Acedia, the Noonday Demon, 5 of 8 - The 7 Deadly Sins - Fr. Michael Flowers - 3-8-15

In the 4th Century, in the wake of Constantine legalizing Christianity, loads of people flooded into the church without true conversion. Many chose to keep in step with the powers that be. Constantinople became the “New Rome”, the seat of power for the Roman Empire. Note that when the persecutions ceased, the Church slowly lost its counter-cultural witness and become domesticated.

As the Church grew not only in numbers, but wealth and political power, across the Empire, a new movement arose, thousands fled to the Egyptian desert, so much not to escape a spiritually deadening culture, but to do spiritual battle with the devil. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness was their model. In the desert they would learn how to master their passions, discovering a new form of martyrdom, and in return, provide a prophetic community within the Church, calling her back to the path of transformation.

One such figure, Evagrius fled Constantinople to a tiny monastery in Egypt. The desert monasteries were partially communal, leaving the greater part of the day in silence and solitude. Evagrius came to recognize 8 spiritually defeating thoughts which were common battles across the desert communities. Theses were gluttony, lust, greed, vainglory, sadness, anger, pride and acedia.

His list of 8 became the basis for what would be later reorganized by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th C as the seven deadly sins. Gregory folded sadness into acedia (sloth), vainglory into pride and added envy.

Great numbers of people from all over the world would flock to these desert hermits for counsel and prayer. They became the true curates, one who cares for souls.

Evagrius observed that during the hottest part of the day, from 10 AM to 2 PM, the monks would fall into a stupor and, at times, have delusional thoughts, leading them away from their vocation. After much discernment, a line from Psalm 91:6 caught his attention regarding God’s protection against the plague , the disaster, the destruction at noonday. As a handle for this plight, they named it the noonday demon, and called the effect ACEDIA which came to later be called sloth (shifting the inner wisdom of the heart to more external and physical laziness).

What on earth is Acedia and how is discerning its many manifestations relevant today?

It is frustratingly difficult to define and impossible is the attempt with one word.

The desert fathers considered it the most insidious of all sins.

• It’s a sense of moral and spiritual apathy where one just doesn’t care.
• It causes us to neglect what we should do by creating diversions that may lead to frivolous activity and distraction.
• It aims at leading us away from spiritual growth and relationship with God … this is why its considered one of the top three insidious evils.
• It breeds self-pity, to mope, to be dejected, despondent, complacent towards God and his mission in the world.
• Acedia is the disease of our modern age and the modern Church, caught in all manner of addictions, some to divert us and others to numb. Kathleen Norris, in her book, Acedia and Me, says its like a spiritual morphine. The pain is there but you don’t feel it anymore.
• Acedia breeds a cynicism about God, his Church and his Kingdom. We see this in Nathaniel’s initial attitude upon hearing about Jesus. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
• Isaiah describes it in his phrase, “No one arouses himself to take hold of me.”
• Acedia is faint-hearted; listless, unmoved, unresponsive to God and his Word. It is a spiritual paralysis of the will towards participating in God.
• It is often confused with depression but only mimics some of the symptoms.
• It is often confused with our modern understanding of SLOTH but goes much deeper than physical and mental laziness.