Those who are self-content are in more spiritual danger than others

January 23, 2022 • 2 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 467
By Venerable Louis of Granada

You marvel, doubtless, why a soul that is cold should be less displeasing to God than one that is luke-warm.

The reason of this is because coldness, or the state of the sinner devoid of all virtues, is more easily cured than luke-warmness, which represents the man of few virtues, and these only exterior practices without the life of charity.

The man who is loaded with sins can be brought to realize his malady, and so induced to take the proper remedies. But the man who is luke-warm rests on that false security which, as was the case with the Pharisee, leads him to believe that he possesses all the treasures of virtue. Though these soulless practices avail him naught, he will not realize his sad state, and consequently will take no measures for amendment.

To know that this is the true meaning of the text, read what follows: “Thou sayest, I am rich, and made wealthy, and I have need of nothing; and thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” [Ib: Apoc. iii. 15, 16.] Do not these words again show the Pharisee who thanks God for His spiritual riches when he is poor, destitute of all virtue, inflated with pride, and blind to his own failings?

There is nothing in Holy Scripture more frequently extolled than this true justice, nothing more frequently condemned than this Pharisaical justice. Hence we have dwelt at some length on the excellence of the first and the danger of the second.