I need help with today's Gospel, please

[Laura_B]

Hi:
Today at Mass (16th Sunday of Ordinary Time), the Gospel was Luke’s story of Martha and Mary.
I do understand the gist of it (ie, that Mary chose to put God first and that Martha was too wrapped up in the minutae of being a good hostess and perhaps not giving enough attention to her Guest).
However, as an admittedly stressed-out mom and worrywart, I still have trouble getting passed seeing it from Martha’s point of view. She asked Jesus for help. If it had been me, I could envision myself telling Him, “Well, maybe I could listen to You too if I had a little help around here! )”
I don’t mean to sound smart-alecky or anything. But how does one “choose the better part” and still get the work done and not worry about it? Jesus tells us not to worry, but how?
Thanks in advance for any insight on this.
God bless you and yours,

 

[YinYangMom]

LauraB,

I too can easily understand Martha’s stress level…here was Jesus, a very, very important guest in her home and she just wants to make certain he is comfortable and has everything he needs.

My understanding is that Jesus didn’t come to get a free meal or wasn’t looking to be impressed. He was rather humble in that sense, and if Martha had really known Jesus for who he was she would have known not to go all out with the details, but instead allow herself to be excited about why he was there, as Mary was, hanging on every word of the man.

I view this lesson as a reminder to not get so caught up in life that we forget what we’re living for. When it comes to having company over, it’s good to take a moment to remember the real reason for the occasion - to visit with that person, to talk, laugh, learn. Do what one must to prepare for the visit, but once the guest arrives - give them all of your attention to make the most of your time together. You don’t worry anymore by focusing all of your attention on your guest instead of on how good of a hostess you are. Get wrapped up in them and you won’t be thinking about the little details around you. With good planning, everything will flow smoothly.

When it comes to work, or school, or being a parent…we get so caught up in the carpooling, the deadlines, the exams that we forget to remember God’s role in all of that. He is present everywhere we go but we forget to notice him.

 

[Didi]

Our priest talked today about the gift of hospitality. We must make our guests feel at home; feel as though they are the most important people in the world to us. Mary was doing this by hanging on Jesus’ every word. That doesn’t mean we don’t also provide for our guests by preparing meals, etc., but Martha was running around trying to make everything perfect for Jesus and her guests and in the busy-ness of doing that, neglecting Jesus who was present in her home.

Sometimes we do this when we host a party or have a holiday dinner – get so wrapped up in making the meal perfect that we forget to sit down and talk with our guests. Perhaps making a simpler meal, or being more prepared and organized ahead of time, would allow us to focus on the people instead of the event. There does have to be a balance, but if a choice had to be made between busy-ness or attentiveness, Mary made the wiser choice.

I think we can also apply this to our lives by remembering that we do all things with and for Jesus – preparing meals, caring for our children, doing dishes, folding laundry. It is when we forget to include Him in our daily lives and simply go about our busy-ness that we are not making a wise choice.

Hope this helps!

 

[guse]

Our priest told a story today, a true story he said, about a woman who asked if she could be an extradorinary minister for a certain mass, I don’t remember why she wanted to. Anyway, the priest didn’t recongnize the woman even though the parish only had 400 families. Since he didn’t recognize the woman, he asked her which Mass she attended. She said, Ash Wednesday, Easter, and Christmas. The priest said don’t you think you should go to Mass more often, like maybe on Sunday. The woman replied that she was too busy doing the Lord’s work on Sunday to attend Mass.
His point was that sometimes we needed to spend time at the feet of Christ. We need to take the time to listen to him.

 

[KCT]

I don’t think Jesus rebuked Marth for serving per se; it was a social situation and someone had to serve. I get the impression he was referring to her attitude. She wasn’t peaceful; she was harried.

I apply the message 2 ways: 1) Have a charitable attitude as much as possible. Be joyful. 2) Plan ahead! Maybe Mary could sit and listen because she took care of her duties ahead of time! Speculation of course, but using our time wisely is important. —KCT

 

[Nicole]

KCT:

I don’t think Jesus rebuked Marth for serving per se; it was a social situation and someone had to serve. I get the impression he was referring to her attitude. She wasn’t peaceful; she was harried.

I apply the message 2 ways: 1) Have a charitable attitude as much as possible. Be joyful. 2) Plan ahead! Maybe Mary could sit and listen because she took care of her duties ahead of time! Speculation of course, but using our time wisely is important. —KCT

We discussed this in my weekly prayer group and also felt that it was the fact that she became stressed and wasn’t ‘serving joyfully’ that was the issue.

God Bless,
Nicole

 

[kaj3]

Laura B – Our priest, Fr. Robert Altier, had a wonderful homily, as usual. He is a very Orthodox priest at St. Agnes in St. Paul, MN.

Here is a link to his web site where you can read all of his homilies. Click on audio or text and then when the calendars come up, just click on the date: desertvoice.org/.

The gist of his homily was that we need to enter into deeper prayer. We need to listen to the will of God. When we pray, we need to be silent and do less talking. It’s OK to talk, but there needs to be a time for listening.

Just an excerpt:
“You are running around doing all kinds of good things but you are not doing the best thing. That is the trick of the devil and he is very shrewd at it. The devil will give you many, many good things to do in order to keep you from doing what is the best because the best is so much better than all those good things combined that he is willing to allow you to run around and do good things. He knows you are not going to do a bunch of bad things. He knew that if he came before you and put a temptation to do something evil that you would say “no”, so, in his shrewdness, he presents something that is reasonably good – but far from the best. And because it appears good, we automatically assume that it has to be of God, and we run around anxious and upset because we have too many things to do and we cannot accomplish them all. Then what happens is we get focused on ourselves, we start thinking about what we have to do, about how overburdened we are, we start recognizing that there is no way we can take on this whole array of things that we have decided we have to do, and we begin to make the focus simply ourselves.”

 

[chimakuni]

okay, okay…I have heard the above explanations before, too and they never made any sense to me. Today, Father Freitag gave a different slant on the readings.

First of all - Abram entertained the angels. Of course, Sara had to go around and direct the servants to do the food and all of that. She was probably a little miffed at having to do this. *Then when the angels said they would come back in a year and Sara who was barren would have a child, Sara laughed. *This part was not in today’s reading. But, Sara was probably thinking - - yeah, right - first I have to get these guys served and then they say I am going to have a child…right!

Fast forward to the gospel. Lazarus invites his friend, Jesus to his home. The two sisters are busy - one of them hanging on to his every word and the other sister irritated that here, this wonderful friend of the family is over and SHE has to do all the work. So… she goes to this most honored guest and she complains to him.

(the twist…) Jesus goes from being the most honored guest to being put in a spot that is uncomfortable for Him and He becomes the host who then settles a dispute. He tells her firmly that Mary has the better part because Mary is focused on Jesus. Mary has not taken her eyes off of Him and that is what is good about it. Not that Mary is not doing the work - but that Martha, along with doing the work needs to be keeping her focus, on God.

Sara - much her to surprise, does find that she is with child and has Isaac. Her focus also changes from her ideas - i.e. her maid servant and the son by Abram, but to God.

The small twist is just that - small, but it puts it into a different light and I like it.