sluggish

We have been reflecting on the letter of the Hebrews from the New Testament over the past couple of weeks.

The letter is a beautifully written sermon, basically, detailing the priesthood of Christ.

In it, St. Paul reflects on faithful witnesses of faith from the past, a line of faithful witness that culminates in Christ who gives the perfect witness by his sacrifce, the one who is both priest and victim.

Today, St. Paul says these words, "we earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulifllment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promise."

Eagerness and sluggishness battle it out in the human soul.

1)Sluggish:slothful, dull, languid

MartinLuther King Jr, was noted as saying that our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Misguided people of faith, is certainly what St. Paul is speaking about when he uses the term sluggish.

St.Thomas states that sluggishness or slothfulness is sorrow on account of Divine good. It is oppressive sorrow that weighs upon the mind of a man that he wants to do nothing.

St. Thomas recognizes slothfulness as opposed to the joy of charity.

He list a few things associated with sluggishness/slothfulness.

Here you can check your own temperture:
despair, faint-heartedness, spite which leads ot bitterness, wandering after unlawful things which can manifest itself in the misues of ones imagination, curiosity, or misues is speech, where we speak of things we should not, restlessness of the body that is recognized in instability, or idleness and drowisness in which avoid the good we ought to do or we do it only with negligence.

Reading the list it is hard not to think it is an accurate description of our society at large, especially when it comes to the wandering after unlawful things and misuse of the imagination and powers of speech.

So what is the cure. St. Paul mentions eagerness as teh answer to sluggishness that wants to settle in our soul and make us stagnant and thus repugnant.

Eagerness has little to do with feelings. Our emotions are varied. As G.K. Chestertom oonce noted, our feelings are more about what we ate for breakfast than what is goning on in our life: spiritually or otherwise.

Eagerness is a chocie to stand ready to respond to call of God at each moment, risking to move beyond our complacent nature. It is a choice to serve and to seek to divine Good in every moment.

There are plenty of opportunities.

This desire is sharpened by prayer and fasting, believe it or not. Denying ourselves ultimately makes us more keen to the divine call in each moment. It helps us take a stand for what matters most rather than fall in despair.


Ultimately eagerness is about discerning the things that matter to God for all for the betterment and enrichment of man.