Spiritual Lethargy
I would like, on this day, to speak to you about a spiritual subject that concerns us all, namely spiritual lethargy.
What is lethargy? What are its causes? And what are the ways of treating it? This is the subject of our talk.
There is no spiritual life that proceeds in one straight line throughout one’s entire life, without turning, or in continuous ascent without stopping. Rather, spiritual life often contains periods of lethargy, even for the saints.
However, lethargy has levels. What is lethargy for the saints may be high peaks that we have not yet reached.
And in the life of one person, a period of lethargy in his spiritual maturity may be higher than previous states in his life…
However, we must investigate and see whether this lethargy is original or incidental in his life… Is his entire life characterized by spiritual fervor, except for periods of lethargy? Or is lethargy the prevailing characteristic, while fervor is only occasional periods in life?
And is this lethargy by his own will, or because of battles outside him? Is it the result of his negligence? Or the result of external pressures?
Let us now examine the causes of lethargy and see how it fights the soul…
1- One of the causes of lethargy is distance from the fervor of repentance:
The person who is newly repentant lives in the impulse of fervor that brought him out of the darkness of sin into the knowledge of God. But he may not preserve this fervor permanently. The farther the days take him, perhaps he forgets his sins, forgets his humiliation and falls, forgets the grace that rescued him, and loses his first fervor..! His reproach of himself disappears, his contrition disappears, and life carries him away, so he forgets.
But the Prophet David preserved his fervor, because his sin was before him at all times; he wept over it and wet his bed with his tears, so he did not lose his fervor.
Likewise was the tax collector who was newly repentant, when he considered himself unworthy to enter the temple, and unworthy to raise his eyes upward. In the fervor of repentance, he beat his chest and cried, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am a sinner”… But you, if you have moved away from the feelings of repentance and your life has grown cold, listen to Saint Isaac as he advises, saying: “Then remember Mary in her fornication, and remember Israel in his defeat.” Sit with yourself, remember how much you wounded the heart of the Lord, and weep over your sins.
Sometimes distance from the fervor of repentance causes lethargy because of distance from the effect of the causes that drove the person to repentance.
The motive for repentance may be the effect of a particular event, illness, death, trial, fear of divine punishment, being affected by a spiritual person, or by meetings or readings… With the passage of time, this effect diminishes, or is forgotten, or disappears, so the heart falls into lethargy because of its distance from the fervor of repentance.
At the same time, the person has not reached the fervor of love. Thus, he becomes distant from both fervors: the fervor of repentance and the fervor of love.
2- Another cause of lethargy is distance from spiritual bonds…
Distance from the means of grace, from spiritual readings, meditations, prayers, spiritual meetings, hymns and melodies, prostrations, Divine Liturgies, and spiritual friendships.
At the same time, the world has poured its influences upon him, without there being a balance of spiritual influences to counter them.
And as he loses his spiritual nourishment, and as he moves away from spiritual influences and from the springs of grace, then his life grows cold, as he has moved away from the spiritual fuel that used to kindle it continually.
So you must review yourself: have you neglected any of the spiritual bonds that drive you toward God, remind you of Him, and give you strength?
3- Another cause of lethargy is the cessation of spiritual growth.
Growth gives fervor, because it contains continuous movement forward. It is the fervor of progress that ignites a person with the strong desire to reach. And the person whose spiritual growth stops, his fervor stops, and he grows cold. This happens when he becomes satisfied with a certain level, stops there, does not move, and his life freezes at this state.
The Christian perfection to which the Lord called us by saying, “Be perfect,” has no limit to its end; therefore, we must run toward it with all fervor…
Look at the Apostle Paul: in every struggle for the sake of the Gospel, in the abundance of his revelations, in his ascent to the third heaven, and in all that God granted him of powers and wonders, he used to say: “Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.” And this reaching forward preserved his spiritual fervor. He used to say concerning this: “I do not consider that I have apprehended or attained anything, but I strive that I may apprehend.” This striving gives the soul continuous movement, and kindles it with spiritual desire, so that it continues in its growth without lethargy.
Therefore, beware lest your growth stop. Be like the battery which, as the vehicle moves, its charge increases, so it receives heat and gives heat to the vehicle, causing it to move forward…
4- Another cause of lethargy is formal worship:
When worship turns into a routine, without understanding, without spirit, without emotion, without meditation, as though it were merely a duty or an obligation.
