How to be a HOT CATHOLIC!

Innocent Maziya (back) and his family.
Jesus condemns lukewarm Catholics. Being part of a Catholic sodality or organisation helps us to be hot in our Christian life, as Innocent Maziya explains.
Living a Christian life is not easy. We can all attest to that.
It comes with challenges, and there always seems to be someone ready to recruit us for “the other side”. Jesus’ metaphor of sending us like sheep among wolves, and that of St Peter of a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, are apt.
Worse still is the danger of being a tepid soul. In the apparitions reported by St Faustina, Jesus likens tepid souls to corpses. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus threatens to spit out lukewarm Christians. Tepid or lukewarm souls are particularly at risk because they do not realise the dangers facing them, since they do participate in the Church.
It is when we do the bare minimum for the sake of it, without faith, passion, or commitment, that we become lukewarm souls, lacking fire. Becoming a lukewarm soul seems to be both a result and the cause of at least one of the seven deadly sins: sloth.
I have found it to be particularly helpful to throw my energies and my mind into activities of the Church. This helps me avoid being too much of a sloth and also to stay away from the “roaring lion”. When I first started working, I asked a fellow Christian how I could avoid temptation, with so much going on in our society. The answer I got was simple and it has guided me over the years: Be busy in the work of the Lord.
An idle mind, the saying goes, is the devil’s workshop. We are all weak and in need of help. We will always be busy with something. We just need to choose to be busy with something that will bring value to our lives.
Many opportunities
The Catholic Church presents us with opportunities to participate fully in the Body of Christ through sodalities and organisations. There is a sodality or organisations for every person. The intended benefit of every Church organisation is spiritual growth for members. I can attest to this. I have realised the following benefits of participating in Church organisations:
- More time for God. Not all of us are able to find time on our own for spiritual reflection, be it reading Scripture or praying. Being in an organisation, especially a sodality, has helped me to pray and read more. Once I committed to being part of a group, it was easier to commit to the spiritual activities of the group.
- More time for my fellow human beings. Church organisations have a social obligation to reach out to those who are suffering in our society. Being part of a group enables us to participate in the alleviation of the pain of others.
My greatest experience was when I first visited a local correctional facility. There is no way I would have ever had the courage to do that alone. Yet, through a men’s organisation I was able to do that. After that I even could lead a team of colleagues from work to deliver some health messages in the same facility.
This has afforded me an opportunity to offer help to those who need it, as an example of living out the acts of mercy, just as Christ instructs us to do.
- More time to reflect on my family life. I have had the pleasure of participating in the Couples for Christ (CFC) movement. This has helped me to objectively reflect on ways in which I can be a better husband and father in my family. Committing to CFC means committing to actively doing something about improving my family life. The movement, like the Catholic Church, has a rich library of resources for strengthening families. Needless to say, we all need help in this area.
Help the Church grow
These are just some of the examples of how I have benefitted from participating in Church organisations, as a way of improving my spiritual life. The other side of the benefit is that we help the Church grow. I have always wondered how we, as a Church, are always short of catechists when we have so many professional teachers, some of whom teach religious education in school. I am still wondering. Not only that, but we seem to be always struggling to find people to serve in various capacities in the Church, without which the Church cannot grow.
I have discovered that it is not enough for my own spiritual growth, or that of the Church, to attend Sunday Mass, make my offering, and then disappear until the next Sunday Mass.
I have discovered a wealth of resources for enriching my spiritual life through participating in Church organisations.
I would encourage every Catholic to do so. Be an active worker in the vineyard of the Lord.
Innocent Maziya writes from Eswatini. This article first appeared on the website of the Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa (www.imbisa.africa)
This article was published in the October 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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