July 18, 2010 16th Ordinary Sunday Gen. 18:1-10; Col. 1:24-28; Lk. 10:38-42 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/nab/071810.shtml    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, visits Mary and Martha. Martha takes the initiative, welcomes Jesus into her home, and begins preparing for him as fancy a meal as she can. There is nothing unusual about this - showing hospitality, welcoming guests, feeding them well - these were very important virtues in that culture, and Martha is doing her best to show hospitality to Jesus and to make him feel at home. But while she is busily working away on the food, her sister Mary does something unusual. She sits quietly at Jesus' feet, like a student or a disciple would, and listens intently to what Jesus is saying.   When Martha complains, Jesus tells her, "Martha, Martha," Jesus says, "you are worried and distracted by many things, but there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen it; Mary has chosen the better part."   Why does Jesus praise Mary over against hardworking, worn out Martha? Mary sits at Jesus' feet and listens to his Word, listens to His vision, and without that Word, we cannot go on, like Martha, preparing meals of hospitality for the world. It will finally worry us, distract us, anger us, exhaust us, and beat us down. With that Word, though, we can prepare meals for the hungry, care tenderly for the sick, show hospitality to the stranger and keep on loving and living in the name of Christ.   What we hear from Jesus is that our lives are gathered into God's life, that God is out there in the world healing and feeding and restoring, and therefore what we do for others counts, really counts, and we can trust God and hope for God's new creation.   One of the ironies of modern life is that we can spend all our lives acting like Martha, so overwhelmed with practical duties that we end up intellectually and spiritually empty. Now, perhaps more than ever, we also need to give ourselves time and space in which to think and pray. This is the “better part” that Mary chose.   Giving time to contemplation does not mean neglecting the practical dimensions of our lives. Rather, it means giving ourselves the opportunity to place what we do in the larger context of our lives and our relationships with God and others. We need to be both Mary and Martha. In the midst of the many duties and responsibilities that modern life imposes on us, we need to make time and space to sit beside Mary at the feet of Jesus and renew ourselves intellectually and spiritually.     <<   Previous: 15th Ordinary Sunday  | Next: 17th Ordinary Sunday >>   Go Back to SERMONS (Year C)