Last week in our meditation on the 7 deadly sins, we talked about greed and how it can cause us to chase after things and objects that ultimately have no value. This week we will talk about Sloth. The poet Dante considers this to sin to be a bit more deadly even than greed.

I suppose the question I immediately have is: why? Why is sloth so dangerous to the human soul? Most of us, if asked to define sloth, might reply that it is laziness. If this is the case, it would be difficult to convince me that this is a deadly sin. However, this is not what sloth is! The theological term for Sloth is acedia, which St. Thomas Aquinas defines as an ?oppressive sorrow.? Sloth is much worse than simply being very active, it comes from a sense of sorrow that settles deeply into the soul, causing a person afflicted with it to become weary and cold-hearted.

It is not a sin to feel sorrow; sorrow for our sins, for the death of Our Lord, over the death of a loved one? the problem is, when sloth sets in, we begin to feel sorrow over good things; sorrow that we must pray, sorrow that we must not sin, sorrow that we must attend mass. These opportunities to adore God ought to fill us with joy but often they do not. The reason why is sloth.

It quickly becomes apparent to us that, if these spiritual goods actually make us weary, then we will soon enough cease to practice them. This is a very, very big problem for us in the world today. Because we are so technologically advance, so used to comfort and pleasure for very little cost, we struggle with sloth because the pleasure is not immediately apparent, the happiness itself is in the soul, not in the passions or the emotions. We often look for emotional satisfaction, even when we come to church we are looking for a warm tingly feeling, a closeness to God, inner peace and satisfaction, but often what we get is spiritual quietude, discipline, and struggle to pay attention. This is okay! God works in mysterious ways and his grace goes much deeper than we could ever know. God loves you and your presence here this morning fills him with delight. So, don?t confuse emotional response to a successful activity. An action movie will get you adrenaline racing and make you excited, but it may be morally ambiguous, it may be a waste of your time and money. Do not allow this confusion to lead you into sloth, because the really important things in this life feed the soul, not the passions. There is another danger, here, which is confusing sloth for a spiritual state called the Dark Night of the Soul. St. John of the Cross talks about this dark night as a time when spiritual consolation disappears entirely. This is because the soul has detached from all worldly desire and relies, through the Cross and through faith, on God alone. A soul in this state is like Mother Theresa, who often complained that God seemed far away and her prayers were dry. Many people confuse this with Sloth and don?t even realize that they have trouble with sloth. Let me put it this way, the Dark Night is a spiritual state that I can only dream of achieving. When I have trouble praying or groan about having to come to mass, it is not because I am some sort of advanced contemplative saint, but because of plain and simple Sloth.

This is a mortal sin because it causes us to cease praying and leads us to spiritual death. The way to combat sloth is to continue to participate in your prayers and in mass even when you don?t feel like it. The grace that we receive through the sacraments is the best medicine to drive this sin far away from us. This can be difficult, because when we have sloth, the sin tells us the exact opposite; it keeps us away from mass. Don?t give in to this temptation, instead come to mass and be filled with the virtue of Christ, come to him, for he is all delight and he is all joy.