There is no clock in the mall!

I was tired from walking for what seemed like hours in the shopping mall. I
looked for a place to sit. I found a bench close to the food court. I went and
sat down to rest. My baby was with me. She did not seem to mind the endless time
in the mall. She enjoyed being outside, just escaping the monotony of our
appartment. So she was much better composed than me.

My wife was busy in some other part of the mall. I did not expect her back any
time soon. Maybe in an hour, she will return, maybe not(?) . But what is the
time now? - I looked up - I looked around - where is the clock?

I could see the cloth store, the electronics shop, the shoe shop even the
pharmacy. "where do they keep the clock?" I asked my baby. But she did not seem
to care too much for the time.

How do they keep track of the time in this place? I got up to walk even though
tired. I was bitten by the curiosity bug. "There must be a clock somewhere
around here" I told my daughter. She just stared back at me. Did I sound silly?!
Time is always the scarcest of commodities for us. Why has someone else not
complained yet!

I walked and walked and finally realized - THERE IS NO CLOCK IN THE MALL.
Finally it dawned on me - it must be a clever, even brilliant marketing ploy -
they did not want anyone to know the time once they get into the mall. They want
the shoppers to stay on and on - not look at the clock and realize they are due
elsewhere. They intended the malls to be timeless islands in a time sensitive
world! Seemed perfect!

Then I remembered how we always have a clock in the church. It is one of the
first things we buy for the church.Why? Because we want everything to be in
time, obviously. We do not want to lose our age old rituals, but we also want to
keep everything moving in time. We want to get in and get out in time. Nothing
wrong with that?!

But when we are talking about the time-less, most precious experience of the
Holy Qurbana, where mankind gets "caught up" time and again with the endless and
continuous worship that the "cloud of witnesses" is engaged in before the Holy
throne, exactly like Isaiah saw in his vision where the angels and archangels
were worshipping God in a time-less warp, when we are talking about such
time-less happenings, how frivolous of us to be-little all that with the
presence of a clock?

I am not be-littling any one who gifted a clock to the church, nor discouraging
anyone who intends to gift one to their church in future. I understand its
importance in today's world. But I am hoping we can look at ourselves a little
bit and the paradox we find ouselves in. Even poor achens keep a watch on the
altar to know the time. In case, the achen delays the Holy Qurbana by 5 minutes
because he was too engrossed in the heavenly experience?!, he knows that he will
be fried alive when he comes down to earth!!! (strange but true!)

Maybe we can be a little more considerate of our use of time on Sundays. Maybe
we can plan things accordingly? Maybe a little more time in the church is ok?
Maybe there is a reason for our services not being the fast-food variety? Maybe
we can give 'time in the church' at-least as much consideration as the designers
of the shopping mall do? Can we make our churches 'timeless islands' away from
our time sensitive world?

Christ is Risen!
Mathew Samuel
Albany, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/23234