|
Objection 1: It would seem that despair does not arise from sloth.
Because different causes do not give rise to one same effect. Now
despair of the future life arises from lust, according to Gregory
(Moral. xxxi, 45). Therefore it does not arise from sloth.
Objection 2: Further, just as despair is contrary to hope, so is
sloth contrary to spiritual joy. But spiritual joy arises from hope,
according to Rm. 12:12, "rejoicing in hope." Therefore sloth
arises from despair, and not vice versa.
Objection 3: Further, contrary effects have contrary causes. Now
hope, the contrary of which is despair, seems to proceed from the
consideration of Divine favors, especially the Incarnation, for
Augustine says (De Trin. xiii, 10): "Nothing was so
necessary to raise our hope, than that we should be shown how much God
loves us. Now what greater proof could we have of this than that
God's Son should deign to unite Himself to our nature?" Therefore
despair arises rather from the neglect of the above consideration than
from sloth.
On the contrary, Gregory (Moral. xxxi, 45) reckons despair
among the effects of sloth.
I answer that, As stated above (Question 17, Article 1;
FS, Question 40, Article 1), the object of hope is a good,
difficult but possible to obtain by oneself or by another.
Consequently the hope of obtaining happiness may be lacking in a person
in two ways: first, through his not deeming it an arduous good;
secondly, through his deeming it impossible to obtain either by
himself, or by another. Now, the fact that spiritual goods taste
good to us no more, or seem to be goods of no great account, is
chiefly due to our affections being infected with the love of bodily
pleasures, among which, sexual pleasures hold the first place: for
the love of those pleasures leads man to have a distaste for spiritual
things, and not to hope for them as arduous goods. In this way
despair is caused by lust.
On the other hand, the fact that a man deems an arduous good
impossible to obtain, either by himself or by another, is due to his
being over downcast, because when this state of mind dominates his
affections, it seems to him that he will never be able to rise to any
good. And since sloth is a sadness that casts down the spirit, in
this way despair is born of sloth.
Now this is the proper object of hope---that the thing is possible,
because the good and the arduous regard other passions also. Hence
despair is born of sloth in a more special way: though it may arise
from lust, for the reason given above.
This suffices for the Reply to the First Objection.
Reply to Objection 2: According to the Philosopher (Rhet. i,
11), just as hope gives rise to joy, so, when a man is joyful he
has greater hope: and, accordingly, those who are sorrowful fall the
more easily into despair, according to 2 Cor. 2:7: "Lest . .
. such an one be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow." Yet, since the
object of hope is good, to which the appetite tends naturally, and
which it shuns, not naturally but only on account of some supervening
obstacle, it follows that, more directly, hope gives birth to joy,
while on the contrary despair is born of sorrow.
Reply to Objection 3: This very neglect to consider the Divine
favors arises from sloth. For when a man is influenced by a certain
passion he considers chiefly the things which pertain to that passion:
so that a man who is full of sorrow does not easily think of great and
joyful things, but only of sad things, unless by a great effort he
turn his thoughts away from sadness.
|
|