Can laziness be a virtue?

**media[27908]**THROUGH UNTRUEIn today’s Gospel reading, Jesus visits the home of Martha and Mary. Like a diligent host, Martha busies herself with the many tasks that hospitality requires, while Mary sits at Jesus’s feet, fully absorbed in His words. Overwhelmed and feeling abandoned in her work, Martha blurts out, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving by myself? Tell her to help me” (Luke 10:40).Jesus responds with what feels like a gentle rebuke: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her” (Luke 10:41–42).Martha sees Mary as lazy and doing nothing. But Jesus flips that perception. He sees Mary’s alleged “laziness” as a deliberate decision to pause from all work so she can be fully present to Jesus who is too precious for her to ignore. In contrast, Martha’s anxiety, while rooted in her sincere desire to serve, blinds her to the wonder and grace unfolding in her own home.Jesus is not dismissing the value of work. Rather, He warns against allowing it to consume us to the point that we lose the ability to reflect, to notice, and to be present to what or who truly matters in our life.In today’s culture, work is often glamorized. Workaholics are celebrated, and productivity is held up as the highest virtue. Even children are initiated early into this culture of hyperactivity. Outside of school, many are rushed from one activity to another: tutorials, sports, video games, social media, streaming movies, or competitions. Their minds operate in overdrive, constantly stimulated by digital devices. With little time to process the torrent of information they consume, they risk becoming patchworks of shallow opinions and scattered interests.In the book of Genesis, labor is portrayed as a consequence of sin. God created us to be different from other animals who are defined by what they instinctively do. Fish swim. Birds fly. But we are not bound by instinct. We transcend it. We have the inherent capacity to imagine, invent, and create. By refusing to be subjected to the tyranny of walking or running, we have built tools and machines that allow us to traverse the ocean faster than fish and soar higher than birds.Rest is not a luxury. It is essential to being human. This truth is echoed in the poet’s lament: “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” One of the enduring Spanish legacies to civilization is the siesta, the afternoon pause from all work. It reminds us that by taking a nap, we are not wasting time; we are reclaiming and owning it.Interestingly, a computer system administrator once wrote that laziness is a key virtue of a good programmer. He explained: “Laziness makes a person go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes them write labor-saving programs that others will find useful, and document the details so they don’t have to answer questions later.” Do you notice the paradox? For him, laziness or our resistance to hard labor can lead to innovation, creativity, and efficiency.The desire to rest is a kind of spiritual software embedded in our human DNA. It is an inner compass that urges us to savor life, stop worrying about tomorrow, and be fully present in every moment. Jesus’s praise of Mary is more than a compliment. He reminds us that sometimes, the most productive thing we can do is to stop, listen, wonder, and simply be.