a comfortable, enjoyable death-style
"Woe to the complacent!" —Amos 6:1
A lifestyle focused on comfort, entertainment, and enjoyment leads to complacency, that is, a selfishness because of which we don't care that much about other people's lives and salvation (see Am 6:4-6).
Complacency is only one of the side effects of a pleasure-seeking lifestyle. A self-centered lifestyle gradually causes a spiritual blindness and deafness through which we become so hardened that even someone risen from the dead would not be able to touch our hearts (Lk 16:31).
Because we naturally want a lifestyle that is as comfortable as possible, we are doomed to be complacent and hardhearted unless we:
- receive a new nature (see Jn 3:3), and
- live in that new nature.
The Holy Spirit is our Hope, for He will strongly oppose the desires of our flesh, that is, our fallen, selfish nature (Gal 5:17). Through His word, the Holy Spirit will crucify our "flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24) and give us a new nature and a new birth (Jn 3:5; see also 1 Pt 1:23). The Holy Spirit gives the possibility and the power of living the Christian life and being freed from the death and damnation of our self-centered lifestyle. Come, Holy Spirit!
Prayer: Father, conquer my selfishness by Your love.
Promise: "Fight the good fight of faith." —1 Tm 6:12
Praise: "He is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords Who alone has immortality and Who dwells in unapproachable light, Whom no human being has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and everlasting rule! Amen" (1 Tm 6:15-16).
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Ralph J. Lawrence, February 13, 2001
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 20, 2001