‘Leisuring’ with God in a Fallen World

For starters, it is true that “leisuring” isn’t a word, but it ought to be; sort of a kissing-cousin to worshiping and meditating.

Leisure is a wonderful part of summertime but it’s important for leisure to remain fixed in our minds throughout the year, especially now that we have moved away from vacation season.  Summer suntans have all washed off and we find ourselves in the seasonal no-man’s land of no-longer-summer, but not-quite-fall.

At least, that is, in terms of nature’s seasons.  In terms of society’s seasons, we are decidedly in the season of “back to work.”  In and of itself, that’s not a bad thing, “all work bears witness to the dignity of man,” as St. Josemaria Escriva says.

But work is not the be all and end all, “work is “for man” and not man “for work”.” (Laborem Excercens #6, paragraph six).  Work should always point to something greater.  Returning again to St. Josemaria, he writes that “[work] can never be regarded – in any way – as if it were the basic thing” (”Furrow,” Chapter 15, #502).

What is the “basic thing”?  For Buddhists the purpose of life can be taken as the escape from suffering.   According to Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to the meaning of life is “42” – which leads to the search for the meaning of the meaning of life.

For Christians, the “basic thing” is union with God.  Work is certainly a part of that (and thus the dignity of work).  But leisure is as well.  If fact, according to Professor Josef Pieper, “leisure is of a higher order than the world of work.”  Pieper is a leading contemporary voice of the spiritual value of leisure; you may be familiar with his masterpiece, “Leisure as the Basis of Culture.”

The Fallen World, Work and Leisure

The fallen world, being fallen, is opposed to us growing in union with God.  Servant of God Fr. John Hardon referred to the fallen world as “the attractive” – the fallen world uses everything in its power to attract us away from God.

Certainly that is true for work.  The push to “keep up” economically and socially drives many people to give more and more of their precious time to labor of one sort of another.  Most often neglected is deeper reflection about the “why” of it all, other than the most superficial thoughts of “getting ahead.”

The fallen world takes a similar approach to leisure.  We work hard at our leisure.  Vacations so often become all about doing something, experiencing something, or checking something off the bucket list.

And if the world can’t twist leisure into something un-leisurely, it will just do away with it.  Up until 2020 most indicators showed people taking less and less vacation.  It remains to be seen what effect the Covid pandemonium has had on actual vacation time.

Authentic Leisure

Prof. Pieper, “in the jargon of totalitarian societies,” poses this question: “Are there human activities that in themselves neither require nor accept any justification based on the provision of a five-year plan?”

Pieper goes on to offer an answer, by warning against the idolizing of activity: “Leisure is essentially ‘non-activity’; it is a form of silence.  Leisure amounts to that precise way of being silent which is a prerequisite for listening in order to hear; for only the listener is able to hear. Leisure implies an attitude of total receptivity toward, and willing immersion in, reality; an openness of the soul, through which alone may come about those great and blessed insights that no amount of ‘mental labor’ can ever achieve.”  (Josef Pieper, “An Anthology”, Chapter 47, #139)

Pieper associates leisure with silence.  And how important that is.  Mother Teresa agrees with Pieper: “We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.  God is the friend of silence.  See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and sun, how they move in silence.  . . . The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.”

And then Pieper emphasizes leisure as the relinquishing of the need to create change.  So often we judge the value of our time only by our perceived productivity (there’s an entire ideology founded around that outlook, it rhymes with “communism”).   In leisure we allow ourselves to simply take in reality as it is.

The True You

This raises a question for each of us – when was the last time we were truly at rest – at ease – at leisure?

Here’s a related question – when was the last time you were perfectly yourself?  Perfectly, completely, and 100 percent yourself, in the moment.  Which is to say, being in that dynamic zone of completely alert to events around you and at the same time healthily detached, undisturbed by passions, and attuned to the promptings of the Spirit.  That’s a tall order.

To clarify further, being perfectly yourself also means not futilely worrying about the future, or hopelessly regretting the past.  Because that isn’t being perfectly yourself.  The perfect you might be a planner, but is not a worrier.  The perfect you might reflect on the past, but does not regret what is done and gone.

