“Couches” by Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
I love my couch. It’s my go-to place to sit and relax when I get home from a long day. It’s amazing the amount of things that can be done from the couch. I can eat a fancy dinner at the dining room table, but there’s just something about sitting on the couch eating pasta out of a cereal bowl. I can do work at my desk, but there’s something about sitting on the couch with my feet up typing away on my MacBook. I can sleep in my bed, but there’s nothing quite like falling asleep watching a movie on the couch.
So you can imagine my reaction when Pope Francis at World Youth Day this summer in Poland talked about how there’s more to life than just a nice couch. We were all watching Papa Frank on the Jumbo-tron on a gigantic field, crowded around a radio with the English translation, and we all looked at each other when the translator said the word “couch” and then let out a small laugh.
Pope Francis said young people today can be “couch potatoes” and should trade in their couches for a sturdy pair of walking shoes to go out and preach the Gospel. Obviously he was being dramatic for effect, but it rang true for all of us that at least at some point or another in a given week, we spend time sitting on the couch focusing on being comfortable and not on anyone else.
I think there’s an important distinction that needs to be made – that sometimes in today’s world, we don’t slow down and relax enough and we need to do it more often. But even still, all of us spend a little too much time on ourselves and not enough time on others.
I looked up the Readings for this Sunday (while sitting on my couch), and it turns out that the prophet Amos was preaching about couches about 2,700 years before Pope Francis. Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: Woe to the complacent in Zion! Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches…
I don’t see how a bed made of ivory could possibly be comfortable, but that’s beside the point. Even back then, people were complacent (meaning happy with how things are and not willing to put in any effort to change anything). They sat on their couches too, and it was all about comfort.
The thing about comfort though, is that it can make us very self-centered. The goal of the Christian Life is to be centered on others, but when we focus on being comfortable, we end up focusing on ourselves and can become self-centered and selfish.
Pope Benedict XVI had a great quote that really summed this up: “The world offers you comfort; but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” So get off the couch! Okay, five more minutes. But then seriously get moving…
