July 17^th 2016. SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Luke 10:38-42

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(Translation of a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Luke 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Martha is fixated with what she is doing for Jesus and seems to have little interest in what he can do for her. She scolds Jesus and asks him to tell Mary to stop listening to him and come to her aid. It is her actions that are the important ones, Martha feels. In our spiritual lives, how often we are fixated with our own struggles, our own actions! We leave little room for Jesus to act on us. We find prayer and spiritual exercises a weary burden. But prayer should be an act of reception, an oasis where we receive wisdom, consolation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has so much more to give us that we can imagine. Our egoistic fixation with what we can do is an obstacle to receiving what the Lord wishes to give us. This is not to say that we do not need to do anything! We must act also, but in a way that allows the action of God to enter into our lives and bring our acts to fruition. Our actions then will take on a grandness and beauty that will bear witness to fact that they are grounded in God. We think of God as a taskmaster who demands our fatigue, but he is the one who wishes to act tirelessly for us!

Martha is fixated with doing things for Jesus, and doesn’t seem to care what Jesus can do for her

The first reading describes the welcome given by Abraham to three travellers, who in reality are the angels of the Lord. Once they are welcomed, they leave new life behind them, promising the birth of Isaac. At the time of Abraham, to refuse hospitality to a pilgrim was to condemn him to death. Hospitality was obligatory, a sacred act. The surprising thing in this story is the fact that it was the pilgrims who had something precious to give rather than receive. And we find the same theme in the Gospel. Martha and Mary welcome Jesus to their home, but Mary does nothing whilst Martha is busy with the hospitality. It seems the classic tension between siblings. Martha, evidently, is the older sister and she feels responsible to provide hospitality for Jesus. The problem is that she remains stuck in this act. It is important for her that her welcome should be on the level of the guest, so she brings out the best of everything and wants things to go just right. It is as if she wants to provide Jesus with a sort of “trailer” that demonstrates her competence and skills as a host. Martha does not get beyond her fixation with wishing to create a good impression. The real problem here is that Martha is oblivious to the fact that her guest, Jesus, has so much more to give her.

We want Jesus to take note of what we are doing for him, but it would be better if we learned to receive from him

Closed within her own egoistic concerns, Martha becomes agitated and is unable to appreciate what Jesus is capable of doing for her. Burdened with her tasks, she scolds Jesus: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to do the serving?” In other words, she is bothered by the fact that Jesus does not take interest in what she is doing for him. And this is a fact: Jesus is not primarily interested in what we do for him. Martha wants Jesus to place a priority on what she does, and she wants Jesus to get Mary to co-operate with what Martha is doing, rather than telling her beautiful things about God’s Kingdom. But Jesus would prefer if Martha learned to receive from him. In this sense, Mary has chosen the better part. It is important that we do not see this story as a tale of Martha against Mary so much as a story of how essential it is that Martha becomes like Mary. Mary has chosen to receive from Jesus. In the spiritual life, we sometimes put too much emphasis on our own actions. For example, if we are struggling against sin, the important thing is not to focus on the battle against sin but on the reception of the new life that banishes sin. The campaign against sin is something secondary, the occasion through which the Lord Jesus enters our lives. Sometimes we think of prayer as a chore. And it is demanding in that it requires discipline and tenacity. But prayer should be an act of reception, an oasis in which we receive consolation and wisdom, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Our work is secondary to that of God. We must act, it is true, but in such a way that we allow the Lord to enter into our actions and bring them to completion. Then our actions will bear extraordinary fruit and it will be evident to all that God is the primary mover.

Like Marta, we must learn that our labour is secondary to the action of God. St Vincent de Paul, who was himself a giant of charity, said that the works of God come to fruition of themselves. When one does the works of God, they have such a beauty and grandness that our part becomes something very small and secondary, whilst the part of God is something splendid and evident. All of this is not to say that we should not do anything! Rather, we must do things in such a way that the Lord is able to enter into them and bring them to completion. The lesson of this week’s readings is that what we have to offer is miniscule compared to what God wishes to do in any given situation. And yet we think that to do God’s work is tiresome! That God is a demanding taskmaster! On the contrary, to cooperate in God’s work is a tiny sacrifice for a beautiful gift, a marvellous place of encounter with him, an experience that no one can take from us.