Practicality. Efficiency.
Usefulness.
These are all
attributes that most people value highly.
In our day and our society, they make a product more valuable, and often
contribute to our decisions to how we spend our days. We choose to do what is practical in the most efficient
manner possible, so that our results are useful
to ourselves and others. Sometimes, we use these criteria because we
feel we have no choice – some things we would like to do have to be dropped
from our schedule, or our budget, because they are not practical, wouldn’t be
an efficient use of our resources, and no useful product or result would be
obtained.
It is hard to think
of a time of year when we are more likely to make hard decisions using these
criteria than right now, what our modern society has come to call The
Holidays. There is so much that we hope
to do, want to do, have to do, that we just cannot do it all. Some things simply must be done; and some
things must be allowed to slide -- they don’t make the cut. Even the parties we choose to attend have to withstand
the test of practicality, efficiency, and usefulness.
I understand. Really, I do.
My inner German, my training as a professional analyst, my dread of
waste; all make me a sucker for such decision-making processes. However, please allow me to take the
opportunity to beg you: Do not to fall for this!
The counter-example I
offer you is: snuggle time with your child.
This clearly does not fall on the winning side of the
practicality/efficiency/usefulness contest.
Yet, somehow, it carries its own imperative, and bears its inarguable
rewards. Whether the child chatters
aimlessly the whole time, asks a Big Question (Daddy, why do people die?), or just falls asleep, it has an
immeasurable value. I don’t think I have
to explain to you or verify how this complete
waste of time confirms and strengthens the identities and relationship of
both participants.
The Sacred Liturgy of
the Church similarly fails completely when put to the test for
practicality/efficiency/usefulness.
Absolutely nothing is accomplished, and in fact much is lost. Heck, at a good one, some of our best things
get burnt up! Whether you spend the time
reeling off seemingly unconnected preoccupations to God, ask Him a Big
Question, or simply settle into a restful peace, this time “squandered” bears
great fruit in ordering your life rightly according to your identity and
relationship with God and everyone else.
There is nothing
practical or productive about worship. Many
words are said, but very little new information is conveyed. The “Good News” isn’t that new, really. Much is done, but little is
accomplished. And there are long periods
of just ...being there. Gack! How unbearably inefficient and ...useless! What’s worse, it requires pouring out before
God our precious time and vital essence, strewing the floor with our treasures,
littering His place with our concerns. That
simply doesn’t rate much in a busy society, especially in its busiest month,
December.
But right now is
precisely when our worship teaches us that we will never know who we are and
who He is, unless we put aside all our tasks and priorities for silence,
stillness, and waiting. It’s an
audacious request, but He never fails to deliver on His promise.
Remember that if you
are trying to decide if you can “afford” to attend Mass. The formerly fashionable concept of “quality
time” never really filled the bill with toddlers, or with God. He offers us holy time, if we only embrace its inefficiency,
impracticality, and uselessness.
Monsignor
Smith
