This carving was completed next to last in the series. "Sloth" or laziness, is rather hard to depict. But my friend and fellow carver, "ID" was up to the task. For about half an hour we took a number of photos, with only mediocre results. Sitting in a warm studio made ID a little drowzy, and he felt the urge to yawn. At the peak of his yawn I exclaimed "That's it! HOLD IT THERE!!", which of course ID was unable to do. It took a few more attempts to capture his yawn until we realized that something was still missing from the otherwise excellent digital images. In a flash of genius, ID grabbed his now-empty coffee cup and spit his dentures into it. I was a little taken back by this, but with his encouragement we proceeded to take another picture. The very next image revealed this wonderful expression of "sloth". Thank you for your creative input, ID!
The Sin
The virtue which stands opposite to the sin of sloth is "zeal". One who has zeal is committed, active, industrious and filled with the desire to do what is right and good. The slothful person is just the opposite. This is worse than apathy, which can be improved with a healthy dose of compassion. "Sloth" involves opting out of life. It abdicates its responsibility. It is lazy and unproductive. It results in exceedingly poor stewardship of the God-given gifts of vocation, health, relationships, possessions, opportunities, abilities and callings, to name only a few. As such it is completely wasteful and ungrateful.
Since the qualities of faith, hope and love, the three greatest virtues, take so much work on a person's part to develop and thrive, slothful persons are essentially devoid of these virtues. They are useless in God's kingdom and a liability to humanity, contributing nothing to the lives of others around them, and returning nothing for the investment God and others have made in them.
