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Question

Dear Father Angelo, I would like, if possible, a little help from you to understand an issue that concerns me personally in regards to good spiritual warfare. It’s about Sloth, as a capital vice, which I find in me not in its simplest and most basic forms, like laziness and such (I have probably already overcome this aspect, thanks to my upbringing and to the life path that I have followed since I was a child), but in its “more serious” forms, meaning a certain tendency to sadness, sometimes even to depression, the numbness of my willpower, which leads me to perceive everything as a burden, up to damaging my relationship with God, the virtue of Charity and of Faith. I would also like to learn about some remedies, I am sure they exist, or  what I can “train” on with the help and the strength of Grace to become a freer child of God. Thank you very much.

Answer from the priest

Dear friend,

1. First of all, I am happy about the distinction you made between laziness and sloth. Sloth is not simply a certain laziness or indolence toward the fulfilment of our duty, but it is the sadness for spiritual things.

To be more proper, it is the sadness for divine realities. According to St. John Damascene, it is an exhausting sadness which disheartens a man’s spirit to an extent that he has no longer will to act. St. Thomas says that some people define Sloth as the “sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good” (Summa Theologiae, 2-2, 35:1). And “by its very nature is contrary to charity” (ibid.).

2. As you can see, what you wrote about yourself seems to perfectly reflect the thought of St. Thomas. So, you have correctly grasped what sometimes happens in your soul. 

3. What can be the remedies? I am going to explain two of them, which in the end are the same one, because the second one is a strengthening of the first one. Since Sloth is contrary to the fervor of charity, the remedy relies in going in the opposite direction, that is in performing many acts of charity.

4. In order not to persist in that general condition which does not affect our life and knowing that you attend Mass every day, I suggest that you focus on the offertory. The priest, as you know, presents the bread and the wine, which are of course realities undergoing transubstantiation during the consecration, but at the same time they are the symbol of other realities, that is of what you bring to the altar.

5. Now there is the risk that, during the offertory, we do not bring anything to the altar, besides some coins, which are already something. While the Holy Scripture says that we should never appear before God empty-handed (Ex 23:15; 34:20). On the contrary, it adds that everyone should give in proportion to the blessing they have received (Dt 16:17).

6. At this point my question is the following: what do you bring to the Lord during the offertory? Because if you do not bring anything, you do not participate in Christ’s Sacrifice, you just witness it. The Lord recalls this necessity of preparing something through the words that the Spirit says to the Laodicean Church: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). So, the Lord can dine with us only if we prepare something for Him.

7. The first remedy I recommend is this: if you go to the Mass in the morning, do not go to sleep at night before you have prepared the offering to bring to the altar. And to avoid ending up empty-handed in the evening, recognize the various opportunities that present themselves during the day and set aside something to bring to Mass: it could be an act of patience, a confidence someone shared with you and you promised not to tell anyone, an act of devotion at home, a silence you kept, a prayer for the people that upset you, the dedication to your everyday duty…  You will recognize the various occasions to say: I will present this to the Lord, I will bring it to Mass, and I will never take it back from His hands. Therefore, when you go to sleep at night, ask yourself: tomorrow morning when I go to Mass, what will I bring to the Lord, as He said that He does not want me to appear before Him empty-handed? If you find yourself being empty-handed, try to bring at least some good resolutions. 

8. And here is the second remedy: I read somewhere that St. Thomas allegedly said that the self-abasement is the impulse of devotion, the spark of fervor. The spark of fervor can be lit if we decide to present to the Lord something more beautiful, bigger, that requires us more. The sacrifice or the self-abasement are just the external layer, that to someone’s eyes could appear incomprehensible and maybe even inhuman. But, on the inside, it conceals a bigger love because we offer something more, something that requires a lot.

9. So since the Lord said that our offering should be in proportion to the blessing we have received, do not prepare something meaningless. Ask yourself what the Lord could appreciate, like we do when we visit a sick person, and we wonder what he could need or appreciate.

I would not be surprised if one day you told Him: My Lord, I do not present to you just something, but I present to you everything, rather, all of myself. I am at your complete disposal in priesthood or in the consecrated life.

In this regard I said that the second remedy is just a strengthening of the first one.

10. As you see, the only remedy for Sloth is love, or rather an even bigger love. Just think about the sacrifices that parents make every day to take care of their crying children. They have to give up sleep and many other things which are naturally good. They live without thinking about themselves. You do the same thing with the Lord.

May your life be a love story between you and Him. Every day the Lord calls you to dine with Him and everyday he introduces you to the promised land, where you can “taste the good word of God and the powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:4). Call Him to dine with you and present to Him acts of love, offerings of yourself, one more beautiful and more precious than the other. In this way the meeting with Jesus in the Eucharist becomes the source and the peak of your life, your starting point and your destination.

Along with this advice, I will especially remember you in my prayer. I wish you all the best and I bless you. Father Angelo.

Translated by: Francesca

Proof edited by: Simona