Martha and Mary with Jesus

[Mike1w]

In the gospel reading for Tuesday October 8th, 2019, Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to stop listening to Him, and help her doing chores. Jesus said Mary has chosen the better part, which is the only thing that really matters, and it will not be denied her. As a caregiver for a disabled spouse, I can’t reconcile that with the need to care for my neighbor, my spouse in particular. I need to follow Jesus but I can’t give up caregiving tasks. So I am forced to be both Mary and Martha. I’m not sure what the takeaway is for me from this gospel.

 

[De_Maria]

In the gospel reading for Tuesday October 8th, 2019, Martha asks Jesus to tell Mary to stop listening to Him, and help her doing chores. Jesus said Mary has chosen the better part, which is the only thing that really matters, and it will not be denied her. As a caregiver for a disabled spouse, I can’t reconcile that with the need to care for my neighbor, my spouse in particular. I need to follow Jesus but I can’t give up caregiving tasks. So I am forced to be both Mary and Martha. I’m not sure what the takeaway is for me from this gospel.

Your takeaway is not to take it from anyone else.

If a person decides to become a priest or a nun, it is not your job to say to them, “There’s too much work to be done in the world for you to waste your time praying.”

There’s nothing wrong with the choice you have made. There’s nothing wrong with the choice that contemplatives have made. In fact, Jesus says they have made the better choice.

 

[Powdercoater]

“Martha was anxious about many things”… I think this is more what Jesus was trying to get her to see. She could have been doing those tasks while still keeping Jesus at her centre.

 

[Dovekin]

It is not easy to resolve these diffculties.

Matthew 25 tells us that what we do for the least, we do for Christ. This is in direct contrast to “the poor you always have with you, me you will not always have” which Jesus says in the very next story. There is a way in which loving care for one of the least is the one thing needed. But it is easy to lose sight of that and become concerned about many things.

 

[JustLOL]

As a caregiver for a disabled spouse, I can’t reconcile that with the need to care for my neighbor, my spouse in particular. I need to follow Jesus but I can’t give up caregiving tasks.

Of course you can’t, but in caring for your loved one, you are following Jesus.

Consider the story where the young man asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment.

Jesus said to love God above all else, and that the second one was like it, to love others.

In loving others, we are showing our love of God.

Aiding your spouse is, unquestionably, serving Jesus.

Rejoice!

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Because Martha wasn’t caregiving a disables person.
She lived in a house with her young and healthy brother and sister.
Maybe Jesus just wanted Martha’s presence and attention rather than to see her work herself into a snit

 

[lil_user]

I’m not sure what the takeaway is for me from this gospel.

Consecrated life is a higher calling. We know that “at the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Mt 22:30), hence the ultimate excellence of a life dedicated to love and know God in an exclusive way.

That being said, each soul’s path to holiness is unique. Doing God’s will in your life is what will lead you to heaven. Embrace your vocation, and perhaps in time you’ll realize how much more like Mary you look than like Martha, for

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in them [1Jn4]

Many saints were sanctified by their works of charity:

Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. [Mt25:40]

 

[Limoncello4021]

Martha was self centered. The story has little to do with her serving and everything to do with the fact that God was in her house and she was not paying attention.

 

[Dorothy]

“Martha was anxious about many things”… I think this is more what Jesus was trying to get her to see. She could have been doing those tasks while still keeping Jesus at her centre.

Yes, we can go about our daily tasks peacefully, offering them up to the Lord.
Of course, we do need time also for personal, contemplative prayer.

 

[stpurl]

I don’t think she was self-centered at all. She wanted Jesus, after all, to have the best possible treatment that she, as a hostess, could give.

Martha gets a bum rap IMO while too often people “use” Mary to get out of legitimate things they should be doing, claiming that just ‘sitting’ is 'the better part.

That’s why I love Catholicism because we don’t cherry pick Scriptures.

Later, when Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, has died, it is Mary who stays away when Jesus comes to Bethany; Mary who remains ‘in the home’ wrapped up in mourning.

In John 11 we read: On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

So here we see that Martha has profited and has chosen ‘the better part’, while Mary has, briefly, retreated into temporal grief.