A couple of months ago I happened to be wandering around in my car on a Sunday afternoon with my sleepless child when I decided to go and pick up a carton of milk from a local supermarket. Little did I suspect that I was not alone out shopping! Though there is ample parking space around the supermarket, it was impossible even to approach it by car due to the amount of families and people heading there for their weekly shopping.

I do not criticise any supermarket, nor directly question Sunday shopping. My question is about the significance of our Sundays. If not concretely, at least symbolically Sunday meant rest, quiet, family time. It was the time, yes, to go to Mass, but also to relax, spend some time with the family and literally re-create ourselves.

Reacting to my questioning, an acquaintance of mine said: “It’s quite normal, since Saturdays are taken up by errands or work only Sunday is left to do the shopping.” Maybe the worrying thing about all this is that this is now considered ‘normal’ whereas it was not seen as normal up to a couple of years ago.

Somehow our Sundays seem to have lost their colour. Ironically maybe we should return to our black and white screens when the consumption rate and change of dimensions, quality and ‘interactivity’ didn’t push us to change our TV sets every other year.

To have a healthily productive workforce, respon­sible parenting and a true quality of life for us and our children, we need to stop at the oases in our deserts

Society has unfortunately brought us to the point of being producers and consumers not only with our money and time, but also with the time and money we do not yet have. The space left in our hectic timetables for what really matters is being filled up with that which is ‘really urgent’, the work we need to do to sustain all our ‘urgent needs’.

The present moment cannot be lived today, but only in future – doing the shopping for next week, working part-time to save for my holiday, buying presents and doing activities our children expect of us. With regard to the latter, one typically hears parents making rethorical statements such as: “X’tagħmel? Ma toħodhomx?” or “Ma rridux inqas minn ħaddieħor” (“What? Aren’t you going to take them” [to the next party/ activity]?” or “I do not want him/her to be disadvantaged”).

Perhaps we should question the quality of our of life with regard to its depth.

If we had to pause and think for a moment, we might say: Maybe there isn’t need to be all over the place all week. Maybe actually it’s not true that he or she is really being anything less than others if he/she has or does less than others. And beware, the most urgent needs might be masked in the seemingly most important, healthiest and most crucial things.

In his winning speech, Donald Trump emphasised said: “I’ve spent my entire life and business looking at the untapped poten­tial in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country... Every single American will have the opportunity to realise his or her fullest potential.”

Great words, if by ‘potential’ we do not simply mean ‘business’. Let’s look around and see exactly what potential we are developing. Is it a doing potential or a being potential?

My desire is that we should at least continue asking these questions. To have a healthily productive workforce, respon­sible parenting and a true quality of life for us and our children, we need to stop at the oases in our deserts rather than focus on our love for production systems. We need to find time to stop and receive love from God, people and the reality around us.

We are in the Christmas season, or rather Advent; the invitation is precisely not to celebrate Christmas in anticipation, it is to stay in the here and now, in the waiting: “Watch God work in His ways. Ask God about His purposes. Invite God to work in your heart. Trust God to fulfill His plans. Waiting on God does not mean we’re doing nothing. It’s about allowing God to do His thing.” (Anonymous).

tonimifsud@yahoo.com

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