You May Need to Sit for This

The three Readings for today's Liturgy, Tuesday October 8, all point to one central idea: There is need to sit down patiently before the Lord. Ordinarily speaking, sitting is the opposite of standing. When we stand as bipeds, we position ourselves erect on two legs. When we sit on the other hand, we place our buttocks on a chair or something, and bend our bodies to fit the seat. Standing is a sign that we are active: we know, and we do. It is a form of entelechy. Standing is a form of certainty. Sitting on the other hand is a humbler position than standing. When we sit, we seem to be expecting something; like when we sit to wait for the bus, or to receive news. Especially grave or sad news. Many of you may recall that when someone comes to us and says "you may need to sit for this," the message they bring to us is likely very grave. We sit then because we are afraid, so afraid that we suppose we might faint; and no one wants to faint while standing. Better to be closer to the floor when you drop to it: less injury; less impact; less pain. And so we sit.

 

In the First Reading of today, Jonah eventually went according to the command of the Lord to Nineveh, to preach to the people there. The reading tells us that Nineveh was a large city that took three days to circumference. The reading further tells us that Jonah had gone about the city for only one day preaching repentance when the citizens repented. They sat in sackcloth and ashes. Not just the people neither, but also the king. They sat down in grief, mourning their sins. They were convicted of the gravity and sadness of their iniquity, and so they sat down to listen to Jonah's message of repentance, and also to pray to God in humility for pardon and peace. They sat. They did not stay standing or worse begin walking about, up and down and up and down, as if ignoring Jonah or disdaining his message. No. They sat down in grief, listening and praying. They all sat.

 

I once knew a girl who was semi-illiterate. One day I asked her a question. I said: "Would you rather be a doctor that returns home late from work everyday, having spent the day walking all about attending to stuff, or would you like to be a housewife that sits at home and minds the house?" She looked at me with a supercilious sneer and quipped: "I want to be a doctor that came work late, begin going up and down!" (sic). I laughed, but not just at her terrible - absolutely dreadful in fact - use of the English language. I laughed because she captured the spirit of the day. Young people nowadays are so full of their own importance that they seek opportunities to ensure that everyone else understands how important they are. No one is slow these days; everyone is in a rush - rushing up and down, and left and right, and everywhere. No one is taking things easy. Everyone is interested in the frantic gadding about. Everyone is preoccupied.

 

Like Martha in the Gospel reading of today. Jesus went to Bethany to visit his friends. Mary and Martha were at home. When they welcomed Jesus into their home, Martha remained standing on her two feet and promptly began walking about, doing this and doing that; fixing this and fixing that; making this and making that, like a busy bee. She was the perfect hostess, the perfect busy lady. Mary on the other hand sat down. She sat on her buttocks and bent her frame to fit the seat. She sat humbly and still at the feet of the master, listening to him. And Martha became envious. Which by the way nearly always happens with ambitious people. They never achieve enough to make them satisfied; for them the seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake, as they say. For them, the Joneses are always a step ahead. These ambitious folks are always playing catch-up. And so they are always envious. Always agitated. Always driven to do more and more and more.

 

A story was told in this regard of two men who were both woodcutters. They started out by going into the bushes with machetes to cut wood. After cutting wood all day, they would return to their houses and spend the evenings resting. After a while, one of the woodcutters bought a power saw. He saw that with his power saw he could cut more wood in the same amount of time than when he used the machete. He sold his excess and made more money than before. He invested this money in a sophisticated machine that could cut even more wood. And then he decided to tear down his house and build a bigger one. He bought a car and a tractor, and acquired insurance, mortgage and property-tax debts. He needed even more money, and so he decided to work evenings as well, in addition to mornings and afternoons. And the more he cut, the more he sold; and the more he sold, the more money he made; and the more money he made, the more he bought; and the more he bought, the deeper he fell into debt; and the deeper he fell into debt, the longer and longer - deeper into the night - he worked every day, even weekends!

 

One day, he was returning at night from another long day at work and he passed by the house of his old friend. The man was reclining placidly on an easy chair in front of his hut, with pipe in mouth, gazing at the sky and smiling. The one returning from work called out, "Hey, my friend. I see you're still living in this old hut of yours. I own that large house over there at the street corner, and I have a big car as well." The one sitting in the easy chair said to the man standing over him, the one just returning from another long day at work: "Really? What else do you have?" The standing man said: "Oh, I also have a sophisticated woodcutting machine, and tons of business commitments here and there." "How interesting," said the sitting man. "And what will you do next?" The standing man said, "Well, I intend to continue to work very hard, increase my business portfolio, acquire more real estate and sell company shares in due course." "How fascinating," said the sitting man, "and then what will you do?" "Well, I'll turn over dividends for purchased shares and go even more public with company shares, thus increasing the capacity to turn greater profits." "Wonderful. And then what will you do?" "Well then, I guess I'll retire and rest." The sitting man smiled, looked up at the standing man, the one that was just returning from work, and said, "Rest, eh? And what do you think I am doing right now?"

 

Psalm 127 tells us that we labor in vain when we hustle about preoccupied, whereas he blesses his beloved as they rest. Again, in the Parable of the Rich Fool, after the rich man had made plans to do this and that and that, the voice of the Lord addressed him thus: "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" (Lk. 12:20). The rich fool died because he was rich in material things, but was not rich toward God (Lk. 12:21). And indeed, who is rich toward God? Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." Which brings us to the Psalm of today. The response was: "If you Lord should mark iniquities, who can stand?" In other words, if you being to keep tab of all the occasions when we've sinned, who would be able to remain on his or her two feet, without feeling such a weight of guilt and sadness as to require sitting?

 

Indeed, we all need to sit. We all need to take a time out. Take a time out from the hustle and bustle of life; take a time out from playing Martha, and sit like Mary at the feet of Jesus, listening to him and praying in humility and sorrow for our sins. We need to refrain from an endless, meaningless pursuit of material wealth and endeavor to be rich in the things of God. We cannot stand upright in the face of God's judgment, sinners that we all are. We should allow the gravity of our sinfulness to command our necessary sitting. Let us sit still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).