“There is nothing attractive about lukewarmness; this is why we never meet it head on; it enters and slips in insidiously, like a gnawing worm that silently and gradually hollows and devours from inside and causes a horrible emptiness within us. Lukewarmness takes away all our steadfastness, all our energy and enthusiasm, all desire to continue our journey toward the heights where God awaits us. It settles us in mediocrity, in spiritual carelessness, and indifference toward God. . . . Lukewarmness and routine lead to cowardice, negligence, carelessness, and gradual death. This is why God, otherwise so full of forgiveness and tenderness for sinners, has very harsh words for the lukewarm: ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth’ (Rev. 3:15-16).” —Robert Cardinal Sarah, Catechism of the Spiritual Life, p. 171.
