Back in 1850, Pio Nonno, Blessed Pope Pius IX, sent a priest
of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati named Fr. John Baptiste Lamy (La-may), out
west, as a missionary to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Within a few years, Fr. Lamy would become the first archbishop of the
place, but when he first got there, he recognized that there were a lot of
needs: there were no schools, no parishes, no priests, no seminary, no convents,
no catechetical programs, or hospitals.
There were so many towering needs that Lamy needed to discern very
wisely which pastoral need he was he to tend to first.
And it may surprise us, as it surprised many of his
contemporaries, the first thing he did was to invite an order of contemplative
sisters who would come to Santa Fe, this vast wilderness, to spend their lives
in quiet, silent, prayer and penance.
Contemplatives like the Carmelites and the Poor Clares. St. Clare
herself was a contemplative, who left the riches and busyness of the world to
spend her life in quiet adoration of the Eucharist.
Father Lamy believed that amidst all of the towering needs,
the first need is silence, prayer, adoration of the Lord in the Eucharist, and
penance. Father Lamy certainly had his critics.
They said, “what a waste of time, let’s get people to open schools,
let’s get priests to run parishes, let’s get sisters who can teach the faith
and run hospitals, let’s train people to pass on the faith and do the
charitable works. What good are these
contemplative sisters who hide themselves away in silence? What good are these
sisters who spend their day doing nothing, from an earthly point of view,
except devoting themselves to silence, prayer, and penance? And Fr. Lamy,
defending his decision, pointed to the Gospel we just heard proclaimed.
He said, “We need Mary’s before we have Martha’s” He said,
“If I can get Mary’s here, the Martha’s will naturally come.” What did he mean by that? Well, what did the
Gospel say? Jesus shows up at the home of beloved friends, Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus over in Bethany, just a few miles outside of Jerusalem. He comes to enjoy their friendship and their
hospitality. Martha is busy doing all these chores: cooking, cleaning, readying
the house, preparing to offer hospitality. Mary, her sister, is sitting quietly
at the feet of Jesus, savoring his company, and listening to his words. Martha
and Mary. Martha is doing good works. Mary, according to Martha, is doing
nothing. And when Martha confronts Jesus about this, Jesus says that Mary is
doing something, the most important thing, the one thing, the only thing
necessary, the better thing.
You see what Jesus is saying? First things first. First, pay
attention to Jesus, sit at his feet, listen to his words, savor his presence,
love him, then let’s worry about all the details of hospitality.
Fr. Lamy was saying the same thing. First things first, the
one thing, the most important thing, let our hearts, and minds, and souls,
first be set on Jesus Christ. So following the very teaching of the Master, he
sought contemplative women to sit at his feet, and to pray assiduously for the
needs of the nascent diocese, and then the Martha’s will be rightly focused in
their work.
The Church of course needs both, Martha’s and Mary’s. Martha’s who will do the work, who will run
the fish fries, the vacation bible school, the St. Vincent de Paul care for the
needy, who will organize trips to the shrines, who will catechize the young
people, who will visit the homebound and the sick in hospitals and nursing
homes, who will wash the linens we need for Mass. Thank God for our Martha’s.
Because when people see us involved in the charitable works, they see that we
are putting our money where our mouth is.
Yet, the Church certainly needs Mary’s, to sit at the Master’s
feet. Young women and men to answer the call to the contemplative life. St.
Therese the Little Flower, called to mind the image of the Church as a body.
And just as a body has many parts, hands, feet, arms, legs, head, mouth to do
the works, to preach the Gospel, so the body also needs a heart. And her
vocation, as a contemplative Carmelite, she said, was to be the heart, to beat
in silence, so the blood and love of Jesus might flow throughout the body. We
need women and men to be the heart—to be the Mary’s. To remind us that nothing
in the world satisfies as does the vocation to love Christ in prayer.
And really, what is true for the Church as a whole, is true
for us as individuals, each of us needs to be a part Martha and part Mary. First
and foremost, to be like Mary. Every day, we need to go to a quiet place and
sit at the feet of the master, to listen to him and to love him. Every day
without fail. Only when we are first
like Mary, will our works and endeavors be rightly ordered, for God’s glory.
6 weeks ago I proposed to the parish a 10 minute challenge.
Reading the Bible for 10 minutes a day in a quiet place, and reflecting about
what God’s word is saying to us. Today, I renew that challenge. Don’t turn on
the televisions unless you’ve spent 10 minutes in quiet prayer. Don’t mow the
lawn, don’t sweep the floors or do the dishes, don’t jump into the swimming
pool, without that 10 minutes of prayer. Don’t do the Martha work until you’ve
done the Mary work and recognized that Mary work is more important.
For how else are we to recall that Jesus is with us, that he
is teaching us and shaping us, unless we turn our faces to him, and turn our
ears to his words?
I saw in the paper yesterday, that for the first time in
American history, the largest group of voters are those who describe themselves
as non-religious. The non-religious now outnumber us. Where did they come from?
At least half of this group are former Catholics. Catholics who stopped going
to Mass, who married outside the Church, who stopped studying their faith, who
stopped reading God’s Word, who stopped praying. Many of these folks simply got wrapped up in
their worldly pursuits, sending their kids to sports practice, going shopping,
paying the bills. They let themselves become Martha’s without recognizing the need
to be Mary’s. They stopped sitting at the feet of the Master, and simply
drifted away. Perhaps they were never really here, for they never fell in love
with the Lord. They simply went to Catholic school, came to Mass with their
families, but never fell in love.
Parents, grandparents, help your children fall in love with
the Lord, help them to realize the truth of his teaching, that sitting at his
feet is truly the one thing necessary, by making your homes and families places
of authentic encounter.
I also think this is one of the mistakes of politics. We
think if we just elect the right Martha, then we’ll have peace. No. We will
never have peace until our hearts are rightly ordered to Jesus Christ through
the way of Mary.
As thousands of people stream to Cleveland this week for the
RNC, let us pray for peace in our streets and peace in our hearts, and that we
may witness to Jesus Christ by our prayerfulness and faith for the glory of God
and salvation of souls.
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