Who do you relate to in today's gospel from Luke? Martha or Mary? In our society of busyness and activity, many people would relate to Martha. Always active, and getting upset at those that we consider lazy. We get upset at those who we feel aren't doing enough of their fair share of things when we have company.
When we see Martha and Mary, what we should be seeing is the two sides of relating to God in our lives and in the life of the Church. Martha, with all her busyness, is important in getting things done in our lives of service to the Lord. We're busy doing things for the family, paying bills, getting to work and dealing with the boss and those in our work place, etc, etc. When we finally pray, we tend to be still busy. We rattle off our rosary or pray from scripture or do our other prayers that we feel a need to do. All these things are important, but we need the "Mary factor" in order to put balance in our lives! We need to be able to sit at the feet of Jesus, with open ears and open minds to hear Him respond to our cares and concerns that we place before him.
In our first reading from Genesis, we see Abraham, who at this point is about 99 years old. Abraham lived a long life being "busy for the Lord". He's sitting in front of tent, being quiet and prayerful, probably thinking of his relationship with God. His patience is paid off by a visit by "three men standing nearby." (Genesis 18:2) According to tradition, these three men represent the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Abraham responds by being generous to them, and in his hospitality, offers them food and drink. In return to his generosity, the Lord promises that the elderly Sarah will have a son by the following year. This son to be born of Sarah is Isaac. It is through Isaac that the Lord promises: "I will maintain my covenant as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him." (Genesis 17:19) It is through Abraham's active and prayerful service that God blesses him and Sarah.
In our readings from Genesis with Abraham, and our reading from Luke with Martha and Mary, we learn that the being quiet with the Lord is necessary for a mature and strong spiritual life. Being in the quiet presence of Christ gives u a chance to pull all the separate strands of our life together. It's much like stopping and looking at a road map (or GPS) to compare where we are with our eternal destination.
It is through this prayer of listening, we begin to recognize the presence of God who comes in all kinds of unexpected ways, as the Lord does to Abraham. The Lord is present to us in good times and in bad times. Everything that happens to us is seeded with grace. Quiet prayer, listening to the Lord, helps these seeds grow.
Further, this quiet prayer allows us to gain spiritual wisdom. It's where we take the word of the Lord and make it truly our own.. Such a time of prayer, listening to the Lord, enables us to discover the particular way we follow Christ as spouse, parent, child of elderly parent, government worker, professional, student, parish priest or deacon. It gives us the kind of wisdom that doesn't come prepackaged out of books but is born in the presence of the Lord.
This kind of prayer, listening to the Lord, is different from "saying prayers" when we so often don't take the time to listen to the Lord because we're so busy speaking.
In our culture we are more into "doing things" than in taking time to reflect. This work ethic can infiltrate our prayer life so that we think that the only kind of prayer worth doing is "saying prayers," working prayers where we feel we're doing something.
But the "prayer of listening" takes its own kind of discipline and strength. The prayer of listening to the Lord takes work but it makes our time with Christ a source of energy and power and vision. Further, this kind of prayer is open to everyone. It has nothing to do with age, income level, IQ, family size, whether someone is male or female, single or married, priest or deacon, or lay person. The Lord touches each of us where we are.
Taking this quiet time is most important in our call as Christians. Take the time necessary to be alone with the Lord. This prayer will bring us closer to Christ, our spiritual center.
I attended a one woman play (Roberta Nobleman)based on St. Teresa of Avila's THE INTERIOR CASTLE, & I recall that she said that in the end "Martha and Mary are together". So ideally in the end there is not a conflict between action and contemplation.
ReplyDeleteI read a commentary that praised Abraham's hospitality but criticized Martha, because Abraham spent time with his guests. But if we look closely, Abraham had SARAH to bake the bread and a SERVANT to kill the steer, while Martha had no one else to help her!