Being perfectly yourself also means not being distracted by daydreams or lowly diversions.

True Leisure, True You

This brings us back to authentic leisure, which is one of the best places to become perfectly ourselves.  God is telling us something foundational about leisure when He says, “Be still and know that I Am God.”

Be still.  It’s an affirmative command, not negative.  God doesn’t say to us:
“Stop working and know that I AM God.”
Or, “Stop staring at your soul-sucking-device and know that I AM God.”
And not, “Stop talking and know that I AM God.”
Or “Stop planning about what you’re going to do later and know that I AM God.”

No.  He tells us: “Be still and know that I AM God.”

God’s directive isn’t about what we shouldn’t be doing, but what we should become.  But what does it mean to “become still?”  That is the art of leisure.  Simply being present – fully in the moment, fully yourself, fully with God, not needing to do or to accomplish or to change anything.

What could be simpler? (Ha, ha!)

Taste Again

The actual practice of leisure defies simple definition, so perhaps an example can be of help.

For many, leisure is experienced at the seashore.  The endless ocean waves are soothing, transfixing, transporting, evocative, and even mesmerizing.  They are a gateway to contemplation.  One moment we’re watching wave after wave roll in, smelling salty air, and listening to the rumble of the surf and call of seagulls. Then at some point, without realizing it, our minds are taken to deeper questions of life and, perhaps, reaching out to God.

Or, you might experience that on hikes in the woods.  How about while doing a puzzle.  Or maybe just sitting quietly.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, encourages students to savor or even “taste” again consolations they have received – to re-experience the grace that was given, and thereby deepen the experience.  We are well-served to develop that facility with leisure.

We can’t pack up and go to the beach each weekend, but during our time of daily mediation, we can “taste” that again. And we can remind ourselves that our daily prayer is meant to be a time of leisure every bit as much as our family vacation.

Leisure and Celebration

Another reliable opportunity for leisure, according to Pieper, is celebration.  Why?  Because true celebration is focused on the present moment.  It is a time for fully taking in the occasion to be celebrated:

“True culture does not flourish except in the soil of leisure – provided we mean by ‘culture’ whatever goes beyond the mere necessities of life yet is nonetheless indispensable for the fullness of human existence . . . if leisure is not conceived as meaningful in and by itself, then it is plainly impossible to achieve. Here we should once again mention the celebration of a feast. Such a celebration combines all three elements that also constitute leisure: first, non-activity and repose; second, ease and absence of exertion; third, leave from the everyday functions and work. Everybody knows how difficult an endeavor it is for us moderns really to celebrate. Indeed, this difficulty is identical with our inability to achieve leisure. The reason that our celebrations fail is the same reason that we fail to achieve leisure.”  (Josef Pieper, “An Anthology”, Chapter 47, #140)

Leisure and Worship

The relationship between leisure and celebration naturally leads us to the celebration par excellence – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Pieper says:

“At this point there appears an inevitable consideration that to most people, as I have frequently experienced, seems quite uncomfortable. Put in a nutshell, it is this: to celebrate means to proclaim, in a setting different from the ordinary everyday, our approval of the world as such. Those who do not consider reality as fundamentally ‘good’ and ‘in the right order’ are not able to truly celebrate, no more than they are able to “achieve leisure”. In other words: leisure depends on the pre-condition that we find the world and our own selves agreeable. And here follows the offensive but inevitable consequence: the highest conceivable form of approving of the world as such is found in the worship of God, in the praise of the Creator, in the liturgy. With this we have finally identified the deepest root of leisure …  we cannot achieve leisure insofar as our human nature is concerned but only insofar as we possess the divine spark in us.”  (Josef Pieper, “An Anthology”, Chapter 47, #141)

The fallen world will continue to do its thing.  And so will our God, who is “a light silent sound” (1 Kings 19:12) and “meek and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:29) continue to call us to Him in the leisure of our daily meditation, life’s celebrations, our Sabbath rest, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.