ACTIVISM AND APATHY

Homily November 20 TUESDAY

Readings: Rev 3:1-6,14-22; Lk 19:1-10

Two common failings of any Christian community are activism and apathy. We need action but not activism, which is hyper-action. Activism saps one’s spiritual energy with the result that the activist becomes too physically energetic to explore the higher fields of the spirit. Some think that to be busy is a proof of happiness; but how can you be happy if your spirit is emptied? “I am ashamed of my emptiness,” said Word to Work. “I know how poor I am when I see you,” said the Work to the Word. Hence the Lord warned the early Church of Sardis of its guilt of activism: “You have the name of being alive and you are dead” (Rev 3:1).

The opposite of activism is apathy. Science may have found cures for most evils, but has found no remedy for the worst of them all, which is apathy. The early Church Laodicea had become spiritually so apathetic that God told them, “I will spew you out of my mouth” (Rev 3:16). The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing, had entered into this community as a guest, then became a host and then their master. If we are given to activism or apathy, we must change in the manner Zacchaeus changed. Showing great spiritual energy, he actively sought to right the wrongs he had done to his neighbours (Lk 19:8).That was true change.