Late capitalism accords a human being value only when he is being productive. Leisure is a waste of time. But human beings are created for rest and the things we do in leisure are what makes life worthwhile. The Romans, with all their problems recognised this in speaking of https://twitter.com/veenadubal/status/1254054348960731136

otium (leisure) and negotium (business = not leisure), though of course otium for the upper class meant a lot of negotium for slaves. Augustine speaks of creation being made to share the divine rest. Of course this has in some sense to be only true rest in the hereafter given

the serious inequalities and injustices in this one. Nonetheless while here the Sabbath gives us a foretaste of this. And the Sabbath is first offered to slaves. This idea of leisure as the point of life is also present in McCabe’s description of prayer as a waste of time.

The erosion of the sense of the importance of the sabbath is one of the greatest tragedies that has befallen our world.