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We find a scripture beautiful and haunting. The beauty is the love of the "Amen" (Rev 3.14), the living, resurrected Christ. The haunting aspect is in His words to His Bride. He speaks to the church at Laodicea, with a plaintive note, like a beloved grieving the loss of the former intimacy with his lover:
15I know everything you have done, and you are not cold or hot. I wish you were either one or the other. 16But since you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17You claim to be rich and successful and to have everything you need. But you don't know how bad off you are. You are pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
*Revelation 3.15-17 (CEV)
Here, the Bride is not aware that, despite her trappings of being well-to-do, she is living in a poverty-of-love. No, her love-bank is not empty; rather, she has insufficient funds.
Apparently, the Bride had been a busy wife. Yet, with all the good works, the heart had grown lukewarm. She had some love and amorous feeling for her Husband - the latter, at least on occasion. Possibly, it was enough to spark a brief flame now and then, and maybe on especially Valentine's Day. Yet, though she may, so to speak, have been working hard to impress her Spouse and be an excellent homemaker, her heart no longer was ardent for her Husband. Her desire for her Husband had tempered with time and other preoccupations. Love was being crowded out of her heart with many other concerns, interests, and things to get done. Her love was "lukewarm," neither "hot nor cold."
The Husband wanted His Bride to love him ardently, or not at all. He had wanted their vows to be the beginning of a loving relationship that would deepen over time, not diminish over time. He did not marry her just to maintain their lives and relationship, pay the bills and survive or thrive financially.
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He found the charade of keeping home as the wonderful couple not adequate for the vows between His Bride and Him. He knew that even the good works were a defense against His Wife giving herself to Him. And, more than anything, He wanted to give all of Himself to her. Do you find it possible to even begin to think of how much God wants you, to receive you, and to give Himself to you?
Could this be like a church? Like a Christian? We can, it seems, become a busy Bride, and our heart can, slowly and without our attention, grow tepid.
Possibly, this is what Gandhi faced in his search to find zeal and ardency among the Christians he worshiped with. He truly had a heart wanting to grow in Love for God, as is evidenced by the witness of his life.
No, I am not saying Gandhi was right by turning from the faith of the Church. I am saying he did not find what he was looking for: a living flame of love - to use the terminology of John of the Cross.
What happens when love grows tepid? A couple may ignore each other, yet, go about as though all is okay. The face they show to their friends and family, and the public, may not show truly the state of the "heart" of their marriage. The two may begin to fight, if not physically, verbally. This overt turning on each other is evidence of a love lessened over time.
The marriage vows serve as an anchor to return to, when love is lukewarm. For a Christian and church, baptism is our marital vow to the Groom, Christ. For a human couple, the vows enfold their most wondrous dreams and aspirations for True Love for a lifetime - unless, of course, the couple do not wed in a right spirit, and often this is the case, so they really have no solid vows to return to.
If the vows were sincere, a couple can return to them to anchor the marriage and grow as one in it, and return when love needs rekindling. But, as in the case of the Christ and the church at Laodicea, it takes two to renew the First Love. For Love is a choice mutual, not forced, but freely offered and freely given, by two.
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