The material presented below is the original work of priest Maxim Kaskun (Moscow region), published on the Internet in the format of video lectures. The author of this project, “ierei063,” in order to present information more concisely, optimized his lectures in such a way as to significantly reduce the volume of material without losing the main idea, allowing the reader to quickly and accurately grasp the main idea.
Father did serious, respectable work, from various sources, including the works of the Holy Fathers, collected information on the topic, clearly systematized and revealed it. He worked on the development of this material for a very long time, and I do not claim authorship, but in order to save my own time, seeing this worthy work, I dare to post a “shortened version” on my website. Those wishing to access the original material, please go to the Internet project of Priest Maxim Kaskun, who also needs support for his works.
So, the word “laziness” is the passivity of the human will, unwillingness to desire, relaxation of the soul and decrepitude of the mind, as St. John Climacus says.
So, Abba Isaiah says this: “Laziness and negligence are the rest of this age.”
That is, when a person indulges in laziness and negligence, he wants to calm down, find peace in the energies, in things, in thoughts that are and belong to this world. Those. peace of the flesh, peace of carnal wisdom, when a person tries to find such a point in his being so as not to strain himself in anything. Just be calm, do nothing, and receive all sorts of benefits for it. And today the very philosophy of modern life is, in principle, this: minimum labor, maximum profit. Accordingly, this leads, of course, to great spiritual distortions.
Is laziness and negligence a vice or a character trait?
The Holy Fathers specifically say that laziness and negligence are not even just a sin, they are a real detriment to human life, which turns a person into some kind of log, weak-willed, weak, unreasonable creature.
Accordingly, everyone understands perfectly well that laziness and negligence are real destruction for a person, especially destruction in spiritual life.
The causes of these sins, where they come from:
The first reason is the passion of gluttony, the main passion that we talked a lot about.
St. John Cassian the Roman: “You need to get up from the table with a feeling of hunger,” the golden rule, as the monks say, after this there will be no laziness. Laziness only appears when you are fed up. Saint Theophan the Recluse: “What satiety is for a layman is satiety for a monk.” That is, a monk should not even eat enough. Because after satiety, a person can work physically, and even quite well, but a person will no longer be able to work spiritually.
The Monk Isaac the Syrian says that laziness comes from burdening the belly, when the belly is burdened, and from many things. He added an interesting phrase, which has been abolished today. Today, on the contrary, we are all trying to do so much here and there, to be in time everywhere. In fact, it is after this that laziness is born. Because a person, here and there, tries to be on time everywhere, gets wasted, achieves nothing, gets disappointed, and because of all this, despondency is born in him, after which laziness occurs.
The second reason is the passion of despondency- one of the most sinful passions that gives rise to laziness.
St. Ephraim the Syrian says this: “I call laziness without a reason despondency and carelessness, i.e. negligence." That is, when a person is really tired, he is lazy because he is tired, he is paralyzed because he is really tired, overworked; or a person is in grief, lost his spouse, for example, or some loved one, some kind of grief, etc.
There is a paralysis of human life, such that a person from internal states does not want to do anything, he simply remains in some kind of laziness, although this is also bad, but nevertheless it is justified and there is a reason for this. And when there is no reason, then it specifically comes from despondency and carelessness.
And the third passion, which gives birth to the sin of despondency, is vanity. How does this happen? Vanity gives rise to such sins as excessive talking and idle talk. Why does a person talk a lot? Because vanity tries to force a person to always do something so that people pay attention to him.
Therefore, talking too much spoils a person completely; when you talk too much, judge yourself, talk idlely, then there is such emptiness in your soul, and after this sin comes the sin of laziness according to the law of spiritual life. Laziness sets in, and the person is in a relaxed state and not concentrated. Because idle talk plunders the treasure of a person’s soul, i.e. those spiritual fruits that he collects within himself.
“Laziness comes from love of the flesh, negligence, idleness, lack of fear of God,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian.
Signs of these sins:
In Proverbs, the wise Solomon says: “Laziness makes one drowsy” (Proverbs 19:15), so the signs are drowsiness, sleeping a lot, waking up, lying in bed for a long time, putting off the alarm clock for five minutes. These are concrete signs that you and I are not in a cheerful state, but are in a state of laziness.
