The culture of busyness
The Australian Catholic Bishops have released their annual Social Justice Sunday Statement. It has been acclaimed this year as representing the views of men and women across the Catholic spectrum.
The theme is that we have become a commercial, affluent, busy society at the expense of our Christian roots. There’s a headline “never enough time”.
“If a life of affluence means a culture of waste, it can also mean a culture of busyness. The feeling
that life has become frenetic and empty resonates across our cities and towns. We always have to be busy, because if the busyness stops there’ll only be the boredom. The busy world of work and pressures to have a successful career can also leave us with less time for family and friends. Yet the things we are busy about are not necessarily related to our basic need for food, shelter, health and education. They are more about a certain quality of life and level of affluence for ourselves and our children.”
“If Australians were to undergo a health check we could well be diagnosed as suffering from the ravages of the disease of affluence. Some may be more mildly affected than others, but the sickness is pervasive and we are all its victims. The question for us as Christians is whether we are to be found among the patients, or with the healers and carers.”
I feel guilty of the “disease of affluence”. As a layman I wonder how we manage the balance between good intentions and everyday survival?
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
