Well, recently I’ve been able to put a title on what appears to be one of my most “favorite” sins.
Acedia is not a household word, unless your "house" happens to be a monastery or a department of medieval literature. At its Greek root, Acedia means the absence of care, and in personal terms it means refusing to care, even that you can't care. It is a supreme form of indifference, a kind of spiritual morphine: you know the pain is there, but can't rouse yourself to give a shit. In the mid-twentieth century Aldous Huxley called Acedia the primary affliction of his age, and its baleful influence still sours our relationships to society, politics, and our families. But how can this be, you may ask, when "Acedia" is such an obscure term? Well, as any reader of fairy tales can tell you, it's the devil you don't know that causes the most serious trouble.
When I first encountered the concept of Acedia (pronounced uh-SEE-Dee-uh) in a teaching from Steve Alessi Brown, Keys To Life Ministry. I was startled to find him describing something I had long experienced but had never been able to name. It was all there: Acedia manifesting as both as boredom and restlessness, inertia and workaholism, as well as reluctance to commit to a particular place because of a nagging sense that something better might come along. Another group of people -- surely not the lot I was stuck with now, my family or co-workers -- might value me more highly and help me better fulfill my potential.
The early Christian monks regarded Acedia as one of the worst of the eight "bad thoughts" that afflicted them. It was ranked with pride and anger, as all three have the potential to lead people into deep despair.
Acedia in particular could shake the very foundations of monastic life: once a monk succumbed to the notion that his efforts at daily prayer and contemplation were futile, life loomed like a prison sentence, day after day of nothingness. In a similar way, Acedia can make a once-treasured marriage or vocation seem oppressive and meaningless.
Western culture lost the word Acedia because the monks' subtle psychology of the bad thoughts was eventually solidified into the Church's doctrine of the seven deadly sins. What the monks had recognized as temptations that all people are subject to became seen as specific acts or omissions, and as Acedia was not easily characterized as either, it was transformed into the sin of sloth, which came to signify physical laziness rather than a more serious spiritual indifference.
But the word Acedia (also called the noonday demon) has persisted, coming and going from the English language over the centuries. It was most recently reinstated, after being marked obsolete, in the supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary that appeared after the Second World War. Language has a logic and wisdom all its own, and I am now convinced that the word returned to us because we needed it again.
We need to understand Acedia because we all suffer from its effects.
Acedia is “kind of” the opposite of grace. With grace we find that God has provided, in Christ, all we need for salvation both here on earth as well as eternity. The irony I’ve found is that even though Philippians 4:3 clearly states that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” I, simply do not find myself doing “all things”. In fact, I all to often find myself looking to do less things!
And this, is sinful, and it is deadly.
Acedia steals our joy, our sense of belonging, our willingness to do more. We become spiritually depressed while our hearts ache for that “born again” joy we once possessed.
Much like depression we are unaware of our condition. We love God; we’re just to tired to seek Him. We just want to coast, float with the tide of spiritual complacency accepting whatever we bump into as we drift ideally along.
Acedia has found its home in the churches of America. In the unknowing hearts of its Pastors and the members of congregations; it knows no limits, has no favorites, and cares nothing for its hosts. It is a nameless, unknown, dangerous sin.
Until we, you and I, come to understand this sinful condition. This condition that has plagued God’s people for hundreds upon hundreds of years it will continue to thrive unnoticed and undefeated.
What can we do about Acedia and more importantly how do we defeat it?
The answer is the often overstated practice of repentance. But before we can repent of the sin of Acedia we must relearn what repentance actually is. In the New Testament the word translated as 'repentance' is the Greek word metanoia, "after/behind one's mind", which is a compound word of the preposition 'meta' (after, with), and the verb 'noeo' (to perceive, to think, the result of perceiving or observing). In this compound word the preposition combines the two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by 'after' and 'different'; so that the whole compound means: 'to think differently after'.
Methane is therefore primarily an afterthought, different from the former thought; a change of mind accompanied by regret and change of conduct, "change of mind and heart", or, "change of consciousness".
Now, this definitive truth , at first glance, seems pretty much the same thing we’ve always been taught, “Repentance is to ‘turn from your sin’, to stop the sinful behavior and move on up to a “deluxe apartment in the sky.” But the idea of our being able to simply “turn from” our sin foolishly suggests that we (somehow) have the ability to stop committing not simple this sin, but every sin. We just need to repent.
Why then do we need Jesus? Why, in John 1:29 is Jesus proclaimed the “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?” We have somehow gotten the reality of repentance all messed up. Because we were placed in right standing before the Father through the sacrifice of Jesus we can now go boldly to God and acknowledge our sin. We can then allow God to change us, for His purpose, in His timing.
Our idea that we can simply repent, and stop sinning is way above our pay scale. Our job is to go to the throne and thank God for Jesus and all that He accomplished in and for us. The “change of conduct” comes from God and God alone.
Now that you understand Acedia, what it is, how it works, and where it comes from you can walk in victory each and every time the “noon day devil” decides to meddle in your life.
That’s the power of Grace and the good news of the Gospel.
Amen!!