Aimless walking around the house, along the street, from corner to corner, a person is simply trying to go somewhere, but he himself does not know anything, I would even say: walking around something and not wanting to touch it in any way. I need to wash the floors, but no, I went and did this, I went and did that, and then it was evening, I had to go to bed, I quickly put everything away with a vacuum cleaner - tomorrow, all tomorrow.
Zeal for unimportant matters, neglect of the main thing. When a person has a specific task - he needs to do something at work today, his boss sets a plan for him, and he must do it, because this is his main task for today. And besides kalyms, he also wants to do this, that, you know, such a good mood happens in the soul, and the person, it turns out, does a lot in these secondary matters, but the main thing never happens. Very often, in this regard, a female character trait is guessed. It’s not about laziness, but precisely a female character trait. A woman does a lot, but sometimes she just rests all day. I did everything except what was necessary.
Striving for simplification. There is, of course, simplicity - a sign of talent, a person does something simple. And there is simplicity when a person is told: “Do this,” but he is reluctant, and he begins: “Let’s make lazy cabbage rolls...” or lazy dumplings. Those. the desire to simplify not in order to invent some simple, durable mechanism, but in order to expend less effort. And so on in different things.
Lack of feat, constancy in doing, patience. Lazy people and those who are prone to laziness, that is, in principle, all of us - it is very difficult for us to be constancy, constancy suffocates us, it does not give us life, it fetters our lives, it paralyzes us, it is so hateful, it constancy, and in general: “Who invented it?!” - laziness exclaims. And the Lord came up with it in order to humble us all, in order to show that constancy is given to a person precisely by the destruction of passions. Passions all the time try to plunge a person into a lot of worry, into a lot of talking, into worrying about many things so that the person becomes fussy. And constancy gives a person a static state, which cleanses him of passions and prepares him to receive spiritual fruits. And patience is, of course, the nerve of constancy and the nerve of spiritual life.
The very passions of laziness and negligence are also signs:
1) The soul's aspirations for the worse. Those. if you are lazy, you must understand that your soul strives for the worse, it falls, it is in regression, it is decomposing, you are specifically decomposing your inner state.
2) And as Rev. says. Abba Isaiah, laziness is a sign when a person’s soul is the home of all sorts of shameful and disgraceful passions. Because no virtue can reside in a lazy person. The Lord would be glad to give a person prayer, fasting, patience, and some other virtue, but the next day the person will neglect it, because negligence and laziness have completely enslaved him.
The relationship of sins.
Why does negligence and laziness occur? Which passion comes from the other?
The Holy Fathers in various sources say that just as negligence comes from laziness, so laziness comes from negligence - a mutual guarantee of these sins. Those. they support each other and feed each other. A person is lazy - after laziness comes carelessness towards everything. A person is careless in some matter - after that laziness comes to him, he relaxes and becomes completely unfit for any good deed.
The harmful influence of these sinful passions:
The influence of demons, demons. They are increasing their pressure on the lazy and careless, say the Holy Fathers. St. Ephraim the Syrian says the following: “Demons most disturb those who love laziness and carelessness about prayer.” More than anyone else, because whoever is there to disturb is lying there, approached, whatever you want, put it into the mind of this person, into the soul, and everything will fall on the fertilized, plowed soil. The person does not resist at all. Accordingly, they like to attack such people. At first, demons terrify the lazy and careless. A person wanted to do something good, and he had so many doubts, so many horrors: “How can I do this?”, “But I can’t.”
Decomposition of soul and mind. St. Mark the Ascetic says: “He who is negligent falls.” A negligent person will definitely fall, be in spiritual decline, and spiritual decline is a sin. What can be in our nature from sin? Only decay and complete spiritual desecration.
Defeat of will, powerlessness. A person becomes extinguished in spirit and cannot desire. For example, a person needs to do a good deed, but is reluctant. He understands in his conscience what is needed, but he cannot force himself and even he cannot desire it, he simply does not even want to desire it - his will is so paralyzed.
