Jesus is visiting with his friends, Martha and Mary, in their home in this Sunday’s Gospel. Both are taking seriously their witness to hospitality. Martha expresses her hospitality by lifting from Jesus any concerns about nourishment; she prepares all the food and drink and serves him. It seems, however, that her attention is not so much toward Jesus as toward these many things she is busy about. In a quite ungracious moment Martha burdens her guest with a complaint about Mary: “Jesus, do you not care that my sister has left me all alone to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” Jesus does not side with Martha as she hoped.
Martha’s words may be taken as a complaint; she is annoyed at her situation. They may also go deeper and be a lament. A lament is a heartfelt expression of grief or sorrow. That which Martha grieves is an emotion nestled within her many words; she feels “alone.” Perhaps she is alone in her tasks because she does not know how to ask for help. Sometimes we get caught up in doing things. Others rely on us and we feel needed. Liking that feeling too much we might keep others from helping us; knowingly or unknowingly. If Martha is raising a lament, her feeling of being alone goes much deeper. Martha is in the midst of friends and yet seems to be unable to truly receive them. Not only is Martha not being receptive, she is being competitive. She’s asserting herself against others. If she wants not to be alone, at least in these tasks, she needs to draw others to her, allow herself to be drawn in by others. She can create as her process that which she desires as her outcome – communion. Martha will live in communion and she will experience togetherness, to the degree she commits herself not to things or to tasks, but to truly encountering other people. At that point of personal encounter with others, she will, paradoxically so, experience her own truest deepest self. Is it possible that Martha’s feeling of being alone is not only the result of her pushing others away but pushing herself away too? Is she more deeply alone than she is aware – unable to extend hospitality to her own self?
Mary shows herself willing to receive others and she is therefore at peace; with herself and with Jesus. She seems to know that there are no burdens in welcoming another; that we will always be lifted by the beautiful encounters to which we have given ourselves, “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Beautiful receptivity may be that “one thing” in reference to Mary. She is a woman cultivating receptivity. She is a woman willing and open to encountering others, to welcoming them into her heart and into her home.
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit of Receptivity, we welcome everyone.
Question: What is the spirit of my home, the one I am creating within me and the one I am creating around me?
July 17, 2016 Gospel Luke 10:38-42 Sixteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time