The Wild Land Within by Lisa Colón DeLay

Author:Lisa Colón DeLay [DeLay, Lisa Colón]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL012120 Religion / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, REL012070 Religion / Christian Life / Personal Growth, OCC012000 Body, Mind & Spirit / Mysticism
Publisher: Broadleaf Books

6. Acedia

I find acedia—otherwise known as despondency or listlessness—to be one of the most intriguing and prominent afflicting thoughts today. Remarkably, Evagrius noticed that this one reaches full potency between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. He claimed that it makes the day seem fifty hours long. In the desert, acedia (Greek, akedía) was commonly called the “noonday demon” because it attacked people at their weakest moment: during the hottest time of the day when nothing amusing was happening.7 Acedia can accumulate into other troubles—like sadness, dejected nostalgia, anxiety, and frustration—and then expand into sins of sloth or wrath.

One day, an ascetic might start out with what we might call “a case of the blahs” during a boring stretch of the morning. But then things would fester into irritating restlessness. When everything seemed dull, prayer could become tiresome, and then boredom or exasperation would set in. An ascetic might grow agitated and feel powerless too.

We’ve all been there—maybe while waiting for an important occasion, or during a monotonous meeting or class in school, or while moving through an extended project after the shine has long worn off. We want to shrug off our situations and move on instead of toughing them out and remaining committed.

In this case, we can better understand an afflicting thought by looking at its opposite. We can better understand acedia by going in the opposite direction for a moment: to worship. In worship, we are self-forgetting. Worship can often bring us toward heights of joy or relief. Why? Because for a time, we stop a certain kind of thinking in which we are planted and functioning at the center of our own worlds. In contrast, our attention and adoration during worship move outward to our Maker and Sustainer. This sets things back in order. For me, when “put in my right place,” as it were, the focus of my attention is not on my desire. In substance, acedia is the opposite of self-forgetting and spiritual joy.

Plenty of acedia is observable in ourselves and our peers, though we might never realize it as such. For some, acedia might be experienced as spiritual torpor, characterized by listlessness, ennui, fatigue, and a lack of interest in matters that we used to find satisfying. In Latin, the word acedia is the same as the word for “negligence.” Left unabated, acedia can make our outcomes negligent ones because we abandon our best efforts. In the weather system of acedia, we might experience low energy. We may sense our own aimlessness or feel our determination dwindling. This inner weather can make us question our decisions and commitments. We may grow discontented.

Certain cultures can make this weather front of acedia worse. In the United States, for instance, there is much focus on individualism: finding our true callings and pursuing our desires and dreams. So we may think that our paths should be filled with excitement and satisfaction. Doing anything well—schooling, parenting, acquiring an athletic or musical skill, creating a useful product, writing a book—almost always takes time and effort.

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