The two stories complement each other well. For on the one hand, we are taught in the Good Samaritan Story, how disciples of Jesus Christ are to go out into the highways, and pick up and care for the wounded and those in need.
On the other hand, Martha and Mary teach us another indispensable dimension of discipleship. Martha was busy with all the details of hospitality and Mary was sitting at the feet of Our Lord, listening to his word. Martha was tending to the physical needs of the Jesus—she was in a sense the good Samaritan caring for someone’s needs, and that’s good. But it is Mary who is praised by the Lord. The Lord said, “Mary has chosen the better part”.
Yes, we have to care for those in need, yes we have to lift up the wounded, yes we should tend to the physical needs of our guests. Faith needs to be seen in our works; faith without works is dead, after all.
But we cannot lose sight of the one most necessary thing: we must remain grounded in our relationship to God by sitting at the feet of Christ. We must nurture that close, personal, intimate relationship with God through prayer, meditation, and contemplation.
There’s a story from the Missionary Sisters of Charity, the order of consecrated religious sisters founded by St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta. One of the charisms of the Missionary Sisters of Charity is to take care of the poorest of the poor. They literally lift starving discarded people out of the gutter and give them food and shelter and comfort. They are literally saving lives. Yet, every day, the Missionary Sisters of Charity make a holy hour: they pray for an hour every day, usually around 6am, in front of the blessed Sacrament.
Well, one day, a young novice goes to Mother Theresa, and says how she thinks that the holy hour is a waste of time; there are people starving to death on the streets while the sisters are in the chapel praying. “Sister, you seem very troubled” Mother said. “I am, Mother, this holy hour is a waste of time.” “Because you think this,” said mother Theresa to the young novice, “you need two hours.”
St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church, remarked similarly, “"Everyone of us needs half an hour of prayer each day, except when we are busy—then we need an hour."
Francis de Sales and Mother Theresa understood the importance of work and charity, but also they knew how easy it is for us to become burnt out, misaligned, and disconnected from God without the daily prayer that sustains us.
Martha was no doubt doing good work in the Gospel today. But the Lord corrects her—reorients her. Why? For one, she comes into the room complaining. Never a good way to enter a room and begin a conversation. Complaining, as depicted in Scripture, is often associated with a lack of faith and trust in God's provision and sovereignty. I’ve met Christians who have complained to me before saying hello.
Martha complains: Lord, don’t you care that my sister isn’t helping me? Jesus, don’t you care about the same things I care about? Already, we detect, a misalignment of Martha’s will and Jesus’ will. And this misalignment has brought her unhappiness and resentment, as is always the case when our hearts are misaligned. Martha then seeks to force her will, not only on her sister, but upon Jesus himself: “tell her to help me.” She demands that God must bow to her. Sadly, I’ve met a lot of people like that, too. I’ve no doubt acted like that at times. But that sour narrowminded willful ego-centrism is antithetical to the way of Christ.
This is why Mary has chosen the better part. Before complaining, before acting, before demanding, she has knelt down to open her mind and heart to the mind and heart and life of Jesus. She has sought to align herself. Not my will, by Thy will be done.
Thinking that OUR earthly priorities, our earthly pursuits, are more important than spending time with Jesus is among the greatest mistakes we can make in the Christian life. For, it makes an idol of our work. Martha is preoccupied with the earthly and missing out on the heavenly. Martha has her priorities backwards. And this is why she is unhappy and unexhausted.
Now we might want to defend Martha here, “someone had to do the work. Someone had to serve the meal.” No. That is not the point of the story. We should not justify being busybodies. This story is to help us seek first the kingdom of God. Not my will. Not how I think things should get done. It’s not meant to enable us to justify impatience. If God is not the builder, the workers labor in vain.
God has a lot of work for us here at our parish. I’m sure of it. Souls waiting to meet Christ in the Catholic Church if they could only meet Him in us. But narrowminded Marthas often do more harm than good. Men can be Martha’s too by the way, brothers. Because Men can fail to be rooted in prayer and can become just as controlling and filled with bitterness and self-centeredness instead of the Spirit of God.
But when we have opened ourselves up to God through prayer, the soil of our soul is watered by grace and illumined by God’s word, and real transformation occurs, so much so that the Lord Jesus can be detected in our decisions and words and activity.
So begin the day with prayer. Begin on the right foot. Make time for real authentic meditation upon God’s Word throughout the day. Pray before you work, pray as you work. Include God in your meals, your chores, your leisure and rest. When we are directed to God through prayer, our lives become charged and changed by God’s presence: His peace calms us, his joy radiates from us, his wisdom guides us, and his love burns within us. Even our work, even our sufferings, can then become transformed into an encounter with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Every day we are faced with the choice to be more like Martha or more like Mary— misaligned or drawn deeper into the life and love of God. Let us renew our commitment today to the daily prayer we need to seek the one thing that really matters, Jesus Christ Our Lord, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment