Ch. XXVIII. Sloth

Multam malitiam docuit otiositas (Idleness hath taught much evil).—ECCLUS. xxxiii. 29.

SLOTH, the last of the seven deadly sins, is an inordinate love of rest, a languor of the soul, a disgust for the labor of duty.

We say inordinate love of rest, for man needs rest, relaxation, just as he does food; but he should seek it only after labor, and as far as it is necessary to restore his energies.

It is a disgust for the labor of duty. There are occupations, foreign to our duties, to which sloth itself leads us to devote ourselves. Sloth does not always mean absolute idleness; this vice consists also in relative idleness—that is, when we are idle and slothful in the performance of the labors required of us.

Thus, we are slothful not only when instead of working we lose our time in unnecessary rest or sleep, in chatting, promenading, or amusing ourselves, but also when, instead of fulfilling our obligations of prayer and other Christian duties, we occupy ourselves with exterior things and bodily labor.

Why must we fly idleness? What are the remedies against this vice?

I. Motives. We must abhor and fly idleness because it is a shameful vice in itself and fatal in its effects.

1st. It is a shameful vice. The name alone of sloth is dishonoring and repellant; he who merits it meets only with contempt and rebuffs.

2d. It is a source of ennui, and frequently of indignation also against superiors who are obliged to spur on the slothful.

3d. It is a source of ignorance. . . .

4th. It is a source of negligence and sin. . . . Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth (Apoc. iii. 16). Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully (Jerem. xlviii. 10.) Say not, I injure no one. It is a vain excuse; you fail in your duty and you offend God.

An idle life is a wicked life, productive of impurity, evil thoughts, evil conversations, debauches, the most criminal conspiracies. While men were asleep, says the Saviour, the enemy came and sowed cockle among the wheat. Idleness is well named the devil's pillow. He who abandons himself to idleness does not need a devil to tempt him; he is a temptation to himself. Therefore let the devil find you always occupied, says St. Jerome. If he find you idle he will have no difficulty in overcoming you, as we see by the sad examples of Samson, David, and Solomon. . . .

The slothful soul is an uncultivated land, a stagnant pool, a rust-eaten plough abandoned in the field.

5th. It is the cause of the greatest evils: loss of time, indigence; it makes one despised by men, and brings upon him the chastisements of God. Behold the consequences of sloth.

The slothful servant in the Gospel who buried his talent is cast into exterior darkness, and the barren tree is cursed by our Saviour and condemned to the fire.

II. Remedies. How shall we preserve ourselves from sloth? How shall we combat this vice? What are its remedies?

There are fortunately several efficacious remedies.

1st. There is a spirit of labor, a love of labor. We confirm ourselves in this virtue by remembering that man is born to labor, as the bird is born to fly; that labor is a universal law. Nothing is obtained without labor, while with persevering labor we can accomplish all things. . . .

2d. The example of God and of Jesus Christ: My Father worketh until now, and I work (John v. 17).

3d. The example of the apostles, of the saints, of worldlings themselves, who labor so unremittingly for the goods of this world; finally, the example of all creatures. . . .

4th. The thought of our reward and our eternal rest. . . .

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to make us ever abhor idleness and to obtain us a spirit of labor; for, in the words of our Saviour, we must work while it is still day: the night cometh when no man can work (John ix. 4).