Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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.”
Choose the best part
1. Martha is the figure of the person who is busy all the time. That ‘marthalism’ is not good at all. Psychology speaks of people who do things for others all the time but do not take time for themselves. That leads them to become people without roots, insecure people who try to escape their inner self by dedicating themselves only to the outside world. The Gospel talks about a woman who does not stop even for Jesus. There are people who do not change even for the sake of their children. In the commitment that many people make to the Church, there can be a kind of ‘overactive heresy’. I mean that there is an illusion of doing work for God, it seems that God is presented through countless activities, but it is ultimately a deformation of God. We talk about God, and we do not talk with God. We can even be graduates in theology but without having a true encounter with Christ and without closeness to Christ, so what is transmitted is pure theory.
2. Mary represents the person who contemplates and who lives her life by making wise decisions because she knows what she is and what she needs, and more importantly, she knows who she needs. The key is to know how to take the time to be with Jesus and to listen to Him; to take time to sit down and listen, especially in this day and age in which we even eat standing up. In Mary we see a woman who meets Jesus and takes time for Him. She looks, listens and pays attention to Him. I invite you to find time to contemplate as well. Today, we live in a hectic world that keeps us from having a moment alone with Jesus. Seek and protect these moments alone with God.
3. Contemplative in action. May your evangelization be a result of your contemplation. The devil tempts us constantly through the many activities we do. Today, we must pause and contemplate in silence. Our life must be marked by contemplation and silence. We have a lot to learn from our orthodox and oriental brothers, they seek moments of silence and contemplation.
Today, try to look for that moment to be alone with God and you will see that evangelizing is easier because you can attest to what you have seen and heard and not simply speak through established brochures.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And don’t forget that Heaven is our Goal.