And all this ultimately leads to physical illness. The lazy and careless people get sick most often. He who works, who is hardworking, who constantly forces himself, gets sick a little. A person who does not force himself, does not overcome himself, gets sick more often and a lot.
According to the teachings of the Venerable Abba Isaiah, laziness and negligence give rise to self-will and pride in a person.
Abba Isaiah said a wonderful phrase: “No matter what a lazy, careless person does, he certainly considers himself a friend of God.” Let’s say, in spiritual life, he has not yet learned to fast or pray, but he is already a “friend of Christ.” And try to argue with him.
And in the end, all this influence ends with the lazy and careless being deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven.
How to deal with these sins:
The Monk Mark the Ascetic says that laziness and negligence are very well overcome by alms, doing good deeds, and mercy. Alms forgive a lot of sins, and mercy is one of those things that revives a human heart deadened by malice.
Attentive prayer, if possible - as long as possible
Consistency in work and overcoming oneself. Those. when you don’t want to, you have to overcome it and be constant, constantly fight, not relax, not indulge your laziness and negligence, constantly resist.
Jealousy and love for God. When a person tries to be jealous of God. What is zeal and love for God? It is to do as He commanded us, to do so that the Lord will rejoice over us.
Thinking about the spiritual, about the hour of death, about Judgment also helps a person get out of a lazy state.
Try to always be busy with something, avoid idleness and idleness. It’s one thing when a person is tired and resting, and another thing when a person has nothing to do and begins to just lie down.
I would also like to cite a wonderful commandment that ancient philosophers gave: “Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” or do not put off for an hour what you can do this minute. Very often we somehow put everything off, put it off, but we must try to overcome this evil habit of procrastination.
And another very good remedy, a proven remedy, is reading the Holy Fathers about these passions - about laziness and negligence. About any sin that torments us, we must read the Holy Fathers.
This also, of course, means reading the Holy Scriptures, especially the Gospel, you need to read, go deep, read it, and get used to it. And the same is true for the creations of the Holy Fathers, because they embodied the Gospel mind in their lives.
Laziness and negligence are essentially sins, grave sins, weakening and paralyzing a person, depriving him of the image of God; These sins must be treated with caution, in no case should you resign yourself to them, not tolerate them, but always fight, always overcome yourself, in order to somehow stay afloat and not fall into complete enslavement to these sins. And if a person strives for spiritual life, i.e. to prayer, to fulfilling Christ’s holy commandments, then he will still overcome laziness, overcome negligence; if a person does not strive for spiritual life, he will never overcome and get rid of these sins.
Saint John Chrysostom said: “Find the door of your own heart, and you will see that it is the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.” But just as it is often difficult for a person to open this door, it is difficult to change.
One of the shortcomings of church life in our time is that people, coming to church, only external in this way they change their lives, but do not begin the very difficult work on their soul, do not change their heart. We forget that external The churching of a person’s life means absolutely nothing in the eyes of God. Moreover, it becomes pharisaism if, along with acquiring the appearance of a “righteous” person, a “divine” person, we internally remain just as tough, intolerant of the shortcomings and weaknesses of others. And sometimes we behave like those notorious old women who, at one time, from the excess of their own “righteousness” drove many who thirsted for God out of the temple: when a young man or girl is not dressed like that, they light a candle in the wrong way, they bow in the wrong way. The Holy Fathers teach that you need to be very strict with yourself and merciful, knowing how to forgive others.
Everyone understands what physical laziness is, but what does spiritual laziness mean?
how to overcome it?
Spiritual laziness is when, when we confess, receive communion, get married, begin unction and other Sacraments, we believe that this is something that the Lord gives out of His mercy, just like a gift. And that the mere possession of the gifts of these Sacraments makes us virtuous. But a man simply because he formally took part in the Sacraments, as they say, “checked in”, does not gain anything. The only thing that is true is that this a person takes on a great share of responsibility for what the Lord gives. Nowadays, we often see an attitude towards the Sacraments as if they were some kind of medicine, some kind of pill. And many idle parishioners try to convince their friends to join this as soon as possible in order to solve their purely everyday problems. There is both guile and pride in this approach. In fact, if we go to God with a pure heart, then every step along the steps of spiritual improvement must be taken with the greatest trembling and reverence.
