A soft, comfy spirituality is lukewarm by definition!

Book 1, Chapter 2

-Part 11-

We need to take a step back from the Caussade’s book to consider an assumption that he makes that may not be an assumption in our day.

The topic is perfection. The assumption is that Christians are working hard toward that end:

_{“… so many Christians pass their lives anxiously pursuing a multitude of means to perfection …” (Page 35)}

I can say that never in my life – through my many adventures in church services ranging from house churches to high liturgical churches – have I heard mention of the Christian’s need to advance toward, attain or maintain perfection. I often have been reassured that I am in the forgiving hands of God, but never have I been told to press on toward perfection. It is fairly safe to say that this is one landmark that has disappeared from the American Christian’s map.

Whether or not one’s church has a specific doctrine of perfection, sanctity or holiness, these certainly comprise the goal of the Christian life when properly understood.

Caussade and Company, and indeed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, usually speak of “perfection in charity.” In this context, man can act and love in the same way that God acts and loves, though understandably not to the infinite degree to which God is able.

“All Christians … are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” (Catechism 2028, quoting from the Church’s lumen gentium)

“Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.” (Catechism 1827)

“The essence of Christian perfection consists in union with God by charity.” (This from Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Madgalen, OCD, Page 294.)

The biblical command from Christ to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matthew 5:48) is said in the context of a short discourse from Jesus within the Sermon on the Mount about loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us. (vv. 43-48) Whatever else that might be discussed in the doctrine of holiness (hagiology), and there is indeed much more in it, we can clearly connect love for others as a personal, practical form of holiness or perfection.

This obvious connection between love and perfection, or perfection in love, in no way dilutes the other demands of holiness. In fact, to think and behave perfectly in love is the central essence of the faith.  Holiness is connected to our love of man and God, and this love is made evident by obeying the commands of Jesus: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments … He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him … If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 14:15, 21; and 15:10)

So obedience – the keeping of commandments – is a connected aspect of perfection in love. Clearly, love has first place in the Gospels as stated above in John 14, and even more pointedly in the answer Jesus gives to the question about the greatest commandment: “Jesus said to him, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.’” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Jesus is very emphatic here. You must love. This is the greatest and the first commandment. On these two hang the whole of the Scriptures. (At this time the Old Testament translated into Greek – the Septuagint or LXX – was the Bible in use.)

Twice the prophet Ezekiel spoke the word of the Lord to the people, assuring them that, although they were uprooted and disbursed from their country and separated from the temple for worship, he would do this work in them: “I shall give them a single heart and put a new spirit in them; I shall remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so that they can keep my laws and respect my judgments and put them into practice. Then they will be my people and I shall be their God.” (Ezekiel 11:19, 20. See also 36:24ff)

Note the connection between the new spirit, the interior work of God on the heart, and the obedience that is to follow.

What could be more important than striving for perfection along these lines then? That is the point of Caussade and Company. The starting point, I might add. In popular American Christianity this striving has gone missing. Getting by is seen as an incredible accomplishment.

We cannot criticize the barely-adequate American pop Christian faith without realizing that we are a product of this soft and comfy religion that looks more like the inside of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory than real faith meeting real life in the real world.

Before we can advance toward perfection, we are going to have to become uncomfortable with our own mediocrity. If we want to live safely and comfortably, we will not follow the Christ of the gospels who told us to pick up our crosses, to expect persecution, to anticipate disorder and strife in our families caused by our faith, to be hated by the world, to appear foolish to those around us and even to be killed by people who believe they are doing so to serve God. We will, instead, live the lives of the barely adequate; the lukewarm.

Our protracted American comfort zone is killing our souls. American faith and Christian faith only have religious words in common – and scarcely those.