam non amittit; qui
vero post conversionem tepuit, et spem, quae esse potuit de peccatore,
subtraxit," Past, p. 3, c. I, adm. 35.