This is the second post to use some parts of Pope Francis' letter about Lent. It is rather hard-hitting, direct, and pretty much without nuance. Sometimes, his writing makes me uncomfortable - I kind wince at the things he writes, but usually I come up with something that causes me to rethink and probe more deeply what I have been doing.
Here are his words:
"In his description of hell, Dante Alighieri pictures the devil seated on a throne of ice, in frozen and loveless isolation. We might well ask ourselves how it happens that charity can turn cold within us. What are the signs that indicate that our love is beginning to cool?
More than anything else, what destroys charity is greed for money, 'the root of all evil'(1 Tim 6:10). The rejection of God and his peace soon follows; we prefer our own desolation rather than the comfort found in his word and the sacraments. All this leads to violence against anyone we think is a threat to our own 'certainties', the unborn child, the elderly and infirm, the migrant, the alien among us, or our neighbor who does not live up to our expectations.
Creation itself becomes a silent witness to this cooling of charity. The earth is poisoned by refuse, discarded out of carelessness or for self-interest. The seas, themselves polluted, engulf the remains of countless shipwrecked victims of forced migration. The heavens, which in God’s plan, were created to sing His praises, are rent by engines raining down implements of death.
Love can also grow cold in our own communities. In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I sought to describe the most evident signs of this lack of love: selfishness and spiritual sloth, sterile pessimism, the temptation to self-absorption, constant warring among ourselves, and the worldly mentality that makes us concerned only for appearances, and thus lessens our missionary zeal."
What do you think? Has your love grown cold? I can get numbed by routine and repetition. I can grow stale spiritually when I just keep doing things and don't think through what I'm doing. Sometimes, I can be really tired and just go on auto-pilot. I fear that I can be verbally facile and just go "blah blah blah" - and hope to God that I'm making sense. For me, this might not be a cold heart, but definitely a tired heart which just wants to take a break. Am I being less effective than I could be if I did such elementary things as take care of myself. Probably. So, why don't I do it? Sigh. Have to figure this out.
Will admit it. I'm really tired as I write this. No way to begin Lent. Sigh.
Today's Gratitude - I'm grateful for recognizing a little about myself today - that I don't particularly like or am comfortable with - -- do you ever get like this?
Tomorrow's post will go up on the site Sunday by 2 p.m. I want to write about Florida - but still have not focused on what I want to say - should say.