Considering the Spectrum of Souls in a Parish

I have referenced several times on this site a 17th century Jesuit teacher, spiritual director and formator of Jesuit seminarians, Fr. Louis Lallemant, S.J. (1588-1633).  I know of only one book that has collected his teachings, The Spiritual Doctrine, printed in 1855 in London, which I happily found on-line.  One brief excerpt of this book I find especially interesting, which I want to apply one more time to our very precarious state of affairs in both the ecclesial world of the Catholic Church, and in the secular world here especially in the U.S.A., America. 

Fr. Lallemant saw four kinds of professed religious members of a given religious order or group:

THERE may be said to be four kinds of religious: some perfect; others bad, proud, full of vanity, sensual, opposed to all regularity; others, again, tepid, slothful, careless; and lastly, such as are virtuous and on the way to perfection, although they may perhaps never attain to it.

I’ll rearrange these religious-order groups below, in order of spiritual maturity.  This can help us understand how and why some parishes, for example, might be growing materially – in donations and membership – while shrinking spiritually in an interior famine of things supernatural and eternal.  Consider then the four groups in a given parish:

Some (few, perhaps) are “perfect” – that is, they are spiritually mature, fruitful, holy and faithful in Christ.  They are truly saints.Some (more, we hope) are “virtuous” – not yet perfect, but they are earnestly striving for holiness.  They are serious in their faith, seeking to learn and grow and advance in the interior life of grace and holy love.Some (possibly many) are tepid, “lukewarm.”  They want to enjoy the world of secular pleasures while not offending God “too much.”  They are lovers of the world while attempting to keep a connection with God.Some (few, we hope) are “bad” – They remain physically in the religious group most of the time, but in their hearts they are seeking only themselves.  They are lovers of evil pretending to be “good people” except when they want to do evil.

Looking at these descriptions, I would expect that we would see these groups represented in most Catholic parishes:  a very few members in groups 1 and 4, more in groups in the middle: 2 and 3.  Fr. Lallemant observed the groups among the Jesuits, and concluded “a religious order inclines to degeneracy when the number of the tepid [my #3] begins to equal that of the fervent [my #2]”.  How important are these two groups, to the health and viability of the religious order!

To stress this: yes, although the (few) members who are truly mature in Christ, the truly saints on earth, are important and are sources of Holy Grace for the whole community – and although the (few) members who are truly bad and are sources of corruption and evil in the community, are significant and “important” matters of concern – the crucially important statistic for the health and viability of the whole community is the comparison of the two groups in the middle of the spectrum. Which is the larger: the group of the striving virtuous, or the group of the lukewarm complacent, who live in an impossible compromise of loving the world and loving God?  Fr. Lallemant saw the “incline to degeneracy” when the number of the lukewarm begins to equal that of the fervent.  How important, then, to the religious head of them all, to work to guard the spiritual dynamism – the spiritual life – in his religious community, by tending to the garden prudently!

In the secular – political – world of today in America, we see an amazing and very precarious situation.  We have globalists leading the party of so-called “progressives,” who still call themselves Democrats; we have populists leading the party of so-called “conservatives,” who still call themselves Republicans.  Among the populists, patriotism is a virtue; among the globalists, patriotism is a sin if not a crime.  In America today, the division in a poll of the two possible ways to go is amazingly close to 50/50.  Close to half of the voters prefer the one way and close to half, the other.  Both believe they must vote as they say “to save democracy”!  This is truly a dangerous time for America and for the world.

In the ecclesial world of today – in the Catholic Church – we have a pope who allies himself with globalists and progressives, while marginalizing the traditional, the “conservatives” among the faithful.  In a local parish I see a pastor who provides support for beginners in the Faith, while suppressing or marginalizing the fervent seeking to truly advance in the faith.  In many parishes I have seen, in several dioceses around the country, I have seen this same tendency, a spiritual “dumbing-down”, a secularizing, or protestantizing, of the Catholic Church – this is truly a dangerous time for the Church and therefore for the world, in the eyes of God.

What do we need to do?  We need shepherds who will feed the sheep!  If the shepherds are incompetent to feed others because they have little or nothing inside themselves to give, then they need to find catechists among the sheep who have received gifts of the Spirit to do so.  We need shepherds to tend the sheep – to pay attention to the true needs of the sheep before God, and tend to those needs.  For example, the sheep who are tepid – lukewarm – need to be warned of the grave danger in which they stand.  The lukewarm who rest in a false contentment are not only a scandal to the faithful, the virtuous, but they are impoverished and empty before God.  Jesus says to them:

“‘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.  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
(Rev. 3:15-17)

As for the fervent, they are owed – the Church owes them – the solid food that enables their spiritual growth!  Some pastors, lacking spiritual depth and maturity themselves, cannot recognize the needs of the hungry and seeking fervent ones; they ignore their needs, offering them food fit for babies, stunting their growth and leaving them hungry.  The Church is overflowing with the food fit for heaven!  Supernatural treasures of Holy Truth!  But in many places in the churches of today we see an eclipse of the divinely revealed supernatural and a foolish clinging to the dead thoughts and understandings of our fallen human nature.  No, Church, we are being called. “Arise!”