REFLECTION:

Sloth—one of the seven deadly sins. What exactly is sloth? The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of sloth, or spiritual acedia, as something that “goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness” (CCC 2094). So sloth is more than simply being lazy, sleeping too much, or spending too much time on the couch. Spiritually, sloth is when we know the good we should do, but we simply don't want to make the effort to do it.

I remember Dante’s Divine Comedy. Dante has some very creative punishments for the seven deadly sins. Interestingly, we have to distinguish Inferno from Purgatorio. In Purgatorio, those being purified of sloth are made to run constantly and with great urgency. Think about the irony: in life, they were slow to pursue what was good, so in purification, they cannot stop moving. They run while crying out examples of people who acted with zeal and determination. Dante’s point is memorable: the cure for sloth is movement toward the good.



That gives us an interesting way of hearing St. Paul today: “If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.” Paul is not speaking about people who cannot work. He is challenging those who can contribute but choose not to. He reminds the Thessalonians, “We wanted to present ourselves as a model for you.” In other words: Don't just sit around waiting for somebody else to do what you are capable of doing.

And maybe that's where sloth becomes uncomfortable for us. Because we can be very busy people and still suffer from sloth. We can answer emails, attend meetings, run from one appointment to another—and still avoid the one thing God is asking us to do. Sometimes sloth sounds like: “Someone else will take care of it.” “That's not my responsibility.” “I'll do it later.” “I'm sure somebody noticed.”

Then Jesus takes it even deeper in the Gospel. He criticizes those who look righteous on the outside but are different within—whitewashed tombs. We can look busy. We can look faithful. We can look like we're doing everything we're supposed to do. But God isn't impressed simply because we look the part. Maybe that's the challenge of these readings: Don't just look the part. Live the part.

Dante imagined the cure for sloth as running toward the good. Maybe we don't have to start running around today—that might cause other problems! But perhaps there is one thing we know we should do that we have been putting off. One responsibility we've been waiting for somebody else to take. One conversation we need to have. One person we need to help. One prayer we've neglected.

Whatever it is, move toward it.

Because sometimes the greatest spiritual danger isn't doing something terrible. Sometimes it's knowing the good God is asking us to do—and doing nothing.