TEXT: The Gospel According to St. Luke 10:38-42

Tonight, as I reflect upon the words of this paper, it is the 4th of July 1998 in my country.  Many have busied themselves with the celebration of the birth of my nation, the United States, when the ancestors of this country broke away from Great Britain in 1776 by the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  I hear fireworks popping outside and there are many large public gatherings that are celebrating with a lot of smoke and noise from those pyrotechnics.  It is what we do...

Yet, there is deeper calling for us, even as we are involved in things that are legitimate for us to involve ourselves in the business of living.  There are deeper things.  In our hearts, the individual heart of each of us, we have a calling that is from our Lord imprinted there and beckoning us to a deeper life in God.

This story of Mary and Martha is an example of two women who heard the calling of God at their different levels of understanding.  I would like for us to listen to and choose for ourselves the "better part," that is, what cannot be taken from us.

For, though heaven and earth will fade away, the words of the Lord will abide forever.

38 As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
39 She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.

With these words, we have a picture of the Church.

There is Martha, engaged in the administrative duties.  These are important duties, and it must be understood that it was Martha who "welcomed" Jesus.  It is obvious that Jesus was known to Martha and that Martha thought highly of Jesus.  She thought so highly of Jesus that she engaged in a lot of business in her home, legitimate business, and she worked fervently to see that things were prepared just so well for Jesus.

Yet, her sister, Mary, saw Jesus a little differently.  She listen to him by sitting right at his feet listening to the details of his words.

Blessed Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun who was, perhaps, the greatest mystic of our own century, was thought to be rather lazy and "nothing special," in the eyes of the other nuns, yet, Blessed Faustina was also seated at the feet of Jesus, listening to his words.
Today, the words of Jesus have been shared with the Church through the one who listened, as she sat at the feet of Jesus Christ.

The story goes further for Mary and Martha.

40 Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me."
41 The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
42 There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

What an answer for the Church today, the modern Church, the People of God. . .

There are so many burdens we have placed upon ourselves.

Often, the simplicity of faith is replaced by a self-imposed complexity of this and that responsibility, when more often than not, we should be spending much time at the feet of Jesus Christ and listening to his words, "the better part and it will not be taken from her."

Now, I am not saying that Martha was wrong.  I am not saying that Mary was exhibiting a "holier than thou" attitude.

What I sense the text is saying to us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that while there are needs that are temporal and earthly that need to be accomplished in the here and the now of the daily workings of life, the administrative duties, there is a great need to "Take Time to Be Holy."

We must take the time to sit at the feet of our Lord Jesus and listen attentively to his every word and ask Jesus how we may employ these words to our lives?

Do we spend time in the private devotions that we ought for Jesus, at the feet of him whose feet were wounded by those old metal nails?

The active life and the contemplative lives in the Church, represented by Mary of Bethany and Martha, must be combined.  Far from being an obstacle, work should become in the time we take to become holy men and women, and children, for God -- the means whereby for a closer relationship with our Lord.

This is where we are to learn the meaning of allowing Christ to become Incarnated in our daily walk with God.  We are in Christ... we are to become the new creations in Christ in our walk with God as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is an integrated life in Christ -- active and contemplative.

I find myself, often, in contemplative prayer, as I am at my place of work in the government; as I walk through the crowds that surround me, as I go to my bed to sleep, as I enter my private chapel to pray; as I go through life daily in Christ.
Christ is present.  I must come to realize this Present One who desires to have close communion with me in the Church, as with all his children -- the Mary’s and the Martha’s of the Church.  Perhaps, we should become the best attributes of both of these sisters -- and be called in our charism where we combine these two women into one Grace of --  "sister Mary-Martha."

Mary, however, does have "the better part and it will not be taken from her."

How tragically some hold onto only one approach.

If we read the Gospels carefully in all of their contexts, we will find an increasing awareness of the practicality of the contemplative life as it is mixed in perfection by the Holy Spirit with the active lives we live in Christ.

The best part is that part which always seeks the heart of Jesus and Mary, bring us to the feet of Jesus to listen carefully to his words, and, then, to take those words as a witness out to a world that needs to be met with that Incarnational Reality those words speak about through the members of his mystical Body, the Church.

May we ever be more like Mary who has "the better part and it will not be taken from her."

May our the Mother of God assist us in these Graces.

Deus et Sanctissima.