One of the ways to overcome spiritual inaction, spiritual laziness and formalism is our deeds for the benefit of our neighbor. The elders say that “the point is not how many prayers you read, but how many sick people you visited.” Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt, who called for unceasing prayer, warned that the devil would not instill in us the idea that our task is now only pray. And let us remember how many practical deeds he managed to accomplish for the glory of God, starting from his youth, when he constantly helped the poor find their way in working life, established monasteries throughout Russia, spiritual unions, and brotherhoods.
The Monk John Climacus has an appeal to the brethren, where he says,
that many grieve because they do not yet have the mantle, or the deaconship, or the priesthood: “Do not be sad. This will be given to you over time. But no one will give good deeds
».
Our delusion is due to the fact that we we are engaged in self-justification of my inaction: they say, when they give me something, when the opportunity arises, then I will be able to do a good deed. In fact, it is precisely in the position that a person has that he should be able to find joy and learn to work for the good of the Lord, the Fatherland and his neighbor.
However, there is a category of believers who try to shift their spiritual problems to the pastor, to the temple, to the monastery, believing that they will pray for them and they will receive what they ask for. But man himself must also stand up for himself before God. Everyone knows how to ask, but not everyone has the courage to ask themselves - is he worthy of what he asks for?, have you done everything for God? Many separate life and prayer without realizing that everyone's life should be one of continuous prayer
standing before God.
Every person must understand that on the spiritual path there are moments when everything rests only on inner will and composure. The example for us is the path of Christ. We must remember the words of the Gospel: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). A person sometimes asks in prayer - some for a good job, some for good luck in marriage, some for help in other needs.
When he receives it, he takes it for granted. But “to whom much is given, much will be required.” Therefore, we need to multiply our God-given talents and bear the fruits of prayer. A person who is not aware of this, as a rule, voluntarily or unwittingly
makes a lot of mistakes.
We must remember that the fullness of faith and the whole life in a regenerating society will depend on what we fill our inner world with, what we come to church with.
Light a lamp in your heart - and the world will change.
The apostles preached nothing less than the Risen Christ. Not the commandments of the Decalogue, not the Beatitudes, and not any other truths were at the forefront of their witness to the world. But enduring spiritual joy, Easter all-conquering grace,
which moved thousands around them to feats of martyrdom and confession. After all, our faith and our preaching of Christianity are in vain without Christ. truly Risen in our hearts,
without Him who is the Truth and the Life.
SPIRITUALITY AS RESPONSIBILITY
Father, I lost my wallet. This is the will of God
or maybe I'm just that absent-minded...
Most likely, you are the one who is absent-minded.
(From a parish conversation).
Even a superficial knowledge of the life realities of modern church society gives grounds to assert that, in addition to other sins so familiar to the ear, it seriously affected by the disease of irresponsibility.
Today is characterized by a general paralysis of seriousness, despite the fact that you can meet so many people who wander through life with faces that are comically serious. This applies not only to worldly, but also to church life. Today, among church people one can often find a deadening lack of initiative, a paralysis of the active manifestation of the human mind, creativity, and openness to the authentic, living, present.
A modern priest often has to deal with lethargic, infantile, unfocused, and extremely apathetic people. Many parishioners of churches (or residents of revived monasteries) partially or completely deprived of a sense of responsibility for their fate before God,
for the relationship with your confessor, for the life of your temple (or monastery), for the invariability of your chosen life path.
Irresponsibility is very clearly visible in the verbal formulations of their sins that people bring to confession: “I can’t help myself. I can’t help but be discouraged (I can’t leave my favorite sin, I can’t help but snap back, I can’t humble myself, I can’t react calmly when they make comments to me)... I can’t!”
"I can not!" means that a person refuses before God to recognize himself as the cause and culprit of his own falls.
Recently, a huge amount of literature of a religious and philosophical direction has been published, in which one can find a lot of discussions about freedom and “human rights”; about which is better: “by blessing” or “by advice”; about what the confessor has the right and what he does not have the right to. But very little is said about the responsibility of the believer himself.
