Pope's audience: Keep the flame of faith alive when laziness attacks you

Translated by: Charlotta Smedes – Vatican City

“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go and pray there.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping, so he said to Peter, “Then you cannot stay awake with me for one hour? Watch and pray that I do not “Try it. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:36, 40-41)

Below follows the Pope's complete Catechism:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Of all the great sins, there is one that is often overlooked, perhaps because of its name, which is often incomprehensible to many: I am talking about sloth. Therefore, in the list of vices, the term laziness is often replaced by another, more common term: laziness or idleness.

Laziness is more a result than a cause. When a person is inactive, careless, and indifferent, we say that he is lazy. But as the wisdom of the ancient Desert Fathers teaches us, the root of this laziness is often laziness, which from its Greek origin literally means “lack of care.”

It is a very dangerous experiment, not to be trifled with. It is as if someone who falls victim to laziness is crushed by the desire to die. They hate everything; The relationship with God is boring to them; Even the most sacred deeds, the ones that had previously warmed their hearts, now seemed utterly worthless. Burdened with laziness, a person begins to mourn the passage of time and irrevocable youth.

Laziness is defined as the “dinner demon”: it takes hold of us in the middle of the day, when work is at its peak and the hours ahead seem monotonous and unbearable. In a famous description, the monk Evagrius represents this temptation as follows: “The sluggard constantly fixes his eyes on the windows, and in his mind imagines the visitors.” […] When reading, the lazy person often yawns and gets sleepy easily, frowns, rubs his hands, takes his eyes off the book, and stares at the wall; Then he goes back to the book and reads some more […]; Finally, he lowers his head to his book and sleeps lightly, until hunger awakens him and prompts him to meet his needs.” In short, “the lazy man does not diligently do God’s work.”

The contemporary reader can see in this description something that reminds us of the evil of depression, whether from a psychological or philosophical perspective. For those who are dominated by laziness, life loses its meaning, prayer becomes boring, and every battle seems meaningless. If you nourished your emotions in your youth, now they seem irrational, dreams that did not make you happy.

So, we abandon ourselves, and distraction and thinking seem to take over: like wanting to be numb and have a completely empty mind… It's a bit like dying in advance, which is terrible.

In the face of this vice, the danger of which we are very aware, spiritual masters offer various treatments. I would like to mention what seems to me the most important, which I call the patience of faith. Even if you find yourself in the clutches of laziness, wanting to be somewhere “elsewhere,” escaping reality, you must instead have the courage to stay and welcome God’s presence “here and now,” in the situation as it is. .

The monks say that for them the cell is the best teacher in life, because it is the place that speaks to you concretely and daily about your love story with the Lord. The demon of sloth only wants to destroy this simple joy of the here and now, this grateful moment in reality; He wants to make you believe that everything is absurd, that nothing has meaning, and that nothing or anyone is worth caring about. Sometimes we meet “boring” people and think: “But this is so boring!” We don't like to be with him. People with an attitude of contagious boredom. This is laziness.

Many are stuck in the grip of laziness and shaken by unknown anxiety, and have foolishly abandoned the good life they began! The battle against laziness is crucial, and must be won at all costs. It is a battle that did not spare even the saints, because in many of their diaries there are some pages that describe terrible moments, of real nights of faith, when everything seems dark. These saints teach us to get through the night with patience, and to accept the poverty of faith.

They recommended, on pain of laziness, to have less commitment and to have goals within reach, but at the same time to persevere – to persevere by relying on Jesus, who never abandons us in temptation. Faith, when afflicted with laziness, does not lose its value. On the contrary, it is true faith, human faith, which despite everything, despite the darkness that surrounds it, still humbly believes. It is that faith that remains in the heart as its glow remains under the ashes. He's always there. If any of us falls under the vice or temptation of laziness, let us try to look within ourselves and warm up the heat of faith: this is how we move forward.