Article I: On Acedia

S. Th. II-II, q. 35; de Malo, q. 11.

949. Acedia is sadness concerning spiritual good, especially divine good. For acid things are cold; whence acedia imports weariness or tepidity of acting, which so depresses the soul of man that he is pleased to do nothing. Hence spiritual acedia denotes torpor, languor, tepidity, weariness concerning spiritual things, which are therefore troublesome because they require bodily labor. Whence it is sadness concerning spiritual things because they impede bodily rest and delight: for acedia prefers doing nothing rather than impeding the rest of the body, and thence is born flight from, horror of, and detestation of spiritual things. This sadness is always a sin: a) by reason of the object: for to be saddened concerning evil is good, but to be saddened concerning that which is apparently evil but truly is good, is a sin, because good does not deserve that we be saddened concerning it; b) by reason of the effect: for it withdraws man from due works.

Acedia is twofold: 1. that by which we are saddened concerning the good of any virtue whatever; this is not a special sin, even if it is done on account of bodily labor annexed, but is a circumstance of every sin, because every vice flees the opposite spiritual good also insofar as it impedes bodily rest; 2. that by which we are saddened concerning the spiritual good to which all other things are ordered, namely, concerning divine good, not in itself, but insofar as it is internal to us or pertains to us and seems evil to us: namely, if someone is saddened concerning beatitude or concerning the friendship of God, because they must be preserved through laborious exercises of virtues and so he does not care for that friendship; or if, on account of labor, he is saddened concerning the means to it, for example, concerning the sacraments, the grace of God, good works, divine precepts, etc., insofar as they are necessary or useful for the friendship of God. This is a special sin because it has a special object and directly opposes the special act of a special virtue: for it is opposed to joy concerning the divine good, in which charity delights.

950. The gravity of acedia. - 1. Acedia, as it is a general sin, is mortal or venial according as the sin of which it is a circumstance is grave or light.

2. Special acedia is a mortal sin from its genus, because according to its proper character it is opposed to charity. For the proper effect of charity is joy concerning God; whence acedia, by which we are saddened concerning the divine good, is directly opposed to charity. Nevertheless it can be venial if it is not perfectly deliberate, or even, as it seems, when it is concerned with goods not necessary for salvation.

This acedia is also a capital sin, as was declared above, in the treatise on Sins, n. 513.