16th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025 - Misaligned or drawn deeper into the Divine

 Last week, from Luke’s Gospel we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan: an instruction from Our Lord to go beyond our comfort zones to help others.  Immediately following the parable of the Good Samaritan, Saint Luke gives the account of our Lord’s visit to Martha and Mary, which we heard today.

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.

27th Week of Ordinary Time 2023 - Tuesday - Repentance: Choosing the Better Part

 Every year we hear this passage from the prophet Jonah on the first week of Lent, 7 days after Ash Wednesday.  The repentance of the Ninevites is one of the most dramatic responses to the call to repentance in the entire old testament: a city of about 120,000 people all come to repent the nobility, the peasantry, show signs of their repentance by fasting, covering themselves with sackcloth, and sitting in ashes. 

We begin Lent on Ash Wednesday doing the exact same thing—with fasting and the imposition of ashes on our foreheads.  And throughout Lent we undertake practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving—visible and external signs of our internal sorrow for our sins.

Repentance is a pre-requisite for new spiritual life. In order to turn more fully to God we must turn away from what is disordered in our lives. That might be a disordered attachment to created things, disordered ways of speaking with people, or judging them in our minds. It might be disordered behaviors—where we spend our time selfishly indulging bodily pleasures. 

The Christian is to always be about the business of turning away from disorder toward Christ. Yet, the way of perfection also include turning away from what is good, to what is better.

In the Gospel, Martha is busy about doing the housework. That’s great. Housework is good. However, her housework caused her to miss out on something better, something that her sister Mary chosen—the better part—giving her full attention to Jesus. Yes, there are times when we are called to do manual labor, housework, chores, our earthly business. But, we must not get so wrapped up in the things of the world, that we miss out on that something better—that someone better.

Now being mindful of Jesus while we do our earthly activities is also good. We can fulfill our earthly tasks contemplatively and meditatively—being mindful of God as we fold socks and cook dinner is good. But we cannot allow our earthly tasks to consume us—to the point where we are not praying as we should each day—in quantity and quality of prayer.

The Ninevites give us the sort of attitude we should have toward all of our earthly things—lavish repentance in order to focus, like Mary of Bethany—on what matters most—the divine will and presence of God—for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That hearing the call to repentance preached by the Church, all men may turn away from their sins to the mercy of Christ.

For peace in the Holy Land, an end to the violence and suffering, and healing for those whose lives have been tragically disrupted. May God’s peace the communities and families devastated by the horrors of terrorism and war.

That our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering, may they come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - The hospitality of Abraham and Sarah, Martha and Mary

 I have shared before that out in Madison, Ohio, where I grew up, my family ran a business—a banquet facility, party center and catering business. My mother ran the business, hired and fired employees, managed the finances, planned events with clients—business parties and weddings and quinceañeras, while my father managed the kitchen staff and was the head cook, making sure that the prime rib and the manicotti and pork tenderloin and red skinned potatoes, green beans, and cheesy vegetables were all delicious and ready to be served at the precise moment. 

A lot of lessons from growing up in the family business, lessons from my parents about management and hospitality and service play out in my priesthood. Like my mother managing the business—being a pastor requires the ability to coordinate various moving pieces, plan events, and meet people where they are about their ideas. Like my father in that hot kitchen preparing high-quality meals for a variety of palettes for 30 years, being a pastor requires attention to detail, enduring very long hours at times. Both my father and mother had to remain very patient in the face of the occasional belligerent or irrational criticism, not that a pastor ever has to deal with that…but in the end, family business for us was about helping people celebrate—as is the priesthood, celebrating our faith, celebrating the eucharist.

And I was thinking about my family, involved for decades in the hospitality business—feeding all those hundreds of thousands of people over the years, in light of our first reading, where we read of Abraham and Sarah receiving and feeding guests—the hospitality they showed to these strangers.

Now, hospitality in the ancient world was much more than gathering with your family for big events. Travelers often had to rely upon the hospitality of strangers to aid them in their journeys. 

The Mosaic law is explicit about the necessity of hospitality. Strangers, like the poor, widows, and orphans, should be shown special generosity allowed to glean the produce of ones fields. The prophets also reiterate this teaching. Isaiah says, “Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.” And for those who do not, proverbs offers this warning: “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered” 

Now of course, hospitality is not always convenient or easy. Abraham and his household, in the first reading, were on a pilgrim journey of their own when those three guests arrived unexpectantly. Hospitality often costs us something, but it fulfills the command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

In receiving the stranger, feeding him, clothing him, being generous with him, we care for the Lord himself. The Lord himself teaches this, incorporating a teaching on hospitality into his description of who will inherit heaven: “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me . . .Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these my brethren, you did it to me”

Hospitality has been long esteemed as a Christian virtue. Written in the 6th century, the rule of St. Benedict outlines how the monks were to treat their guests with hospitality:  “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ, for He is going to say, “I came as a guest, and you received Me.” The Benedictines became known for their generous hospitality to travelers and pilgrims. St. Benedict writes, “As soon as a guest is announced, therefore, let the Superior or the brethren meet him with all charitable service… In the reception of the poor and of pilgrims. the greatest care and solicitude should be shown, because it is especially in them that Christ is received”

In the Gospel today, in the Lord’s visit to the home of Martha and Mary we see another dimension of hospitality. Martha was very busy in the duties of hospitality ensuring that the Lord was received well. She showed respect and love by the hospitality she offered.

