§ 8. Concerning Sloth

— 1. Notion. Sloth denotes weariness of soul, and it can be taken generally for every relaxation of soul in exercising the virtues, because they have labor joined to them; and particularly for sadness and weariness concerning divine friendship, because it must be preserved through laborious works of the virtues; and then it is a special vice. The former becomes mortal when for that reason a grave affirmative or negative precept is violated; the latter directly repugns the charity of God, so that it is grave from its whole kind.

Sometimes they distinguish natural sloth, or weariness concerning bodily labor, and spiritual sloth, or weariness concerning laborious virtues. As is clear, flight from bodily labor, when it is culpable, is referred to spiritual sloth.

Although in common speech general sloth is rather taken for the capital vice, and St. Gregory the Great himself numbers general sadness among the capital vices, theologians nevertheless reserve the name of the capital vice of sloth for the special one.

2. By St. Gregory himself ¹, as daughters of sadness, there were already indicated:

Malice, by which someone has hatred for spiritual goods and would wish them not to exist; or by which he repents of having done well or fulfilled what he owed; or by which he contemns God's benefit, wishing that he had not been born, had not known Christ, etc.: it is mortal from its own kind;

Pusillanimity and despair concerning salvation;

Rancor, by which those are wearisome who induce him toward spiritual things;

Torpor, when good things are done without due fervor;

Wandering of mind in spiritual exercises: when it is done through thought, it is called curiosity; through speech, it is called verbosity; through restlessness, it is called inquietude: these are commonly venial.

N.B. Take care lest you confuse with mortal sloth the rather dangerous indeed, but of itself not mortal, weariness concerning a priesthood undertaken or a religious life entered, while there remains, however, the will of fulfilling the duties of either state.

¹ P. L. 76, 658.

— You ask whether labor is commanded to man?

By the words of Genesis, 3, 17. 18, a hard necessity is proclaimed rather than a true precept is promulgated. And some labor must be undertaken by all in order to flee sins, to exercise commanded acts of virtue, and to meet various necessities.

Therefore various duties indirectly generate for all men some obligation of laboring, and for most a sufficiently burdensome obligation, especially if among the duties you do not omit charity, which, when the matter concerns averting grave common harm, obliges even with notable inconvenience. And today, in our European societies, whether by reason of scandal, or by reason of common harm to be warded off, he who, abounding in goods, exercises charity by no work of his own cannot be excused from every sin.

But a proper and direct duty of laboring is not demonstrated; and social cooperation is generally to be obtained by much exhortation rather than by terror of divine anger. Cf. Gen.-Salsmans, I, 365.