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The spirit behind taking time out on the Sabbath is as pivotal to a rounded life as ever it was, writes Ian Harris.
Evidence abounds that many New Zealanders are feeling the strain from working too long and too hard. They stay back in the office, take work home, keep abreast of a torrent of emails on their home PC, are pursued by cellphone in what should be their own time.
It would be fascinating to know the toll the over-work syndrome has taken in recent years in poor health, stressed family relationships, broken marriages, distorted values and warped personalities - and to know how many victims would recast their priorities if they could have their time again.
The problem, however, is not unique to us moderns. A better work-life balance is precisely what the ancient Hebrews were seeking through their Sabbath day of rest. Australian Jew Bernard Boas goes so far as to describe this as "man's greatest invention." It's easy to see why.
Everyone was to benefit from this - even slaves and farm animals, a huge advance in ideas of fairness and justice.
In some city parks, children's swings were locked on Sundays. A Presbyterian purist even denounced Sunday milk deliveries as a sin "on a par with prostitution and the opium trade."
Those excesses have passed, but contrary ones have replaced them. Material wealth on a scale unimaginable to our forebears has not led to a more rounded work-life balance. Working through lunch breaks, into evenings and at weekends is not seen as stupid, but as praiseworthy. Some career-driven women pass up the chance to have children.
Wants become needs - in houses, gardens, cars, electronic gadgetry, travel, fashion - and there is always someone better off to measure oneself against and keep the pressure on to acquire more.
Jesus put in a nutshell the shortcomings of consumerism in an economics-obsessed society: "What will it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your own soul?"
The spirit behind the Sabbath - to take time out for reflection and re-creation, to spend time nurturing and being nurtured by family and friends, to savour our existence and the Godness inherent in being alive is as pivotal to a rounded life as ever it was.
In our modern, pluralist society, that need not happen for everyone on the same day of the week. But it needs to happen nonetheless.
Read several authors' thoughts on papal Rome's history.
This article highlights quotes from historical and Catholic sources proving the Papacy's aggressive nature.
An Italian mystic. A minister to a British king. An Augustine monk. A Swiss farmer's boy. What do these men have in common? They were used by God in powerful ways to bring about the Protestant Reformation. Enter into the lives of these ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Inspiration for these articles comes from Gideon and Hilda Hagstoz' Heroes of the Reformation
