Chapter 36. Remedies against Sloth

Sloth is a reluctance to attend to duty, and, according to Cassian, it is especially a weariness or distate for spiritual | things. The peril to which this vice exposes us is clearly set forth in these words of Our Saviour: “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and shall be ‘cast into the fire.” (Matt. 7:19). Against its evil effects He | again warned His disciples when, exhorting them to | diligence, the opposite of sloth, He told them to watch and pray, for they knew not when the Lord of the house would come. (Cf. Mk. 13:35). | Therefore, if this shameful vice attack you, banish it by the thoughts we are about to suggest.

First call to mind the extraordinary labors which Our - Lord endured for you; the many sleepless nights He spent in _ prayer for you; His weary journeys from city to city, healing the sick, comforting the sorrowful, and raising the dead. _ How ardently, how unceasingly He devoted Himself to the _ work of our redemption! Consider particularly how, at the ~ time of His Passion, He bore upon His bruised and bleeding shoulders the heavy weight of His cross for love of you. If the God of majesty labored thus to deliver you, will you refuse to cooperate in your own salvation? When this tender Lamb endured such rude labors to free you from your sins, will you endure nothing to expiate them? Remember, too, the weary labors of the Apostles, who preached the Gospel * to the whole world. Think of the sufferings endured by the martyrs, confessors, virgins, anchorites, and by all who are now reigning with Christ. It was by their teaching and their toil that the Faith of Christ spread through the known world and that the Church has been perpetuated to the present day.

• Turn your eyes towards nature, and you will find nothing idle. The heavens, by their perpetual motion, unceasingly proclaim the glory of their Creator. The sun, moon, and stars, with all the brilliant planets which péople almost infinite space, daily follow their courses for the benefit of man. The growth of plants and trees is continual until they have attained their appointed strength and proportions. Behold the untiring energy with which the ant labors for its winter’s food; with which the bees toil in building their hives and storing them with honey. These industrious little creatures will not allow an idler to exist among them; the drones are all killed. Throughout nature you find the same lesson.

Will not man, therefore, blush for a vice which the instinct of irrational creatures teaches them to avoid? To what labor do not men condemn themselves for the acquisition of perishable riches, the preservation of which, when they are obtained, is an ever-increasing source of care and anxiety! You are striving for the kingdom of Heaven. Will you show less energy, will you be less diligent, in toiling for spiritual treasures, which can never be taken from you?

• — If you will not profit by time and strength to labor now,a day will come when you will vainly seek these present opportunities. Sad experience tells us how many have thus been disappointed. Life is short, and obstacles to good abound. Do not, therefore, let the promptings of sloth cause you to lose advantages which will never return, for “the night cometh when no man can work.” (Jn. 9:4).

• The number and enormity of your sins demand a proporenate penance and fervor to satisfy for them. St. Peter enied his Master three times, but never ceased to weep for His sin, though he knew it had been pardoned. St. Mary {agdalen to the end of her life likewise bewailed the disorers of her youth, though she heard from Our Saviour’s lips hese sweet words: “Thy sins are forgiven thee.’’ Numerous re the examples of those who, returning to God, continued juring life to do penance for their sins, though many of nem had offended God far less grievously than you. You daily heap up your sins; and can you consider any abor too severe to expiate them? Oh! Profit by this time of ‘race and mercy to bring forth fruits worthy of penance, ind by the labors of this life to purchase the eternal repose »f the next. Our works in themselves are paltry and insiguificant, but united to the merits of Christ they acquire innite value in the sight of God. The labor endures but a 1 time; the reward will continue for eternity. We are ld of a saint who was wont to exclaim at the striking of the lock: “O my God! Another hour has flown—one of those ‘ours sent me in which to work out my salvation, and for vhich I must render an account to Thee.” Let his example spire us with a determination to profit by the time which p given us to lay up works for eternal life. _If overwhelmed with labors, remember that we must nter Heaven by the way of tribulation, and that he only vill be crowned who strives lawfully. (Cf. 2 Tim. 2:5). If to abandon the struggle, remember that it is writ- : “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be i oe ” (Matt. 10:22). Without this perseverance, our labor vill neither bear fruit nor merit reward. Our Saviour would jot descend from the cross when asked by the Jews, for the vork of our redemption was not yet accomplished. If, then, e desire to follow in the footsteps of our Divine Model, let s labor to the end with unwearied zeal. Is not the reward yhich awaits us eternal? Let us continue to do penance; let us carry our cross after Christ. What will it avail us to have weathered the storms and triumphed over the perils of the sea of life, if we suffer shipwrecks as we are about to enter the port of eternal rest?

Let not the duration or difficulty of the labors alarm you. God, who calls you to combat, will give you victory. He sees your weakness; He will support you when you falter, and He will reward you when you conquer. Reanimate your failing courage, not by comparing the difficulties of virtue with the pleasures of vice, but by comparing the labor which precedes virtue with the trouble which surely follows vice. Place side by side the fleeting pleasure of sin and the eternal happiness of virtue, and you will see how preferable is God’s service to the fatal repose to which sloth allures you.

Yet do not allow victory to render you indolent, for success often lulls us into a dangerous confidence. Never abandon your arms; for your enemies never sleep, and life without temptations is as impossible as a sea of perpetual calm. A man is usually tempted most at the beginning of a good life, for the devil has no need to tempt those who have abandoned themselves to his control. But he is unceasing in his efforts against those who have resolved to give themselves to God. Therefore, let him never find you unprepared, but, like a soldier in an enemy’s country, be always ready for combat.

If you are sometimes wounded, beware of throwing away your arms and surrendering in dismay. Rather, imitate those brave warriors whom the shame of defeat spurs to more heroic resistance and greater deeds of valor. Thus you will rise from a fall with new strength. You will see the enemy to whom you were formerly submitted now flying before you. And if, as it may happen in battle, you are repeatedly wounded, do not lose heart, but remember that the valor of a soldier does not consist in escaping wounds.

:t In never surrendering. We do not call a combatant deaied when he is covered with wounds, but when he loses wrage and abandons the field. And when you are »unded lose no time in applying a remedy; for one wound more easily cured than two, and a fresh wound more sickly than one that has been inflamed by neglect. Do not : Satisfied with resisting temptation, but gather from it eater incentives to virtue, and with the assistance of God’s ace you will reap profit rather than harm from the attacks the enemy. lif you are tempted to gluttony or sensuality, retrench |mething from your usual repasts, even though they in no ly exceed the limits of sobriety, and give yourself with ore fervor to fasting and other practices of devotion. If & are assailed by avarice, increase the amount of your ms and the number of your good works. If you feel the ‘omptings of vainglory, lose no opportunity of accepting amiliations. Then, perhaps, the devil may fear to tempt »u, seeing that you convert his snares into occasions of vir- , and that he only affords you opportunities of greater od. Above all things fly idleness. Even in your hours of laxation do not be wholly unoccupied. And, on the other a do not be so absorbed in your labors that you cannot pm time to time raise your heart to God and treat with im in prayer.