Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6309

6309 Idleness of life.... church christians....

July 11, 1955: Book 68

People must be directly influenced, for they pay little attention to the fate of their fellow human beings and remain unaffected by it, thus they do not draw any conclusions which could favourably influence their way of life. People's indifference is far worse than a blatant rejection, for such arises from ignorance and can still result in a change of attitude, whereas an indifferent person is nowhere to be touched and therefore will be lost without salvation if he cannot be roused from his indifference.... which always requires a distress of his own life. People can find themselves in a spiritual void despite church faith and seemingly religious life because their soul is not involved in any way, because only purely mechanical demands are fulfilled and a spiritual attitude towards it is completely missing. These people will outwardly be counted among the 'righteous', among the 'faithful'.... But they are always only church christians for whom their christianity is a worldly affair like everything else.... To teach them that they lack the spirit would be unsuccessful, for they have too high an opinion of themselves and do not accept such teachings, always relying on the fulfilment of what is demanded of them ecclesiastically.... And yet, their life is an idle one if it does not reveal a change in love.... And these people often have to be touched hard so that they wake up from their soul's sleep, so that they reflect and ask themselves what might be the reason for such strokes of fate.... They must be affected themselves, only then will it be possible for them to seriously consider spiritual questions, and then the strokes of fate will have been a blessing. As soon as a person is willing to love he will also be affected by his fellow human being's fate, and then he can draw spiritual benefit from everything he experiences around him.... But people's hearts are hardened, love has grown cold.... No matter how great the misfortune.... it does not trigger a warm feeling in the fellow human being, and even less does it determine him to reflect on the cause or to change his way of life. It is a danger in which people float because of their indifference, for all remedies remain without success as long as they do not let themselves be touched by it. And therefore ever more severe blows have to come upon people, and the adversity will not abate because it alone can be heard as a wake-up call and bring about a change of heart.... For everything will still be tried which could serve the salvation of those souls....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers