Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 - Tuesday in the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
[Galatians 1:13-24 and Luke 10:38-42]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.
. Coming on the heels of the parable of the Good Samaritan, one might guess that Jesus would say, "Hey Martha! Get up and lend a hand!" But that is not what happens. Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part! Mary is in the position of the disciple at the feet of the teacher. Much has been made of this incident, especially by using it to compare "active" with "contemplative" life. I don't think the two are enemies. I give a good number of retreats using some elements from Dominican tradition. These elements are Prayer, Study, Community and Ministry. I suspect that if I were to ask at any retreat involving folks in ministry that they draw four circles with the size of each circle reflecting the importance of that element in their life, the one marked "ministry" would be the largest! However, I start with prayer and then go to study and then to community and, last of all, to ministry. My conviction is that unless the first three are in good shape, the ministry will not be. We cannot give to others what we do not have. If we do not pray, learn or love, how are we going to effectively serve other people as Christ would have us serve. The incident in the gospel calls our attention to the necessity to be close to the Lord before we dare to serve. We can ask ourselves four questions. The first three are: How am I praying? How am I learning? and How am I loving? THEN, I think we can ask ourselves: How am I serving? I think this process can help us to understand why Jesus tells Martha that she is worried about many things, but only one thing is important! AMEN
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