“Their love is lukewarm, and My Heart cannot bear it; these souls force Me to reject them.” (Diary of Saint Faustina, 580).
When I was a little girl, the one thing that my mother always seemed to reprimand me on was doing what she would describe as half a job.
Half a job looked like picking up my plate and putting it in the sink, but not washing it up. Half a job looked like doing my homework, but being messy in my presentation so that it was difficult for the teacher to read. Half a job looked like calling my sibling as requested but doing it sitting down on the couch in front of the television by shouting at the top of my voice.
And the reason this was so irritating for my mother was because while I was technically doing as she asked to the letter, I was not doing as she required to the sentiment…
And that makes a very big difference in the way that work is approached…
Christ tells the parable of the ten maidens to illustrate such a point…
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps...And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’” (Matthew 25:1-13).
In other words, though the maidens were waiting in the right place for the bridegroom, they were not waiting with the right sentiment. They were following the bare minimum of what was required without actually working through the reason for this requirement…
And that is what causes my Beloved to be hurt.
Christ spoke scathingly of lukewarm souls when He spoke to Saint Faustina, and she recorded the words in her Diary at 580, “These little imperfections are not all. I will reveal to you a secret of My Heart: what I suffer from chosen souls. Ingratitude in return for so many graces is My Heart’s constant food, on the part of (such) a chosen soul. Their love is lukewarm, and My Heart cannot bear it; these souls force Me to reject them.”
And He was scathing in the book of Revelations as well when He says, “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” (Revelations 3:16).
The Saints understand this. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux said, “You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.”
And I have been thinking about that today, as I consider how much I do by halves…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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