Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Josep Martinez-Cubero, OHC
Pentecost, Proper 11 C - July 17, 2022
The Gospel of Luke places great importance on service, on diakonia, from which we draw the word Deacon. Earlier in this gospel, Jesus sends out the 70 disciples to do ministry ahead of him. He tells them that when they are welcomed into someone’s home, they should eat whatever is set before them. Now, in today’s gospel story, it is generally believed that Martha is busy preparing a meal for Jesus and his followers. It’s an assumption that makes sense if one considers the cultural practices of the place and time. So if it is true, and Jesus is actually telling Martha she should sit down with Mary, Jesus and
company, won’t have anything in front of them to eat! And immediately before this event Jesus tells what we know as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, and instructs to “Go and do likewise.” So it makes no sense to think that Jesus is now advocating sitting and listening over doing.
So, what is really going on in this story? I don’t think the issue is that Martha is busy serving and providing hospitality. Service is, in fact, a needful thing. Jesus himself came as one who serves. The issue is that she is worried and distracted. The root meaning of the Greek word translated as “worried” is “strangled.” The Greek word translated as “distracted” means “to be pulled, and dragged away in different directions.” These are violent words that signify states of mind that make us isolated and un-whole.
Martha’s anxiety and distraction are sabotaging her own desire to offer hospitality, leaving no room for the most important aspect, which is gracious attention to her guests. Instead, all she can do is to question Jesus’ love (“Lord, do you not care?”), break all the rules of hospitality by trying to embarrass her sister in front of her guests and fixating on herself (“My sister has left me to do all the work by myself”), and asking Jesus to intervene in a family dispute by triangulating (“Tell her then to help me.”) Yikes! But Jesus will not be triangled!
It is not the doing that goes wrong with Martha. It’s the motivation behind the doing. Martha has let her ego motivate her “doing.” When this happens, it always leads to resentment, which is a disappointed expectation. Her resentment and frustration diminishes her gift of hospitality, which she is working so hard to share. If our inner life has become strangled and we struggle to give and receive love. If our busyness is dragging us in different directions and has become an affront to the friends we long to host. If our worry is keeping us from being fully present, and fully engaged. If we are using our packed schedule to avoid intimacy with God or with others. If our spiritual practices and devotions have become busy, mechanical and rigid keeping us distracted and blocked from being hosts to Christ’s
presence in our hearts. Then Jesus is inviting us to remember that “…there is need of only one thing.”
What is the one thing that is necessary? Today’s gospel story does not tell us. To find the answer we need to look at the text which immediately precedes today’s story. The question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The answer: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength and all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Plain and simple. Of course, we know this, and yet need to be reminded time and time again. It is only through love that we become the hosts of Christ’s presence in our hearts. It is only through Christ’s presence in our hearts that we can be renewed to give ourselves in love to the world.
I like to think about Jesus’ words to Martha as an invitation, not a rebuke. And that invitation is for all of us, especially those of us of the “doing” disposition. It’s an invitation to know and trust that we are valued not for what we do, but because of who we are, beloved children of God. In a culture of relentless pursuit of productivity, we doers need to be reminded that our worth is not measured by how busy we are, by how much we accomplish, or by how well we meet the expectations of others. We are invited to sit and rest in Christ’s presence and trust that whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices. In the words of Orthodox priest James Krueger: “Self-gifting love is the true goal of contemplative practice, not self-actualization.” It’s important to remember that we are all called to be mystics and prophets! Mysticism that doesn’t lead to prophetic action is disengaged, and sentimental and self-absorbed. Prophetic action that doesn’t spring up from prayer and contemplation is chaotic, and contentious, and it too is self-absorbed.
So, if you are a doer like me, oh, be you, DO! Don’t let any preacher, or pastor, or spiritual director make you feel like you are any less for being who you are. But “do” single-mindedly, and deeply saturated in Christ’s love. That’s how we can live into the Reign of God. If we asked Jesus which example we are to follow, the active Good Samaritan or the contemplative Mary, Jesus would most certainly answer: “Yes!”
I’ll end with the same poem with which I started by Saint Teresa of Ávila:
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.
¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo!
~Amen+
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