Lifeless faith

My pastor recently told me that while I have the Catholic faith, all too often I fail to live it; comparing my lifeless faith with my family members that don't have the faith at all. His comment struck a chord (as he meant it to).

It so happens I am reading the section of the Summa Theologica about charity. The link I just gave discusses whether charity can be lost through a single mortal sin. St. Thomas' answer is yes; "Charity denotes union with God", and mortal sin which destroys this union with God removes God's infusion of charity.

But faith remains after mortal sin, and faith without charity is the lifeless faith that I am discussing in this article. Faith that is not animated by charity is hard to live with. I mean this very concretely and literally; the man of faith that lacks charity is the caricature of the humorless, stiffnecked, hypocritical, joyless, angry dry husk of a man that popular culture paints all religious as being. If I lack sufficient love of God, my adherence to the Faith is a matter of will alone, while in my inner heart and deepest soul, I really prefer myself to God (which is the very definition of insufficient love of God). Outwardly, I can appear orthodox and pious, but in reality I am dry, sharp, and empty; in fact the very whited sepulchre our Lord condemned the Pharisees for being (Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness.")

For years in my struggle with sin I've focused on lack of will as the problem - if only I had a stronger will I could best my temptations. But my pastor's directness opened up a new line of thought. The more I love God, the smaller my temptations will seem. I should fan the flames of my love for Him... If you read my posts from last December and January you may recall that friendship with God is not something to be taken lightly. Scripture is clear that our hearts should be on fire with love for Him: Deuteronomy 30:6, Matthew 22:37, Joshua 22:5, 1 John 4:19, etc, etc. Now it is clear that no man can love God as He ought to be loved. But I can certainly strive to love Him more!