Irresponsibility can be expressed in different ways. Here, for example, is the most striking and characteristic case. One nun, having come to obedience in the morning, discovered that her partner had not come out for some reason. In the evening, returning to her cell, she shared her “joy” with her fellow cellmate: “Thank God, she was not at obedience today, otherwise I would certainly have lost my temper.” In what language should I explain to her that Is each person responsible for his own failures?
You can often encounter confusion and confusion between the concepts of personal responsibility and God's Providence. How often do people like to shift responsibility for their actions and for their lives onto God: “God allowed it,” “God did not bless" Too often a person's use of these beautiful expressions as an excuse means unwillingness to accept responsibility for one's destiny and one's actions. If you didn't bother , you didn’t put in enough effort, you weren’t able to, for example, pass an exam (pay off your debts on time or save your own family from falling apart), is God really to blame for this?
The will of God and the Providence of God certainly operate in the life of every person, each of us. But if following the will of God, the Providence of God were meaningless and passive floating with the flow, then in the history of the Church there would not have been a wonderful Christian statehood, monasteries and churches would not have been built, and the apostolic sermon would not have been heard. Christianity would have dried up and not reached
of our time, if previous generations had covered up their own passivity and irresponsibility with such a high style.
During their lives, thanks to hundreds and thousands of human confessions, modern pastors meet with a huge number of people who, in one way or another, very competently (as it seems to them, from a theological point of view) justify their avoidance of responsibility.
Here are a few typical examples of irresponsibility, sometimes packaged in correct, beautiful, completely religious formulas and formulations:
- “I won’t be able to do this” - unwillingness to take responsibility for the assigned task;
- “The Lord did not allow...” - sometimes a person simply did not want to take responsibility and failed the case, blaming God for it;
- “If it doesn’t work out, it means it’s not God’s will” - true, like the previous statement, if a person bothered to do everything in his power
.
These words in themselves are beautiful, but be careful: look where they come from. Irresponsibility is often hidden beneath them..
One of the most striking examples of avoiding responsibility is sinful uncontrollable behavior that has become a norm and habit for many people. Justification (psychological defense with which a person justifies his sinful act, see VOICE OF THE monastery No. 4 - 6 for 2007) sounds like this: “I didn’t want this, this is my passion, I can’t help it, it’s stronger than me.” .
Another characteristic self-justification: “the devil has fooled me.” Those. I made a vow not to smoke, not to drink, not to fornicate, not to be irritated, not to be discouraged, and so on. During confession I repented and promised the priest to improve, but suddenly the demon “took me astray” again.
What a person is responsible for before God himself falls on the demons who are with us cannot do anything without our knowledge and our will.
The lie in this situation is that a person claims that his passion is something independent of himself.
Another formula for avoiding responsibility is transferring it to another person. Having a confessor, people shift my responsibility for their the fall and for their life's mistakes are on him. This kind of maneuver can be observed in the lives of many, many people.
A person, believing that he completely surrenders himself in obedience to his spiritual father, under the guise of renouncing his will, he practically refuses responsibility for his decisions and actions. Although in fact, by obedience, many mean a feeling of security, the awareness that the confessor cares about you, the assumption that if you do not pray, the confessor will do it for you, and the like; but as soon as the confessor begins to point out the true sins and shortcomings of a person, a storm of indignation, resentment and indignation will arise. Those who come to confession are confident that the priest, who, in his opinion, is “responsible” for him, will accept him, take pity on him, read a prayer of permission, allow him to take communion, and thereby, as it were, confirm the normality and legitimacy of his sinful behavior.
At confession, such people literally dump all their problems onto the priest’s shoulders. Moreover they don’t talk about how they themselves are trying to resolve, untie their life knots, because, more often than not, they simply unlearned (or never knew how) to do it on their own. They are waiting for confession, waiting for a meeting with the priest, sometimes they ask how to deal with sins, but in reality they do not want to resist sin. As soon as it comes to the real work of combating passions, it turns out that they have absolutely no intention of doing it. The priest gives them a small penance - to read a small book or make a few bows... At the next confession it turns out that they cannot find time for this! If some kind of internal work occurs in them, then only in the presence of a confessor.
