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Recognizing Sloth in Our Lives
"Sloth in general... is a voluntary and culpable repugnance to work, to effort, and consequently a tendency to idleness, or at least to negligence... Sloth is not the languor or torpor in action which comes from poor health; it is an evil disposition of the will and of the sensible appetites, by which one fears and refuses effort, wishes to avoid all trouble... It has often been remarked that the slothful man is a parasite, who lives at the expense of others, as tranquil as a woodchuck when he is undisturbed in his idleness, and ill-humored when an effort is made to oblige him to work. This vice begins with unconcern and negligence in work, and manifests itself by a progressive dislike for all serious, physical and mental labor.
When idleness affects the accomplishment of the religious duties necessary to sanctification, it is called acedia... It is an evil sadness: opposed to spiritual joy, which is the fruit of generosity in the love of God. Acedia is a disgust for spiritual things, a disgust which leads one to perform them negligently, to shorten them, or to omit them under vain pretexts. It is the cause of tepidity.
This sadness, which is radically opposed to that of contrition, depresses the soul and weighs it down because it does not react as it should. Then it reaches a voluntary disgust for spiritual things, because they demand too much effort and self-discipline. Whereas devotion, which is the promptness of the will in the service of God, lifts the soul up, spiritual sloth weighs down and crushes the soul and ends by causing it to find the yoke of the Lord unbearable and to flee the divine light, which reminds it of its duties. St. Augustine says: "Light which is so pleasant to pure eyes, becomes hateful to infirm eyes which can no longer bear it."
This depressing sadness, the result of negligence, and this disgust, which is at least indirectly voluntary, are quite different from the sensible or spiritual aridity which, in divine trials, is accompanied by true contrition for our sins, by fear of offending God, by a keen desire for perfection, by a need of solitude, of recollection, and of the prayer of simple gaze."
from "The Three Ages of the Interior LIfe" by Fr Garrigou Lagrange, Online book found at
http://www.christianperfection.info/tta41.htm#bk2
posted by Holly at 10:01 AM
1 Comments:
Hhmmm... are we experiencing a regular sadness? confusion as to our duties? repugnance toward prayer or ommission of it? Is our work getting done?
Sloth, with all it's negative effects (a 'punishmnet' in itself, I'd say), all stems from a little decision - a little decision where we give in, and decide to be negligent...
Perhaps we skip loading the dishwasher this morning, or we 'don't feel like' homeschooling, or 'to heck with the dusting today'... And pretty soon, we are sad, joyless, overwhelmed and not getting our work done - and our emotional lives are stressed out.
Perhaps examining our conscience about whether or not sloth is playing a place in our lives might help us ... and put us back on track to the joyful life God wants of us. I figure restoration of true freedom is only a decision away - and hence why I so like to go put on a load of laundry... it begins the new cycle of 'Yes' to God's Will.
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