Running Hot And Cold

5 May

“You can be like a thermometer, just reflecting the world around you. Or you can be a thermostat, one of those people who sets the temperature.” ~ Cory Booker

As I was growing up, Msgr. Hildebrandt at St. Mary Church in Griffith used to proclaim, on hot and unairconditioned days:  “You think this is hot?  Imagine what hell will be like!”  That was usually the extent of the homily because it was too hot for him to preach under all those vestments.

Many people have been consumed with the weather lately.  We have had enormous swings:  hot to cold, dry to wet, summer to winter.  It’s been dark and dreary, damp and cold, and by next week, they’re talking temps in the 80’s.  Really?1

That set me to thinking about the quote I snagged for today.  In our faith lives, many of us fret about the “temperature”.  We complain about things being too conservative or too liberal.  We talk about “this kind” of people and “that kind” of people.  We make pronouncements and proclamations and judgments but forget that, all the while we are complaining about things, we could be doing something about them.

God does not call us to a passivity in our faith lives.  God calls us to be active, to be true witnesses.  We can change the climate of the Church and of our world by the manner in which we live our lives — or fail to live them..

The choice, really, is ours.  We can go on whining and fretting or we can get busy about doing the work of the Lord.  Why not be a doer today?

FAITH ACTION:  How can you be like a religious thermostat and help to set the faith lives of others around you today?