In order to find an excuse for irresponsibility, one’s own unwillingness to be responsible for one’s thoughts, feelings and actions, there is a very interesting excuse among church people. A person who does not want to make a responsible decision, to live responsibly, finds justification for his own irresponsibility in the wonderful and deeply spiritual principle of obedience. In the modern church environment, this has resulted in the classic formula: “As you bless...”. And here it is important to understand: when it is really about obedience, and when it is about unwillingness to accept responsibility for a particular decision.
Taking responsibility for your life is identical to the richness of living this life. A confessor can help a person realize that by accepting responsibility for every emotion, every movement, every action and ceasing to place it on other people, he gains the fullness of living his own life.
A blessing is considered as a good word from a confessor, relying on a person’s responsible decision. Behind the words “how bless you” (the words themselves are beautiful, the formulation of the question is beautiful!) very often hides simply a reluctance to decide for yourself, to think for yourself. Therefore, if you look at the fate of modern shepherds, then most often all day long they spend their days solving the issues of their flock, right and left, having nothing to do with the actual
spiritual life. You can often see spiritual children literally “hanging” on their confessors. Issues of their personal lives, in their opinion, should be resolved by pastors, since under the pretext of “living in complete obedience,” the children have completely forgotten how to take responsibility.
In the modern church environment, unfortunately, quite often there are people who tirelessly repeat “how you bless,” hiding behind these words their reluctance to take responsibility for their own lives, for their own thoughts and actions.
A person who has fallen into despondency can hardly be called passionate. Passion is a strong desire, but in a state of apathy you don’t want to do anything. Orthodox priests warn: despondency and laziness are not only a strong passion, but also imperceptibly undermine a person’s spiritual strength.
Laziness is not considered a sin by many: from the outside it seems that there is no harm from it. A lazy person is harmless and will not be seriously condemned. But in Orthodoxy they point out the connection between unwillingness to work and despondency as identical states.
How and why does the sin of laziness appear?
In our culture, it is common to experience negative feelings when there are troubles in life. And really, what can you be happy about when problems arise in the family or at work? And when trouble comes to the house, it is completely inappropriate.
If lust, anger, and gluttony are condemned by society, then a depressed person also receives bonuses in the form of pity from others.
If we consider the causes of apathy, we can see the relationship between despondency and laziness.
In a state of depression, a person loses confidence in his abilities and lacks faith in Divine Providence due to laziness. The motivation to change something disappears, also due to laziness, and a feeling of the meaninglessness of life sets in.
They say that it takes three years to learn hard work, but three days to become lazy. If you spend time in idleness for a long time, indulge in this bad habit, it is very difficult to pull yourself together again and stop being lazy.
Spiritual laziness is a mortal sin
Despair creeps into the souls of even deeply religious people. There is a reluctance to read prayers, participate in church life, and laziness prevents you from going to church on Sunday.
At the same time, outwardly they cannot be called lazy - people strive to do anything, just not spiritual practices. Such self-deception is much worse than simply not wanting to do physical work.
Advice. Prayer is a very good remedy for laziness. Have you felt lazy in some matters? Stand in front of the icon and start praying to Alexander of Rome and St. Tikhon for depression!
Of course, one should distinguish negligence from a state of emptiness; it can be caused by physical fatigue, an overabundance of information and emotional burnout. In the latter case, you must definitely ask for help from specialists, spiritual fathers or loved ones.
Consequences of mental illness
The consequences of “harmless” feelings are far from innocent:
- Negligent work practices can cause death.
- Carelessness in financial matters leads to the collapse of the enterprise.
- Reluctance to create relationships leads to divorce.
- Depressive states are a direct path to psychosomatic diseases, of which the lion's share of the total number of all ailments: cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
How to gain strength for life?
To distinguish laziness from fatigue, you need to find out the reasons for the negative state, be attentive and honest with yourself. Not only Christians, but also everyone who wants to improve their quality of life and get rid of laziness should learn to work on themselves. The best prayers for laziness are a prayer to Alexander of Rome and a prayer for depression to Saint Tikhon.
