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The Eve of Saint Joseph
The Fourth Sunday In Lent (Laetare)
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which giveth life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Fourth Sunday In Lent (Laetare)
The Eve of Saint Joseph
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A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
✛
The Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In this Lenten series on the Seven Deadly Sins we have paired the first six. The Rector Emeritus took gluttony and lust; then Father Stafford took envy and greed; and last Sunday Father Austin took pride and anger. Now yours truly finishes with sloth, taken all by itself.
There are six stained glass window panels on the west wall of the Rector’s study at Saint Thomas. There each of the deadly sins is depicted in vivid colors, but because there are only six panels sloth is paired with gluttony. There a yellow-colored devil stands with a bowl in his hand and his face right down in the bowl like this; apparently he is asleep with his face in his food. That is our common view of sloth, pathetic, sloppy, obvious and ridiculous. Just as Father Andrew explained an unrecognized form of gluttony – the hunger and thirst for gossip, tale-telling and slander – just so sloth has many unrecognized, often quite respectable forms. Sloth deserves the scrutiny of a full homily.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines sloth as physical or mental inactivity; disinclination to action, exertion or labor; sluggishness, idleness, indolence, laziness. How then is it that modern life, especially in frenetic, bustling New York, can be afflicted by sloth? And why is sloth so serious anyway; why is it really a deadly sin?
Sloth, especially in its cartoon form, seems venal, almost comical or even amiable in some forms, not deadly. Yet it has always been called deadly by the Church, and it is. Sloth slips in undetected, disguised. Sloth can eat out the soul’s life through love of ease and comfort, dislike of toil (physical, mental or spiritual toil), and it leads to indifference and cynicism, even despair. Let us reflect on the battle front with sloth in the physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions of life.
The childhood lesson of early to bed and early to rise has a way of remaining almost maddeningly relevant for adults and throughout life. The management of our time, including the virtue of punctuality in both beginning and ending has a way of chastening our thoughts and words both in private and in society. How many meetings are held up and wasted by sloth and indiscipline! Time wasted leads to hurried, slipshod work by both individuals and groups. Further, the stress that results from lateness and procrastination and the consequent haste which stems from it adds pressure to the day and even robs us of our rest because of the hangover of anxiety remaining from a job inadequately done or unnecessarily delayed.
In fact busyness and bustling can often be a cloak of sloth while we pass over or dismiss the really important things that need attending to. While we chatter away on our cell phones (which interrupt everything from important meetings to worship services) and obsess about our e-mail messages, we absent ourselves from genuine reflection, thought, and the mental preparedness that leads to real accomplishment and creativity. We also are personally absent from other people who may have made an appointment with us, or in any case require our undivided attention.
It is also quite possible to fill our days with a regimen which, while convenient and regular for ourselves, has no roon for the interruptions of real life (which Christ himself so amply demonstrated by setting a child in the midst of the disciples when they were discussing who among them was the most important). The demands of real life, that is love, family, duty, charity, kindness, these urgent realities importune on our self-serving routines we have set up to guard our comfort and security.
Sloth is also killer of the spirit of real prayer and faith. The monks had a word for the deadly sloth, acedia. This is the “sickness that destroyeth in the noonday.” It is dullness and weariness of soul that makes the spirit unresponsive to the grace of the living God. When the worship of the Church, the Sacraments, the Scriptures, all seem passé, no more vital than the dull minutes of the last meeting, then this illness has crept in, and it can kill. Prayer, real prayer, which is the activity of live faith, hope and love, is work. It requires resistance to distraction and attention to the awesome matter at hand; namely, a conversation with the living God.
Many of our troubles arise from the plain fact that, hard working though we may seem to be in other areas, we are largely prayer-less because we allow sloth to invade and diminish what there is of our prayer life. The fact is prayer is a difficult mental and spiritual, even physical task. As with everything worth doing, you must make time for it, you must clear your mind for it, and you must prepare your spirit for it. Putting away the distractions which crowd in is work. Sloth tempts us simply to take our prayers as they are, like a poor and interrupted conversation which, if we were with a human friend, would be quite rude, offensive and off-putting, a conversation full of noise from our side and without much listening to the Holy Spirit. It is in fact sloth which makes striving for holiness seem vain and impossible, which gives religion a bad name; whereas the struggle for holiness, sincerely undertaken, is the one good work which enriches all others with luster and quality. Real prayer empowers and refreshes, bringing true accomplishment as well as the reward of rest.
Sloth kills the soul at its roots, fostering indolence, cynicism and even despair. Father Andrew passed along to me Dorothy Sayers’ good words on this deadliness. “Sloth,,” she writes in Creed or Chaos,”…[is]…the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing to die for…” On the contrary: The true wonder that arises from the knowledge of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, leads to energy, enthusiasm, and hope. I close with a verse from a beloved Advent hymn, the one hymn I know that contains the word sloth. ”Wakened by the solemn warning, let the earth-bound soul arise. Christ, her sun, all sloth dispelling, shines upon the morning skies.” Good words for Advent, for Lent, and every day of our lives.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
