Ants

I love the nonsense poetry of Ogden Nash (I love most things that border on the ridiculous!) and one of my favourites is the one on the ant:

The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious.
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?

What reminded me of this verse today of all days? The first reading at Sunday Mass!

The ant has been held up to us as an example of ‘constant industry’ and it is an example we seem to have overdosed on. Everyone today seems to be in a state of constant motion, always doing something: if we are not rushing between destinations and chores, we are networking through sms and Facebook. A casual encounter will invariably elicit the question, ‘So, what are you doing today?’ How many of us would be happy to say, ‘Absolutely nothing!’ ??

I do make it a point to check the reading that is assigned to me. Today’s reading was a cinch - no tricky words, no intricate sentences, no confusing punctuation or pronunciation. In fact, it was familiar – the good old ten commandments. Yet, when I read at the lectern, the words seemed to be imbued with the unfamiliar. It was as if someone else was speaking and I was the listener. And I was hearing the commandments for the first time, with resounding clarity. Nine commandments were simple one liners, but the third was a detailed exhortation to ‘keep holy the Sabbath’ – in effect, ‘ …rest with me as I rested after creation - be still and know that I am God.’

Orthodox Jewish practice observes the Sabbath rigorously, beginning on the Friday evening and ending twenty-four hours later on the Saturday. They have done this unbroken through the generations from the time of Moses. And in the Jewish State everything is shut. It is the law. Among Christians, the Sabbath is observed on the Sunday. It is a busy day. It is a day for catching up with all the undone chores of the week gone by. Or perhaps chilling out and unwinding with a different kind of activity, always aware that Monday is dogging Sunday’s heels!!

Be still? Be absolutely still? Physically and mentally? That seems impossible. Already I can hear the objections in my mind, ‘But, I have to….!!!’.

Could this be the reason why we find it difficult to ‘know God’?