TIEPIDEZZA. — A disposition of the soul that is neither cold nor hot (Apoc. 3:15–16) and, although not in a state of sin or spiritual death, lacks charity (v.).
T. must not be confused with dryness in prayer (v. VIZI), which is the deprivation of pleasure or consolation, whether sensory or spiritual, in practices of piety and in the exercise of the virtues (St. Bernardo depicts the dry soul as « sicut terra sine aqua »; Sermo 54 in Cant., 8: PL 183, 1044), accompanied by a feeling of boredom and heaviness, inability to pray, an invasion of inner darkness, and a torpor paralyzing the impetus for action. Such purification (v.), willed by God in order to strengthen the soul in the perfect possession of the virtues and make it capable of a higher life of prayer; St. Giovanni della Croce (v.) classifies it as the « passive night of the senses » and characterizes it as an anxious and painful search for God, accompanied by the fear of not serving him but of turning back (Notte oscura dell'anima, l. I, c. 9, n. 2-3). At times, however, dryness has its origin in psychophysical abnormalities or in illness, as St. Teresa observes.
T., on the other hand, is culpable dryness, dependent on the will as the consequence of responsible acts. It is a relaxation, a torpor in matters of the spirit, a kind of anemia or paralysis that gradually thins spiritual life until it brings it to the brink of death to Grace. Prayer is omitted or is languid, voluntarily distracted, and bored. Sacrifice is almost entirely rejected; there is fear of mortification; one prefers a life without discomforts, perhaps with some compromises of conscience, which is quieted by the persuasion that, after all, nothing serious is being done. Indeed, t. is characterized by venial sin deliberately and frequently admitted. St. Bernardo depicts the lukewarm as pusillanimous men, « quorum brevis et rara compunctio, animalis
cogitatio, tepida conversatio; quorum obedientia sine devotione, sermo sine circumspectione, oratio sine cordis intentione, lectio sine aedificatione, quosque denique vix gehennae metus inhibet, vix frenat ratio, vix disciplina coërcet » (Sermo 6 in Ascen. Dom). The lukewarm person provokes « vomit », God’s repudiation, as the Lord says to the « angel » of Laodicea: « Because you are lukewarm and neither fervent nor cold, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth » (Apoc. 3:16).
At times t. follows a period of fervor, through a lack of perseverance in the spiritual life. The soul allows itself to be dominated by progressive negligence. Content with its own mediocrity, the soul does not strive for perfection (v.). Dissipated and wholly externalized, it imprudently exposes itself to dangers and resists the fire of temptation only halfway.
The remedies are those imposed upon the « angel » of Laodicea (Apoc. 3:18–19): an energetic, radical return to the former fervor, beginning a life decisively directed, through efforts and renunciations, toward spiritual progress and perfection.