Mary shows us another aspect of hospitality: Mary is praised by the Lord himself for sitting down and listening to him. The Lord has much wisdom to share with us when we listen to him speaking through strangers. To break bread with a stranger you learn how the Lord has been working in their lives, you open their heart to their plights and challenges, and also what keeps them going.

Also, think of how often in the Gospels the Lord is found ministering in the context of hospitality: all those dinners eating with sinners, teaching, correcting, allowed him to meet them where they were with the truth of the Gospel. He shows us that we need to get to know people in order to share truth with them.

When we talk about evangelization, that doesn’t necessarily mean going to door with pamphlets about Catholicism, though we probably need to start doing a bit more of that. Evangelization is also accomplished around table, or at least opening our homes and hearts to others. St. John Paul II writes, “Welcoming our brothers and sisters with care and willingness must not be limited to extraordinary occasions but must become for all believers a habit of service in their daily lives”

As community, as society seem to be crumbling around us, Christians needs to preserve the practice of inviting people around their table—showing them the kindness we would show to Christ. 

Look for an occasion this week to create an opportunity for fellowship, to show hospitality, to invite, to listen to strangers, maybe even invite your pastor over to the house with some fellow parishioners and a fallen away Catholic member or two. Consider how we as a parish are being called to exert extra effort to invite and welcome guests to the table of the Lord.

For Abraham and Sarah, their generosity in showing hospitality became an conduit for miraculous grace to work in their lives—Sarah in her 80s became pregnant. So too Martha and Mary in their hospitality, their service of the Lord, their listening to the Lord, became a conduit to deep intimacy with Him.

So too, when we open our homes, open our lives, open our hearts to the stranger, to the guest—God blesses us, and brings peace and wisdom to our homes, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

27th Week in Ordinary Time 2021 - Tuesday - The problem with anxious worrying

 

October began with the feast of the Little Flower, St. Therese. St. Therese teaches us that power of doing little things with great love—doing the ordinary, day-to-day chores and responsibility mindful of God’s presence with us, embracing the little inconveniences with greater and greater patience.

In the little, ordinary events of the day, there are opportunities to grow in grace and focus on God, but that means there is also the temptation to turn away from him. If you can become a saint through these small events, why aren’t we all saints?

So often, it is our anxious thoughts and our impatience which keep us from knowing the peace of God.  Proverbs says, “Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down”, it causes us to sink from grace to bitterness. Anxious worry about what other people are doing, minding other people’s business instead of focusing on your own can cause us to miss out on grace.

Like Martha in the Gospel today, who misses the whole point of Jesus’ visit, we miss out on opportunities to grow in grace because we are consumed with anxious busyness. You can imagine Martha cursing Mary the whole time she was doing her chores, “why is she just sitting there, doesn’t she know how much work there is to do?”

Ruminating in self-pity, “why am I the one stuck doing this?” certainly doesn’t bespeak of the prayerfulness that is to accompany our work. Perhaps, Martha’s complaining was even a sign that what she really wanted was to control her sister, and was using housework as an opportunity to manipulate or dominate. Nagging, after all, can be a form of subtle domination. Or, what kind of old resentments was Martha carrying around with her, that she could not imagine that her sister Mary could be doing something good?

Martha’s grumbling sure doesn’t lead us to believe that she was doing these small things with great love. Rather, we do well to begin our work prayerfully offering it to God, seeking to glorify God even by the way we do our work—with peace, humility, perhaps even cheerfulness.

The Lord responds to Martha: “you are anxious and worried about many things.” Psalm 139 says that God searches us and knows our hearts, he tests us and knows our anxious thoughts. And Jesus shows himself to be keenly aware that Martha was not doing her work with peace in her heart. Jesus in this Gospel isn’t condemning housework, but he is certainly teaching that we must let go of our anxieties, worrying what everybody else is doing all the time, if it keeps us from being at peace.

May we relinquish our anxious attitudes or domineering behaviors, and focus in our work and throughout the day on the Lord's Holy Will for our lives, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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That hearing the call to repentance preached by the Church, all men may turn away from their sins to the mercy of Christ.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering, may they come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.