Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain
village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the
Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks;
so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me
to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha,
you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” [Luke 10:38-42]
Nevertheless, what I want to say
is, Let’s hear it for Martha! Martha did
not deserve to go down in history henceforth as the kitchen-bound generator of
food, and clearer-up after men, whose favourite saying is a woman’ work is
never done. The Christian Church from
Rome to Warkworth owes Martha a somewhat posthumous apology for having
portrayed her down the centuries as attending to all the wrong things. Jesus didn’t see her that way. What Jesus saw, he says, was a worrier. Martha,
you are anxious and fretful about many things… He is inviting her to come and sit down. That’s all.
The difficulty with this story,
it seems to me, is that Jesus is reported as saying that Mary had chosen the
better part. I do not know why it gets translated that way. The Revised English Bible (RKJV) translates, Mary has chosen what is best. That’s difficult too. Martha was being critical of Mary, and I
think Jesus quietly defended Mary -- Mary
has made a good choice too. He is
not saying Martha’s choice is not good.
Presumably he will be glad to eat the food she brings.
People do not develop all the
same way. I would imagine that Martha,
by temperament, was always going to be happier when busy and doing things for
others, seeing tangible results of her energy, and seeing happy faces. If it was left to Mary, they mightn’t get
food much before midnight – and that would be on a good day. Martha makes things happen. She instinctively prioritises and she has
shopping lists. For Martha this is all a
kind of offering, not too far at all from prayer. A large part of the genius of Benedict is
that he showed a way in which work and prayer could be two sides of the same
coin, melding into each other so that in the monastery Laborare est Orare, to work is to pray, and the prayer they do in
the chapel is the Opus Dei, the work
of God.
Martha got anxious and
flustered, and angry with her sister. It
is this anxiety that registers with Jesus -- Martha, Martha, you are anxious and fretful about many things… Her anxiety, he sees, might shut her out
of what Mary is gaining because Mary has chosen to sit and listen. Perhaps some of that anxiety is precisely
because Martha always finds it difficult to sit and listen. Jesus loves and honours them both. He is not elevating Mary at the expense of
Martha. He is saying that whoever we are
it is important to know how to listen and learn, how to open the eyes of the
heart, as St Paul puts it, how to be still and receptive.
Contemplative people, people who
know how to be silent and still, paying attention at deeper levels than the
needs of self, actually do know also how to get meals ready and do practical
things. Our priorities may have been
adjusted somewhat, rebalanced a little…
But always it is the way of Jesus that matters.
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