Article VII. On acedia

433. Notion. Acedia¹⁰⁸ is sadness concerning spiritual good, insofar as it is a divine good. Thus St. Thomas,¹⁰⁹ who, in explanation of this definition, says: "If spiritual good is taken commonly, acedia will not have the character of a special vice, because every vice flees the spiritual good of the opposite virtue. Similarly also it cannot be said that acedia is a special vice insofar as it flees spiritual good as laborious or troublesome to the body, or as impeding its delectation, because this also would not separate acedia from the carnal vices, by which someone seeks the rest and delectation of the body."¹¹⁰ Sadness taken in those two senses is laziness, which is weariness of labor; it is called acedia in the broad sense. But acedia, insofar as it is a special vice, is sadness and weariness concerning spiritual good, that is, concerning the means of salvation conferred on us by God, and consequently it is opposed to the highest virtue, namely charity toward God. For just as charity toward God rejoices in friendship and union with God, and in all the means conducive to friendship and union with God, so acedia is saddened concerning all these things and scorns them, chiefly because a man affected by excessive self-love does not wish to tend toward God with labor. By such a sin of acedia there offend, for example, a Christian who is affected with weariness and sadness from professing the faith; a priest who is saddened concerning the priestly vocation accepted; a religious who from weariness deserts the religious life, etc.

A figure not unlike a man infected with acedia is the Israelite people, which, truly heaped with divine gifts, nourished with the wondrous food of manna on the journey to the promised land, began to be weary of the journey and labor and so spoke against God and Moses: "Why hast thou brought us out of Egypt, that we should die in the wilderness? ... Our soul now loatheth this very light food. Wherefore the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people; after their wounds and the deaths of very many, they came to Moses and said: We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and thee."¹¹¹ A Christian man, heaped by God with benefits of every kind and led to the promised land of eternal salvation, if he is infected with acedia, exclaims: My soul loathes thy means leading me to salvation with labor. Then the fiery serpents of punishments and sins rush in and not rarely kill such a man.

¹⁰⁸ Ἀκηδία. Uberdruss an gottlich-geistigen Dingen, degout des choses spirituelles.

¹⁰⁹ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 35, a. 3. Cf. Cajetan, who rightly interprets this definition, Com. in S. theol. 2, 2, q. 35, a. 4.

¹¹⁰ Ib. a. 2.

¹¹¹ Num. 21, 4 sqq.

434. Malice. 1. Acedia taken in the strict sense is a mortal sin.^111a The reason is that its sadness is directly repugnant to charity, to which it belongs to rejoice not only in God himself, but also in the divine goods conferred on us insofar as they lead us to union with God.

2. Acedia also in a somewhat broader sense, insofar as it is negligence of one's own salvation and of the means necessary for obtaining it, and insofar as it is caused by weariness of working, is a mortal sin from its genus. The reason is that it is opposed to the precept of loving God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with all one's powers, and not rarely becomes gravely evil on account of its worst effects. The soul of a lazy man is deservedly compared to a field in which the nettles and thorns of vices grow fruitfully.¹¹² Hence Sacred Scripture says: "Idleness hath taught much evil."¹¹³ And it is truly clear by daily experience that temptations of every kind arise in a lazy mind, to which such a man is wont to succumb on account of the weakness of his will. This acedia leads to tepidity, and tepidity leads to ruin, since God is said to vomit the tepid out of his mouth.¹¹⁴

^111a S. theol. 2, 2, q. 35, a. 4.

¹¹² Cf. Prov. 24, 31.

¹¹³ Eccli. 33, 29.

¹¹⁴ Cf. Apoc. 3, 16. Concerning acedia, insofar as it is sometimes found in priests, Iac. Schmitt wrote well (Linzer Theol. Quartalschrift 1883, 769 sqq. and 1884, 21 sqq.), treating broadly of its diagnosis, prognosis, and remedies.

435. Daughters of acedia. By St. Gregory and St. Thomas¹¹⁵ the following six daughters of acedia are enumerated: despair of salvation, pusillanimity, torpor concerning precepts, rancor, malice, wandering about illicit things.

1. Despair of salvation necessarily follows from acedia, for "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away."¹¹⁶ Therefore a man infected with acedia cannot seriously hope for his salvation.

2. Pusillanimity, as it is taken here, is flight from using means not indeed strictly commanded, but rather counseled. In the Gospel we read that the pusillanimous servant was punished, who buried the money received from his lord in the earth.¹¹⁷ Pusillanimity is directly opposed to magnanimity.¹¹⁸

3. Torpor concerning precepts is the negligent fulfillment of precepts.

4. Rancor toward those who admonish to spiritual fervor; a man infected with acedia detests them as troublesome admonishers.

5. Malice is hatred of spiritual goods, which the tepid man detests and ridicules.

6. Wandering about illicit things. Since every man naturally desires delectation and happiness, and since the man laboring under acedia does not find this delectation in spiritual things, he seeks it elsewhere and indeed wanders about illicit delectations.

¹¹⁵ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 35, a. 4 ad 2; De malo q. 11, a. 4.

¹¹⁶ Matth. 11, 12.

¹¹⁷ Cf. Matth. 25, 18 sqq.

¹¹⁸ Cf. S. theol. 2, 2, q. 133, a. 1 and 2.

436. Remedies of acedia are: frequent and serious consideration of the very great evils which follow from acedia and laziness. The householder in the Gospel says, rebuking: "Why stand you here all the day idle?"¹¹⁹ Christ commanded the fruitless fig tree to be cut down: "Cut it down therefore; why doth it also occupy the ground?"¹²⁰ Acedia and laziness render a man truly miserable: weariness of life, vices of the flesh, discords assail him; the lazy man is honored by no one, despised by many. - On the contrary, strenuous labor and a fervent spiritual life render man happy both on this earth and in the other life.

¹¹⁹ Matth. 20, 6.

¹²⁰ Luc. 13, 7.