Those must have been exciting days for Peter, Andrew, James, and John. As they went about their daily work as fishermen, frustrated with the tearing nets or the lack of fish, something new and exciting breaks into their lives. A person so compelling, who so arrests their attention, with an attractive force so powerful that all it takes is a simple invitation: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and they walk away from it all to follow this stranger who has captured their hearts in such a mysterious way.
What if the Lord called you in the same way? What if He asked you to give up everything and follow Him? Most of us probably find that idea scary. But maybe there are times in your life, though, when it actually wouldn’t be that hard. Maybe it really sounds great. Maybe there are some tough situations you’d like to walk away from. Maybe you’re bored, and you’re ready for a new adventure.
Certainly, there are those called to drop everything in this way. In our midst, there are young men and women being called to leave everything behind to serve the Lord as priests, religious, or missionaries. But it often happens in life that what we imagine following Christ would look like turns out not to be what He’s asking of us – not because it would be too hard to leave everything behind, but because it would be too easy. Usually, the invitation to be His disciple, to follow Him completely and give your whole life to Him, means being right where you are.
For most of us, the chief obstacle to accepting the Lord’s invitation to follow Him is not fear of the unknown (as we can imagine might have been the case for the Apostles), but fear of the known – the detestation of that which has become all too common. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” the old saying goes.
Thus, the chief obstacle to following Christ is often the vice of acedia, or sloth. We think of sloth as laziness, but it is really sorrow in the face of a good. The slothful man beholds something good, but imagines it to be too difficult to obtain, and sorrows in his seeming inability to attain the good.
Sometimes that does look like inactivity. It is present in spirit of “I just cannot,” which we saw last month on the III Sunday of Advent: “I cannot be bothered to leave my house, I cannot summon enough energy to care one way or another, and I cannot understand why anyone would. I. Just. Cannot.”
But more often, the slothful person looks quite busy. “Listlessness, distractions, avoidance of duties, frenetic busyness and underneath it all, a coruscating sense of boredom and disgust; these are hallmarks of acedia or sloth.” The slothful person struggles to commit to one course of action, struggles to pay attention to the task at hand, and so occupies himself with a thousand little petty concerns, checking items off an artificial to-do list, while ignoring the most important work of all.
We have absolutely no lack of things that can distract us. One tiny moment of boredom, or when we are finally alone with that one task that must be accomplished, and we reach for something to distract us. Suddenly, you wonder about that family member or friend whom you haven’t seen in a while, and you look her up on social media. Or you pull up the news, or whatever digital distraction seems most appealing. Or you perform tasks that aren’t bad in themselves but unexpectedly seem more appealing than what you really ought to do. (Like how the only time I ever thoroughly cleaned my room in college was during finals week.)
So, what do you do about this vice of acedia or sloth that is keeping you from following the radical invitation of Christ to be His follower? First, confess it. When we confess our sins in the Sacrament of Confession, not only does God forgive us, but His grace heals and strengthens our souls to resist sin in the future and grow in holiness.
Fasting also has a great power to help us defeat the vice of sloth. Specifically, fast from whatever it is that you tend to distract yourself with, from those things that are superfluous to your life – like social media or constant consumption of the news.
We conquer vice in our life most thoroughly by growing in virtue. The virtue opposed to the vice of acedia or sloth is perseverance. Like any virtue, you grow in perseverance principally by asking God in prayer to grant you an increase of that virtue. “God, I struggle with the vice of sloth. Help me to persevere!”
These are called the infused virtues – when God through His grace infuses a virtue in our soul, helping us to grow in virtue beyond the power of our own efforts. There are also, though, acquired virtues. This is when we intentionally practice a virtue, and through this effort, assisted always by God’s grace, we develop good habits that make it easier for us to do good than evil.
Right after New Year’s, I arrived at the gym and found it quite full – people making good on those New Year’s resolutions. Three weeks later, it was back to the people who are always there. Developing human habits of perseverance helps you to persevere in spiritual goods as well. Pick a way that you will persevere in an authentic human good, asking God to help you to be faithful and to grow in desire for spiritual goods as well through that natural virtue of perseverance.
Another virtue that remedies acedia or sloth is “eutrapalia” – the virtue of good recreation. Here it’s important to distinguish between the goodness of true recreation and mere amusement. We are surrounded by amusement and entertainment, but we actually have very little leisure or recreation. Our favorite pastimes often leave us exhausted rather than renewed. If you want to defeat sloth, you need good leisure that re-creates you, that builds you up rather than leaving you exhausted. This good leisure or recreating is also important in training yourself not to choose those things that merely distract us.
For example, you set a goal of reading instead of watching shows, but you choose the autobiography of the mystic St. Teresa of Avila, and it’s just so beyond you that sloth sets in and you pick up the remote after two pages. You need to make it a little easier for yourself by finding some good recreation with which to replace the negative influences in your life instead of biting off more than you’re ready to chew. Choosing St. Teresa of Avila over watching the next episode of the latest show might be difficult right now, so find a book that’s entertaining but more wholesome than whatever show you’d otherwise be watching. Or read a classic adventure novel together with your children instead of settling in front of three different screens to watch three different shows. Brick by brick!
It’s likely that if you respond to Christ’s calling here and now, the calling to remain where you are, to be focused and diligent in the tasks He has entrusted to you, the Evil One will tempt you to think that you’re not doing enough, or that what you’re doing isn’t worth the effort since it’s so small and unimportant. But this is a temptation to the vice of acedia or sloth, the temptation to sorrow when faced with the possibility of growing in holiness in your everyday life, the temptation to distract yourself or busy yourself with anything except what you ought to be doing.
Just as He called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to a radically different life, so too is Christ calling you to radical fidelity. Today He invites you to repent of the ways in which you have given into the vice of sloth, and to consider how He wants to help you grow in perseverance. Doing so will fill your life with joy and hope.
The Rev. Royce V. Gregerson
Parish Church of Our Lady of Good Hope
25 January, A.D. MMXXVI
More ideas for overcoming acedia, especially as regards the use of media:
https://spiritualdirection.com/2020/02/24/the-vice-of-acedia-and-our-use-of-the-media-part-1
Father Gregerson 