 |
| http://www.conservapedia.com/Sloth_(sin) |
This is the forgotten deadly sin. There seems to be a mind-set that being lazy is merely a character trait and not a serious sin.
Laziness does not merely mean being a couch potato, but a list of defects which may damn a person to hell.
The list includes:
apathy
acedia
not doing good when one should-sin of omission
indolence
listlessness
sluggishness regarding the use of gifts
sluggishness regarding the use of time
laziness regarding the growth of virtues
becoming slack about one's companions
not working as one needs to do when one can
The greatest lie in our country is that people "earn" extravagant lifestyles, such as long retirements, which only include fun and rest, and not working on the virtues, or preparing for death.
I want to address intellectual laziness as a serious sin. Those adult Catholics, who do not study their faith and persist in ignorance fall into intellectual sloth, leading to ignorance, for which one is culpable.
In America and in Europe, I do not believe there is such a thing as invincible ignorance.
Here is a bit from the CCC:
1791 This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."59 In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
1792 Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.
1793 If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.
1794 A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith."60
- The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards of moral conduct.61