Sunday Meditation: Martha or Mary?

The thing to remember for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C that is not so obvious since these readings in Church come a week apart, is that Luke places the story of Mary and Martha right after the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  That is not a coincidence.  The overt activity of the Good Samaritan is contrasted with the activity of Martha. 

 

 

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."

   ~Lk 10:38-42

 

First the explanation of the passage will come from Dr. Brant Pitre.  It’s in two separate videos.  First the pure explanation.

And then the spiritual significance, and listen to the end to here why you need prayer in your life.

 

So how does the parable of the Good Samaritan fit in?  By the adjacent juxtaposition of the two, Luke wants us to compare.  Jesus is not saying that the Good Samaritan should have not performed his acts of mercy because he was acting like Martha.  His act of mercy is grounded in love of God and neighbor.  Martha’s service is good, but it’s distracted from God.  The Good Samaritan’s activity is not distracted from God.  It is grounded in God.

The great Dominican theologian and mystic, Meister Eckhart, had a different take on this story. This Mr. Matthew Fox explains.

 

 

Eckhart can be so innovative.  Martha is mature while Mary is too immature to do both contemplation and activity at the same time.  It's like Mary can't walk and chew gum at the same time but Martha can.  It may be innovative, but I don’t think Christ meant it this way.

For the pastoral sermon, I’m going to go with Sister Mary Mediatrix of All Grace of SOLT.

 

It's always nice to have a woman give us a perspective on women.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.”

 

 

Again no hymn today, just a dramatization of the passage, this time from The Chosen.

 

That’s not exactly how I would have dramatized it is but adequate.