“ How do I turn on the gas? Does it have an automatic lighter?” I enquire.
My wife sighs, “ No! That is the indoor range which has the automatic lighter, not the outdoor one you have to use for warming up the curries.”
My better half is about to leave for a one-day trip to her home state for a family function, and I am in charge of the house for a day. I need to warm up the breakfast, and this is something that I find challenging – to do household chores.
I am most comfortable with spiritual studies and learning about Him, but when it comes to looking after the household and even guests’ hospitality, I am lacking in that department. This is an area that my better half is strong in, and very practical and capable too.
She is more like the Martha in the Gospel reading that I heard today, though her actual name is Mary.
And I am more like the Mary in the Gospel reading, though my name is Tom.
We need to have a balance in our lives, between prayer and work. I guess this is what the story of Martha and Mary tells us.
Both have good qualities needed for the Christian life, but is one more important than the other?
Speaking for myself, it takes effort to tear myself away from reading ahead on the daily readings for the Mass, participating in the daily Mass and soaking myself in the tranquil atmosphere with Him in brief moments of Adoration after the Mass. On the other hand, my better half has to take care of the needs of the school-going children and other household matters.
I ponder on the Gospel Lk 10:38-42 which says:
Now as they went on their way, Jesu] entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her”.
The Lord tells us that Mary has chosen the better part.
Now why do I get the feeling deep inside me that Martha, assuming she had a family of her own to look after, has actually chosen the better part? The part of serving the other first before oneself. True servant leadership in action.
We find further accounts of Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus in Jn 11:1-15, 43-44 and Jn 12:2.
All three siblings were close to Jesus, and He visited their home often. In fact, Jn 11:5 says “ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”
I would like to think that Martha with her strong-willed and brash personality had a heart for all. Her efforts to welcome gatherings into the home with warm hospitality endeared her to the visitors to her home.
Could it be possible that the Lord got it wrong once? That Martha had chosen the better part. After all, serving the other is like serving God.
What would you do if Jesus visited you at home today?
Be a Martha? Or be a Mary?
Maybe the right answer is to have a mix of both – a balance. The Christian life requires not that we be either Martha or Mary, but that we strive to emulate what is best in both of them.
What do you think?
2 thoughts on “Becoming like Martha”
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You bring up an interesting point — when Jesus says “wrong” things. It takes a lot of contortions to make them seem “right”.
An objective observer would notice that some of what Jesus says is either wrong, sinful, or cruelly unhelpful. His parables, for example — yes, the Apostles don’t “get it” as to who He is, but he doesn’t give them much to go on. His response to Nicodemus would confuse anybody. He curses a disabled person who asks him for help. And he is decidedly anti-family. He says to follow him one must hate one’s father and mother; he disowns his own family when they try to pry him out of the synagogue; and at Cana he speaks to Mary in a way that no respectful son would.