“I have nothing else to do"

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

Recently I noticed an elderly patient in our hospital oratory. I spoke to him saying that it was an inspiration to see him simply sitting down in the oratory in prayer. He looked at me, smiled and said: “I have nothing else to do”.

We’d spoken before. He introduced himself to me one day  when I was rushing to a meeting and on that particular occasion I had been  somewhat brief with him as it was close to the time of our meeting.

 

Afterwards I was annoyed with myself for how I had handled our exchange. But subsequently we had some interesting and enjoyable encounters. A few days later I was laid low with Covid. I had been telling people how I had managed to escape it so far. And then like lightening it struck overnight and knocked me for six.

 

I have not seen that hospital patient since that day in the oratory,  but I shall never forget what he said. At the moment he spoke those words to me I stopped in my tracks. I was completely flabbergasted by how they had resonated with me. I have wondered since if  he realised  the effect they had.  They came tripping out of his mouth, completely naturally and then the pure honesty of the words: “I have nothing else to do”.

Tomorrow’s Gospel (Luke 10: 38 - 42) is the famous story of Martha and Mary. Martha, who is rushing about making sure everything is in order, criticises Mary “who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking.” In response Jesus upbraids Martha and assures her that Mary is a wise woman.

I have always been intrigued by how we can so easily put “spins”  on what we read and how that gospel is used in an attempt to promote the contemplative life within the churches.

On the other hand, isn’t it a pity we don’t think of that Gospel when we realise how we have turned quiet Sundays into frenetic shopping days.

As Jesus reminds us, that story can  be read two ways. I remember only too well that when I cared for my parents in old age the people who most impressed me were those who rolled up their sleeves and helped me with the dishwashing. Of course the chats and the comfort of friends help to get us through difficult days.

  

But when I read about the shooting in Highland Park, 40 km north of Chicago on July 4, where seven people were killed and dozens wounded I really did wonder about the fragility of our lives. A young couple Kevin McCarthy and his wife Irma were shot dead in the Chicago shooting, leaving behind their two-year-old son. And then there are the  thousands being killed and maimed in Ukraine. It makes no sense and how at all can we even try to put a handle on it? The young man who did the shooting in Chicago surely must have serious psychiatric problems. The young people driving the tanks and firing the missiles in Ukraine will not walk away from that butchery mentally healthy or well-adjusted . How can they?

How do we make sense of it all? I keep asking what is it all about? Life after death, resurrection? Is it possible to lay down one specific way of leading our lives? I doubt it.

 

How can we imagine ourselves all knowing and all powerful when we look around us and see what is happening? For myself  I wish the churches would take themselves less seriously, try to stop thinking that they know the mind of God. No one does. 

In all our rushing about, in all our belief in our own importance do we miss what’s staring us in the face. 

“I have nothing else to do”. The man who said that was praying to his God. He wasn’t killing people or making tanks.