THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

The shortcomings of the Northern Line of the London Underground are so widely-known that they have even featured from the pulpit of Sacred Heart, Waterlooville, where hell was compared to Camden Town station, though you may have missed that particular little gem.

They are now trying to redress the balance by bringing in some new trains.  Apart from almost endless loudspeaker announcements (helpful to blind people who are reassured that the train is going to High Barnet – at least they would be reassured were it not that there always seems to be a change of plan and we land up going somewhere else) there are some red and green buttons to let you open and shut the doors yourself.  At least, that is the theory.  But they don’t actually work. Press the green button to alight and … nothing.  Actually I think there is a time delay built in by some arcane Health and Safety requirement, but it could also be the guard’s revenge: “I’ll let these complaining little b*****s get off when I feel like it”. 

It has now been revealed that actually these buttons (and other such, like the ones on automatic lifts) are not intended to have any effect. The effect is all achieved by programming.  The buttons are there to keep busy people happy: what doctors will know as a placebo.  Busy people need to think they are always doing something and moving life on.   Hence also the need to fill every second with activity and do two things (or more) at once.  A recent book, “Faster, the acceleration of just about everything” gives many examples of this demented behaviour, including the businessman’s dread of having a meal or going to the lavatory, because it is time ‘wasted’.

We are often victims of this busy-ness in our worship.  Our worship is not of the contemplative kind, as though we were Buddhists (though strictly they would not be claiming to worship).  It is active.  But that activity should be ‘one-thing-at-a-time’ activity.  Here I have to confess to being guilty myself: finding the place in the book for the next item while still dealing with the previous one.

We often hear that the Mass does not ‘mean’ much for many people, but perhaps part of the trouble is that we are not really concentrating on what we are doing at the time – apart from the fact that, to be honest, there are too many things to do.  We need to develop the ability to concentrate on the given moment, and not fret if that moment is one of stillness rather than activity.  The Buddhist seeks to develop an awareness of the present reality; we should try to do the same, while remembering that in the case of the Christian the ‘present reality’ is accompanied by a spiritual, eternal reality which we cannot see.