The cause may also be paying attention to quantity without paying attention to depth.
Some repentants want to pray a greater quantity, so they hurry in prayer, without pausing for meditation or understanding. Their concern with quantity does not give them an opportunity for depth. The same situation applies to spiritual readings and memorization…
Thus their prayers grow cold, because the desire for increase has prevailed, rather than the heart’s love to enjoy God.
How beautiful is the saying of the Apostle Paul that he prefers five words with understanding to ten thousand words with the tongue without understanding. (1 Cor. 14).
And how beautiful is the saying of Saint Isaac, that when a person is attacked by such a matter, he should stop it, saying: “I did not stand before God in order to count words, but to pray.”
5- Among the causes of lethargy sometimes are the first supports!
The first supports may be an obvious cause of lethargy, as a person loses his humility and his concern for himself and his spiritual life.
Previously, he would enter the church with a contrite soul, feeling unworthiness, and pray fervently, asking for mercy. But now he is one of the leaders, and the feeling of concern for others may overwhelm him, even if he forgets himself in the process…! Previously, he would read in order to benefit, meditate, and apply what he read to himself in spiritual exercises. But now perhaps he reads in order to prepare a sermon or deliver a lesson!
In his spiritual readings, he changes from a worshipper into a scholar or teacher!
Perhaps he becomes occupied with research and studies that have no relation to the salvation of his soul. Rather, they are necessary for delivering some of his lectures… And little by little these studies may overwhelm him, and he neglects his own meditations, and so he grows cold.
The first supports may also tire him through people’s praise, which makes him forget his sins and causes him to lose his contrition, and he grows cold…
6- Thus, one of the causes of lethargy may also be the entrance of people into his life.
People may enter into a person’s spiritual life and cause fundamental changes as a result of his concern for their opinions and judgments… They may consider his growth to be extremism, his carefulness to be scrupulosity, and his concern to be complication. They demand that he change, and he accommodates people, and so he grows cold…
Previously, he practiced virtue out of love for goodness and love for God Himself. Now he practices virtue in order to be an example for people! And he stays away from evil—not because it separates him from God—but so that people may not stumble!
Thus, by changing or deviating from the spiritual goal, the life of this repentant person grows cold, because the fervor of divine love has moved away from it, and other goals have entered it, and God is no longer everything in everything..!!
7- Thus, deviation of the spiritual goal also becomes one of the causes of lethargy:
As when worship becomes an example, or becomes merely a habit or obligation, or the goal becomes pleasing people or merely caring for them, and service itself becomes a goal rather than merely a means. God and the relationship with Him no longer become the center of thought and heart…
8- Another cause of lethargy is excessive busyness:
We live in a busy world. Most people are constantly occupied, whether with study or work, means of livelihood, or various areas of activity! In this busyness, they have no time left for the Lord and for their spiritual lives.
Unfortunately, we see many religious people and servants extremely busy; they too find no time to spend with God!!
Service has consumed all their time. Their activities have occupied all their thoughts and all their emotions. Perhaps if the Lord knocked at their doors, they would say to Him: “Go now, and when we have time, we will call for You”!!
For the sake of the Lord they entered service, but in service they forgot the Lord, and remembered only the service; and in its busyness their lives grew cold…
Few are those who sit with themselves and examine where they are. And they distribute their time properly between their spiritual lives and their services…
Yet the cause of lethargy may perhaps be a sin or a desire.
This entered the person, took love away from him, occupied the love, and God was no longer the center of affection within him. Because of this desire, the first fervor grew cold and the spiritual life turned into lethargy…
Let every lethargic person search himself: is there a sin crouching within him to which he has given his longing, and which has come to rule over him, and occupied the place of God in his heart? If so, let him repent of it and flee from it, so that his fervor may return…
Search for the cause of your lethargy, for the Scripture says: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent.” Perhaps the cause is some pride.
Perhaps you have thought yourself to be something, and as your life rose after repentance, your heart also became lifted up. So God lifted His grace from you, so that you might feel your weakness and become humble. And thus He allowed you to experience lethargy…!
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III — in El-Keraza Magazine — Ninth Year (Issue Twenty-Seven), 7-7-1978
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