Couch potatoes! There is nothing harder to do than to motivate someone that is a couch potato. Whether it is to get yourself, your kids, or your spouse off the couch, it is very, very difficult to motivate a couch potato. I have to admit that I am not a couch potato now.
However, I remember the whimsical days of high school where there was nothing better than coming home from school, laying down on the couch, turning the TV on, and shutting my mind off and just lying there. I thought it was a wonderful thing! I also found during those years, I experienced boredom. I was someone who was bored all the time. There was nothing to do and I was bored!
I realized as time went on through high school and college, there was a sense that I wanted to do the least work possible and to get the most “bang for my buck.” I wanted to put forth the least amount of effort that I could possibly muster to get whatever I could get out of it. That would be the case with anything, whether it be studying for a test, working in class, working at McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Walmart or a gas station. What was the least amount of work I could do and get the most amount of money that was possible?
By the way, does that sound like the maxim of today’s society?
Over the years, I did not realize that as a high school student, I was trying to opt into early retirement. I was already trying to retire when I was in high school! We hear this in the First Reading, “Thus says the Lord God of hosts, Woe to the complacent in Zion, lying upon their beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches.” Couch potatoes, sound familiar?
Pope Francis spoke exactly about this at World Youth Day this past summer. He was speaking to the teens, all around the world in Poland, but I think it applies to all of us today. He said these words to the youth at World Youth Day, “It pains me to meet young people who seem to have opted for this early retirement.
I worry when I see young people who have thrown in the towel before the game has even begun! Who are defeated even before they begin to play! Who walk around glumly, as if life has no meaning. Deep down, young people like this are bored, and they are boring!”
Pope Francis told this massive crowd that was gathered together for World Youth Day, “It is also hard and troubling to see young people who waste their lives looking for thrills, a feeling of being alive by taking dark paths, and in the end have to pay for it. (And pay dearly, they do)
It is disturbing to see young people squandering the best years of their lives, wasting their energies, running after peddlers of fond allusions, who rob what is best for them.” And so he said, “I ask you, are you looking for empty thrills in life or do you want to feel the power that can give you the lasting sense of fulfillment?
Empty thrills or the power of grace.” Let’s think about ourselves for a moment, are we couch potatoes? Are we seeking early retirement in life? Are we seeking empty thrills for the power of grace?”
We hear in The Gospel Jesus said to the Pharisees, he’s addressing this to all the Pharisees, those that had everything. And it speaks to the American people today. There was a rich man who dined dressed in purple linen and feasted sumptuously each day. Lying right at his doorstep, was the poor man Lazarus. Every day, every single day, he literally had to step over him, to get into his house.
When they both died, Lazarus was taken to the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man was in a place that seemed very much like hell. He was looking up, burning, on fire, and saying, “Won’t you send Lazarus down, dip a finger in water and quench my thirst.”
He said, “I want to warn the people that are left, I want to warn them not to neglect the poor. I want to warn them not to be lazy.” And Abraham says to him, “They have the prophets. They have already had their warning. Even if someone would rise from the dead, they would not believe them.” And Jesus of course is referring to Himself.
We have experienced The Resurrection. As people that are Baptized, as people that have received this life-giving water, we are called to be disciples, we are called to be literally “on fire” while we are on this Earth. We are not called to be on this Earth to be comfortable.
We are called to constantly be working to bring others to know Christ. What will it take to motivate us? What does it take to get a couch potato off of the couch? It takes a great deal of effort! The reality is, you all did it this morning. All of you got out of bed this morning, you got off your couches, and all of you came here to Mass this morning.
You have already taken the first step. In just a few moments, you will receive The Body and Blood of Christ into you. We receive Jesus into us, and at this moment, we experience the amazing love of God.
Ultimately, what does it take to motivate a couch potato? It is the experience of love. It is the experience that when we come here, we feel God’s love. In some way we feel together here. In some way we feel God speak to us in the words, and in some way we feel God’s presence as we receive Him in The Body and Blood of Christ. It comes when we realize that we are loved.
The sin that we are really talking about here, is the couch potato is none other than a sloth. The Catechism refers to sloth as a, “culpable lack of physical or spiritual efforts.” It also defines it as “asidia or laziness, one of the capital, seven deadly sins.” This goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and be repelled by divine goodness, to refuse what is joyful and be repelled by goodness.
Think about the gentleman lying on the sofa, that may be a very popular image, but another popular image is the workaholic, somebody that works nonstop and they neglect the poor right in front of them. They neglect their family right in front of them, they neglect loving people right in front of them.
To close with the Holy Father, he said, “For many people, it’s easier and better to have a drowsy and dull kid who confuses happiness with the sofa. Dear young people, and I would say to all of you, we didn’t come into this world to lay around and do nothing. We didn’t come for early retirement. We came for another reason, to leave a mark.
The times we live in do not call for young couch potatoes, but for young people with shoes, or better yet, boots that are laced.” I offer you the questions, “Are you a couch potato in this world? Are you a couch potato in the spiritual life? Are you really doing what God has called you to do? Do you notice and take care of the Lazarus at your doorstep?
We didn’t come into this world to lay around and do nothing, we came for another reason, to leave a mark!
