(Image: Indolence by Jean-Baptiste Greuze courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Sloth. This vice is not to be confused with tiredness or exhaustion- although it will tell us to dwell on them. I believe this mostly expresses itself in and tempts us to increase, unhealthy detachment. When the good we know we ought to love is hard to see and we don’t want to love it even without sight or reward we are tempted with this. When we let go our faithfulness because it doesn’t feel rewarding enough we sin in this way. But being detached from the good we ought to love can express itself not only in inactivity, but in misdirected activity. If we don’t want to repent our sins, but our neighbor’s (real or imaginary) faults seem like our business- things we need to fret or to talk or to write about – that’s sloth as well (and pride and a bundle discount on envy and wrath). Here we must also avoid self-deception- being beaten down, unsuccessful or not able to achieve what we wanted (or thought God wanted) is not sloth- but rare is the soul who won’t be tempted to it when these things occur. It takes a deep, graced wisdom to be able to bear the crosses, failures, and sorrows of life without being beaten down by them – it can be hard to maintain our right loves and their right order (especially where love was not perfect to begin with- and who is perfect in love?). Yet the sought knowledge of Christ will show the way to carry our cross after him and to have our loves not beaten away or beaten down, but reformed into a deeper conformity to Him. This is not automatic, but a redeeming grace. the remedies of this vice help us to be disposed for this grace- humility, patience and the willingness to learn from that heart which is meek and humble above of all others. But the most direct remedy is. . .
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