The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times

by Jean-Charles Nault

Weariness, melancholy, feeling overworked, discouragement, instability, activism, boredom, or depression:

The various manifestations of acedia. I've definitely felt many of these in the past few years. I'm glad that I am not alone in these feelings, and that I may be able to draw upon the wisdom of Saints in past centuries to overcome them

Although the midday sun comes to bathe everything in its dazzling light, acedia, like an obscure malady, plunges the heart of the person that it afflicts into the gray fog of weariness and the night of despair.

I love this sentence, it's so elegant.

The worst of these nations is Egypt; the worst of our enemies is pride. As for the other seven enemies to be fought, they are: gluttony, lust or fornication, avarice or greed, sadness, anger, acedia, and vainglory.

acedia holds a very special place among them, because it is arises from all the faculties at once, and hence its terrible character. It is found, we could say, at the intersection of two series of vices: one that comes from below (the corporeal passions) and the other that comes from above (the spiritual passions). Acedia affects the body and the soul simultaneously. It takes advantage of a weakness of the body so as to affect the soul.

This is something that I have recognized in myself. When my body cannot resist the temptation to sin, my spirituality suffers as well.

Acedia endures. It is not a short-lived crisis. It is a radical, chronic evil.

Acedia in English comes from the Latin acedia, which in turn comes from the Greek akèdia. This word means “lack of care”. I refer the reader to the works by the Franciscan Bernard Forthomme, who wrote a thick volume on acedia.13 In a brilliant article, he explained how acedia, before the Christian era, and even before Empedocles (490—435 B.C.) or Cicero (106—43 B.C.), denoted the act of not burying one’s dead.14 This lack of concern for the deceased was an essential characteristic of dehumanization. Indeed, only men bury their dead; animals do not. Not to bury one’s dead is therefore an evil especially contrary to the human condition. With Evagrius a new meaning appears: it is no longer about a lack of care with regard to the deceased; it is about a lack of care given to one’s own spiritual life, a lack of concern for one’s salvation. In Latin, akèdia is sometimes translated also by incuria, carelessness, indifference.

When he reads, the one afflicted with acedia yawns a lot and readily drifts off into sleep; he rubs his eyes and stretches his arms; turning his eyes away from the book, he stares at the wall and again goes back to reading for awhile; leafing through the pages, he looks curiously for the end of texts, he counts the folios and calculates the number of gatherings.

To do more than one can, whether works of charity or other sorts, is to lack discernment, and that then leads to trouble and to murmuring.

The danger of doing too much at Lent

The Five Remedies for Acedia

-Tears: The acknowledgment that one needs to be saved, that one cannot go it alone. -Prayer and work: Especially work with your hands, alternating with prayer -Antirrhêsis (contradiction): This is about confronting the temptation of acedia by using the method that Christ utilized in the desert against Satan, in other words, the use of a verse from Scripture to confound the devil. -Memento Mori: Reflecting on one's mortality hepls to push past the sufferings of today and contemplate those of the next life. This idea above all helps us to fight against philautia, or self-love. The thought of death also makes it possible to counteract self-centeredness. -Perseverance: in Greek hypomone, which is a very active thing. It is an appeal, an increase of fidelity.

Perseverance is the cure for acedia, along with the execution of all tasks with great attention [and the fear of God]. Set a measure for yourself in every work and do not let up until you have completed it.

The Greek word antirrhêsis means “contradiction”. This is about confronting the temptation of acedia by using the method that Christ utilized in the desert against Satan, in other words, the use of a verse from Scripture to confound the devil.

“O daughter of Babylon, you devastator!. . . Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

Indeed, in saying that acedia is a form of “sadness”, Saint Thomas Aquinas is saying that it is a passion.