Both psychologists and the fathers of the Orthodox Church consider helping one’s neighbor as salvation from laziness and depression. Look around, there are so many disadvantaged people around. It's pointless to feel sorry for people when reading news reports.
Maybe there is someone in the next apartment who needs help. Even a simple mental wish for happiness and goodness to your neighbors can improve the state of apathy.
If you don’t have the strength and faith, you still need to pray. Even a little but constant work on yourself, patience and constant compulsion to work will help you overcome the terrible temptation of laziness, which sometimes leads to irreparable mistakes.
K.V.D.
Someone said: “Genius is work.” Ecclesiastes says: “All things are in labor” (1:8).
The twentieth century in which we live is called the atomic century, but I would also add that it is the century of the lazy. Today they don’t want to have many children because they are afraid of work; there is no one to live in the villages because they need to work there. Today, talking about work means talking about unpleasant things.
God placed man in the Garden of Eden “to cultivate and keep it” (Gen. 2:15). Before the Fall, work was pleasure for man. It was mutual creativity with God Himself. After the Fall, work became hard, exhausting, inevitable. “Cursed is the earth for your sake; you will eat from it in sorrow all the days of your life. It will bring forth thorns and thistles for you... by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread...” (Genesis 3:17-19).
How much labor perishes from drought, floods, hail, and frost! There is now a lot of improved technology for cultivating land and harvesting crops. But in order to create these machines, and then use them to harvest bread - a lot of sweat! The work is intense, exhausting work! And as it was thousands of years ago, under Moses, it remains so. The best time for a person is labor and illness (Ps. 89:10).
Labor is a school. He teaches us patience and order. Work is medicine. Not a single sloth lived to a ripe old age. Today, many people need this medicine for serious illnesses.
I heard a story about a childless rich man who was looking for a boy to adopt him and leave him all his property. One day a boy came to him. The rich man, in order to find out what he was like, instructed him to sort all kinds of pieces of iron in a box in the attic. The boy did some digging and, being lazy, quit his job. “The box is large, the pieces of iron are heavy and worthless,” he explained.
The next day another teenager came and received the same task. Lunch time came, and the boy was still diligently puffing, putting nuts in one direction and bolts in the other. The owner waited some more time and asked: “Is it ready?” - “No, but I’ll finish soon!” And only in the evening the boy carefully sorted the randomly lying pieces of iron.
Mister! - the little worker turned, - I did my best. And here’s another find: at the bottom of the box was this gold coin!
He handed it to the owner.
Of course, the boy was hardworking, and also honest! The owner liked him, and he without hesitation bequeathed all his savings to him.
But let's talk about spiritual laziness. Isn't it true that the Laodicean church is like the lazy owner of the vineyard that Solomon spoke about - Prov. 24, 30-34? The Laodicean slept a little, dozed a little, lay down a little with folded arms - and now his spiritual vineyard was overgrown with thorns of cruelty, the nettles of indifference drowned out all the works of mercy, and the stone fence of hope was destroyed to the ground. The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and will find lazy Christians unprepared and plunge them into fiery hell.
“Because of laziness the ceiling will sag, and when hands give up, the house will leak” (Ec. 10:18). Yes, because of spiritual laziness, holy life will decline, and a stream of carnal thoughts will flow into the heart of a Christian, everything alien, destroying, rendering his spiritual home unusable will flow.
It is spiritual laziness that has so afflicted the church today. We do not study the Holy Scriptures - spiritual laziness; We don’t strive in prayers - spiritual laziness! We refuse to bear the cross of suffering - it’s still the same spiritual laziness! Neither cold nor hot - warm! “But because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:16). What a terrible ending! And in order to restore order, one cannot do without work. And the more labor expended, the greater the success and fruit. Without labor, even the given salvation can be lost. Only those who use effort delight the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 11:12).
The spiritually lazy is not a child in Christ and not weak in the faith, who is tolerated, accepting without disputes of opinion (Rom. 14: 1). Spiritual laziness eats away at wicked people, who know better than others how to strive in the cause of God. That is why the fate of the lazy is so terrible.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
"Messenger of Truth" No. 3. 1985
Where does laziness come from? What does the future hold for the lazy? How to get rid of this vice? Archpriest Alexander Avdyugin reflects.
