One of the seven capital sins. In general it means disinclination to labour or exertion. As a capital or deadly vice St. Thomas (II-II:35) calls it sadness in the face of some spiritual good which one has to achieve (Tristitia de bono spirituali). Father Rickaby aptly translates its Latin equivalent acedia (Gr. akedia) by saying that it means the don't-care feeling. A man apprehends the practice of virtue to be beset with difficulties and chafes under the restraints imposed by the service of God.
The narrow way stretches wearily before him and his soul grows sluggish and torpid at the thought of the painful life journey. The idea of right living inspires not joy but disgust, because of its laboriousness.
This is the notion commonly obtaining, and in this sense sloth is not a specific vice according to the teaching of St. Thomas, but rather a circumstance of all vices. Ordinarily it will not have the malice of mortal sin unless, of course, we conceive it to be so utter that because of it one is willing to bid defiance to some serious obligation.
St. Thomas completes his definition of sloth by saying that it is torpor in the presence of spiritual good which is Divine good. In other words, a man is then formally distressed at the prospect of what he must do for God to bring about or keep intact his friendship with God. In this sense sloth is directly opposed to charity. It is then a mortal sin unless the act be lacking in entire advertence or full consent of the will. The trouble attached to maintenance of the inhabiting of God by charity arouses tedium in such a person. He violates, therefore, expressly the first and the greatest of the commandments: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength." (Mark 12:30).
APA citation. (1912). Sloth. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved March 19, 2018 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14057c.htm
DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY
Please make time to read this poem, you can click this link and it should bring the poem up. It is a long poem, and can be difficult~read it in small bits at a time.
Project Gutenberg's The Divine Comedy, Complete, by Dante Alighieri
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Title: The Divine Comedy, Complete
The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell
Author: Dante Alighieri
Illustrator: Gustave Dore
Translator: Rev. H. F. Cary
Release Date: September, 2005 [Etext #8800]
Last Updated: November 30, 2012
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Catholicism
In his Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as "sorrow about spiritual good" and as "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds." According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness."Sloth includes ignoring the seven gifts of grace given by the Holy Ghost (wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord); such disregard may lead to the slowing of spiritual progress towards eternal life, to the neglect of manifold duties of charity towards the neighbour, and to animosity towards those who love God.Unlike the other capital sins, in which the sinner commits immoral acts, sloth is a sin of omission of desire and/or performance. It may arise from any of the other capital vices; for example, a son may omit his duty to his father through anger. While the state and habit of sloth is a mortal sin, the habit of the soul tending towards the last mortal state of sloth is not mortal in and of itself except under certain circumstances.
