This little story of Martha and Mary has a way of getting into people’s minds; it has a way of getting under people’s skin. Many people over the years have complained about this story, in which they believe that it’s not about Martha and Mary, but rather about Martha versus Mary: Who leads the best life? Even my mom, every time she hears this Gospel, strongly defends Martha, telling me that Martha gets a bad rap. I think people take a stance on this because they, too, identify with Martha and believe it was an unfair assessment on Jesus’s part. Martha, who was worried about all the details of hospitality, represents the active life. She represents the people who get things done in life, all those people in the life of the Church who are actively engaged in their Ministry. Mary, on the other hand, sits quietly at the feet of Jesus and listens, representing the meditative life. Think of all the monks and nuns and scholars who spend their lives in quiet considering the things of God.
Now, when Jesus says to Mary, “you have chosen the better part and it won’t be denied of you,” is read by some as Jesus valuing the meditative life over the active life. Honestly, I will not go that far with it, but I think we can reflect on this active/meditative life. I think that it is made very clear in the Old and New Testaments that listening has to come before acting. Now I am not saying that action is not important, but it is more of a chronological relationship: Step 1: listen, Step 2: act.
What gets people in trouble is that we may act without listening. Think of King David in the Bible when he wanted to build the temple. It was good to want to build a temple for God. David was full of good intentions, but that was not part of God’s will at that very moment. As Nathan the prophet said, “No, that is not what God wants.” David, to his credit, listened and did not act. Or even better, he acted by not building the temple. Action after taking the time to meditate is a very important principle for us today.
We are not a very meditative society – we are much more action-oriented. We are much more at home with Martha as we prefer to keep busy and very active. In our culture, it seems like we are people who never stop moving. We go from place to place, meeting to meeting, dropping one child off at one activity, and trying not to be late for our next appointment. Action is good, but being too busy isn’t. So then, action without prayerful reflection is problematic: We must listen first, then act.
Have you ever noticed in the Gospels that we never hear Jesus do things out of obligation? He doesn’t say, “I guess I should do this because I am supposed to.” This is the tension that we feel when reading the Gospels. It is the tension that we have with Him now. Jesus is willing to go against the expectations of the crowd, even when it comes to his friends Martha and Mary. In order to be true to the things that He is pursuing, Jesus doesn’t let what everyone wants or what the culture thinks is the most noble for him to do to redirect His purpose. His purpose was always the cross. His purpose was to head towards Jerusalem.
So again, we never see Jesus stressed or worried that He is going to let people down. He doesn’t cure everyone who is blind, paralyzed, and deaf. He was never worried about what people thought about him. We never hear Jesus say, “I am just so busy!!” The truth is that for us, being busy is a drug that is easy to become addicted to.
Obviously, there are times in life that we just can’t help but be busy: a sick family member, starting a new job or new project at school or work, or typical family life. Today’s Gospel, however, tells us that we must examine the rhythms of our lives, the busyness, with the help of God. We have to if we are ever going to stay focused on the great things that God has planned for us.
Let’s ask ourselves: Are we going through the motions of life, or do we know exactly what our lives are about? We all have God given talents and gifts. We all get the opportunity to receive God’s life in the sacraments. We have the graces ready to be given to us; however, if we don’t spend time praying about these things, thinking about these things, and sitting in silence with God to listen to Him, we can get pulled off track and get spread too thin. We can be like Martha complaining to Jesus about Mary; we complain to ourselves and others about how busy we are and others are not. However, if we stay focused on what God wants from us and on the important things in our lives, we can begin to truly listen to Jesus and have more confidence in Him as we pursue the great things in this life.
So let us think about this today, especially for those who feel so busy right now. Know that God is not asking us to do more, but that He is probably asking us to do less. Let us take a moment out of our busy lives to be with Him, to go out and smell the roses of life, to learn to enjoy being present with God. Let us understand more of what God has created us to be so that we don’t get burned out on our journey to heaven.