Father, I’m a sinner, laziness overcomes me.
So fight it.
I can’t, father, I’m lazy.
The statement “I have God in my soul,” familiar to many, is just an everyday excuse for ordinary laziness. Just not the one that comes from the principle “it will do as it is!”, but the other - the reluctance to leave the bliss and pleasure of one’s own body.
In order to look “spectacular” in appearance, to smell like Dior, to have jewelry sparkle unobtrusively, and to have the labels of leading companies visible in the folds of clothes, laziness is usually absent. Everything will be done for the next “ah!” girlfriends or “cool!” colleague.
You have enough strength, you have the means, and you don’t need to add an extra hour to the day.
But as soon as the priest advises you to buy a prayer book and pray religiously every day, and even go to church sometimes, then it immediately becomes clear that you have neither the time, nor the funds, and you don’t have enough health.
The intellectual Tolstoyan habit of saying that God is in my soul, that we, civilized people, do not need intermediaries in the person of a priest, corrupts not only the soul, but also the body. Yes, and it cannot be otherwise! After all, prayer requires effort, and considerable effort. Our people have a good statement on this matter, with which it is difficult to disagree. Here it is:
There are three hardest things in life. The first is to repay debts. The second is to care for elderly parents. The third thing is to pray to God.
In fact, failure to do these three things are serious sins that become “mortal” if you do not repent of them and get rid of them.
Spiritual laziness is a contagious thing, it is spreading everywhere, and the rate of its spread is by no means inferior to any swine and bird flu. In a family where the concepts of God and faith are limited only to discussions about morality and ethics, the Bible is just a beautiful book on a shelf, and an icon is the decoration of an apartment, in the very near future there will be an infection of those whom we consider our heirs.
The next generation of this family will definitely replace the word of God with its popular presentation with pictures, and the icon there will begin to coexist with a shaman’s mask or the next blue horse of the next calendar year.
They try to give abstruse explanations of spiritual laziness, to bring philosophical, social and even political meaning into it. Concepts such as tolerance, syncretism, cosmopolitanism, globalization (you can still find a dozen) are by no means scientific definitions, subject only to the modern educated mind and characterizing a person and society. Not at all. Each of these words came from an elementary and primitive desire to justify one’s own spiritual laziness.
Laziness itself, as such, is a manifestation of lethargy and inaction. It's easier to deal with. You can get rid of it with advice and examples. For example, the wise Solomon advises following the example of the hardworking ant:
Go to the ant, slothful one, look at its actions, and be wise. He has neither a boss, nor a guardian, nor a master; but he prepares his grain in the summer, and gathers his food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, lazy man? when will you arise from your sleep? (Prov. 6:6–9)
Good admonition helps against laziness when you clearly explain that you are a burden and useless to others. Laziness can be cured quite well when you convince a sloth that he is simply stupid and lacking in intelligence:
I passed the field of a lazy man and the vineyard of a weak-minded man: and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns, its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone fence collapsed. And I looked, and turned my heart, and looked, and learned a lesson (Prov. 24:30-32).
You can, of course, find more radical, a kind of surgical methods of getting rid of this defect, but due to the rise of juvenile justice from spiritual laziness, I will not give them in detail here. Whoever wants to know the recipes, I refer you to a good book with a very kind and practical title: “Domostroy”. There is another effective remedy: ask your grandparents how and who helped them get rid of the sins of laziness...
It's worse when laziness becomes a vice. It, like drunkenness, is often a symptom of a more serious spiritual illness, which in the face of others, by hook or by crook, they try to hide or justify. It will not be possible to hide for a long time, there is nothing secret that will not become apparent, says Scripture, and justification will only lead to the spread of sin and will predetermine other actions that are by no means of God’s origin. All the troubles of these days, all the negative vicissitudes that haunt us today in personal and social life, are the consequences of attempts to justify spiritual laziness.
In the end, laziness leads to a terrible desire: to get rid of the need to think, make decisions and be responsible for them.
The result is sad:
Laziness, open it, you'll burn!
I’ll burn, but I won’t open it...