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What to do; When to do it?

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Diego Velázquez - Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Jonah 3: 1-10
Luke 10: 38-42

If we take today’s gospel and compare it with yesterday’s gospel we see how Luke balances the previous male example of hospitality with a narrative about two sisters who invite Jesus to their home.  The story defines the nature of discipleship and it also breaks some religious and cultural barriers.

Mary is depicted as the ideal disciple listening and learning at the feet of Jesus.  Luke puts her on the level of Jesus’ male disciples and in fact has her  as more attentive than they.  Martha, on the other hand, is busy about doing stuff – cooking and serving her guests .  There is more to hospitality than doing and serving.  Preoccupation with doing things can cause a person to neglect the one for whom they are being done.

Jesus’ rebuke to Martha is often seen as a put-down.  It has even been interpreted as a preference of the contemplative life over the active life.  But the passage must be read in context with attention to the details of the narrative.  Jesus probably wouldn’t have rebuked Martha if she had not violated hospitality by telling him what to do about Mary.  She wanted Mary to be busy doing what she was doing.  Jesus rebukes her not because she showed hospitality by serving, but because she was “anxious and worried” about many things.  She had become obsessed with serving.  By listening to Jesus, Mary chose the better part, challenging the idea that a disciple’s – particularly a woman disciple’s only place was in serving.

It’s no accident that Luke places this story right after the Good Samaritan parable – so that they balance and complement each other.  In the Good Samaritan parable, the priest and the Levite are so absorbed in being holy that they ignore the man who needs help.  The hero is the Samaritan who did what the situation called for.  The hero of one story and the heroine of the other seem to be opposites, but they are both part of the Jesus story.

Jesus isn’t saying it’s better to meditate in a monastery than to serve in a soup kitchen – or vice versa.  His kingdom needs people doing both.  Your particular vocation at this time in your life may tilt more toward reflection or more toward action, but each of us needs both.  Today is a good time to examine the proportion of each in our lives.  Do we need to get a little more out of ourselves and into using our time and talents for serving others?  Or do we need to slow down and reserve more time for sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening?

Fr. Damian Towey, CP is a member of the community at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center,North Palm Beach,Florida.

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Feast of St. Martha

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Lv 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37
Jn 11:19-27

If we have a very special guest coming to our home for dinner we like to prepare a meal that shows our high regard for our guest.  This too was a value in Jewish culture of Jesus’ time.  That means more time in preparation, and a greater variety on ingredients and several dishes.  If this seems like I am starting this reflection with a bias toward Martha the cook over Mary the listening disciple of Jesus, well I am.  Because I find myself a lot like Martha when there is something that needs to be done now.   Mary focused on Jesus in the present and listened to his words a relationship of prayer.  Martha prepared a meal in order to serve Jesus a little later.  Both were thoughtful of Jesus.  They represent two major challenges for the Christian every day.  One is developing a relationship with God principally through daily prayer, the other taking care of the responsibilities of our vocation, job, family, community and church.  They all vie for our time and most people today conclude there is not enough time to adequately handle all of these on a daily basis.   Many of us tell ourselves that God is patient and understands our stress and will understand if we postponed prayer until the end of the day or if necessary till tomorrow.  God is always patiently there.

But Jesus sees it differently.  He asks us thought the Martha and Mary incident to use prioritization as the guiding principal daily rather than postponement.  Depending upon out temperament this may go against our instincts, but none the less God knows us best and what is best for us.  No lover likes to be constantly delayed or put off over and over again.  And God is Love.  Mary stayed with Jesus and chose the better part.

Jesus told Martha the cook that “there is need of only one thing.”   These words in the Greek language of the new Testament Bible do not clarify just what Jesus meant.   It could be equally possible that he meant that he needed only one dish or item for dinner and any effort and time spent in the kitchen beyond that was beyond hospitality.  I would like to think that Martha immediately understood  this and quickly sat down with Mary to hear Jesus’ words.     Pray first and let the work flow from there.

Fr. Patrick Geinzer, C.P.
St. Paul of the Cross Monastery and Retreat Center
Pittsburgh, Pa.

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The Colors of Resurrection

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Ez 37:12-14
Rom 8:8-11
Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

Death is one of the primary colors in our paint box of life. It can tint any of the other important colors – youth, love, the joy of our journey. Sometimes it is used sparingly, but not always. It seems our readings would introduce a new color into the spectrum. How hard it is to describe a color in words; how describe this new one?

Ezekiel engages our senses as we visit the valley of dry bones. We hear the clattering of bone hitting bone; we see sinew and flesh cover the skeletons. The graves open and the dead rise! “I will put my spirit in you that you may live”!

Why does Jesus, who did his miracles for strangers, not rush to be with friends he loves in this moment of great need? Jesus says, it is so that the disciples may believe. We hear Thomas, “Let us also go to die with him”. The Passion approaches. The hour has come.

John does not dwell on the emergence of Lazarus from the tomb, “the dead man came out tied hand and foot with burial bands, an his face was wrapped in a cloth…untie him and let him go”. Describing in reverse the tender, tearful, reverent steps that were part of his burial, may add to the emotions of this reading. I wonder how many of the crowd ran away or fainted? Jesus had just introduced them to a new color! Some now begin to believe. This new color of coming back from the dead does not paint the entire picture, though. There is more as we learn from the words of Jesus and Martha.

Jesus must have felt pain when confronted with Martha’s disappointment that he did not come to save her brother from death. They have common ground in believing that Lazarus will rise in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will life, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Martha shares what she believes, “Yes, Lord…you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world”. Martha comes to believe in Jesus. The resurrection of Lazarus is to help us in our journey of belief in Jesus.

The story is full of the feelings we may know from our encounters with death: anger and hurt, grief, helplessness and resignation in the face of human fragility. Hopkins would name the color of the resurrection as that of the crimson-cresseted east. This seems a respectful, gentle color to meet such feelings?

Our reading of Ezekiel, completes the Old Testament readings that presented Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and David. Each of them knew the God of life uniquely and played major roles in the history of Israel. As Israel moved along, a step forward and a step backward, Ezekiel, speaking in a bright yellow, throws out to all the bright fulfillment of those promises made to Israel. It is a promise to all of us. Jesus fulfills what Ezekiel says. We are a people, one with Jesus, alive and full of the spirit, lead to intimacy with the Father. Our human fragility is not thrown away, but valued.

We near the life giving death of Jesus and the days of Baptism. Joined in Baptism to him in his passion and death, so are we then joined with him in his resurrection. No words are yet known for the colors that we will then see.

Father Bill Murphy, C.P. is the pastor of St. Joseph Monastery  Passionist Parish in Baltimore, Maryland.

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