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Are you that person who arrives late to every meeting? Are you always running 10 minutes or more behind to church, to dates, or to lunch appointments with friends—maybe to the point where people tell you you’ll be late to your own funeral? What's going on with that?
Aleteia asked Fr. Leonardo Salutati, a theologian and professor of social ethics at the Theology Faculty of Central Italy at Florence to comment on this problem. He explains:
If we’re habitually late, it can be frustrating for the people around us. It’s annoying, but is it a sin? From a psychological perspective, since it can have “an unconscious origin,” being late “has no connection to sin which, as such, requires full awareness of sin and the deliberate will to commit it,” Fr. Salutati explains.
It’s a different case if the chronic lateness “is caused by a conscious lack of attention towards others.” Indeed, the theologian emphasizes, “there’s a general duty of charity towards others, which is at the root of our living together in society, and it includes putting what we have at the disposal of others, including our time.”
In such a case, lateness can even be a sin. Fr. Leonardo concludes,
So, if you’re habitually late, maybe it’s time for some introspection to identify the causes and see how to address them. It will be psychologically and spiritually beneficial for you—and your friends and colleagues will thank you, too.
