First Reading: (Galatians 1:13–24)
Responsorial Psalm: (Psalm 139:1–3, 13–15)
R. Along the everlasting way, guide me, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation
Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.
Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: (Luke 10:38–42)
Reflection:
The encounter between Jesus, Martha, and Mary is one of those Gospel passages that can be uncomfortable precisely because it is so familiar. Many of us recognize ourselves in Martha. We are so busy. We are serving. We are carrying responsibilities. We are trying to make sure everything gets done. And sometimes, when we look around, it can seem as though someone else is simply sitting there while we do all the work.
But Jesus does something very important here: He does not condemn Martha's service.
Martha is not doing something evil. She welcomes Jesus into her home. She serves him. She works for him. Her service is good. Her problem is not that she serves; her problem is that her service has become burdened by anxiety.
Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.”
Mary has chosen the “better part.”
The distinction is profound. Martha gives something to Jesus. Mary first receives something from Jesus.
And that is the heart of Christian discipleship.
We naturally think that our relationship with God is primarily about what we do for him: how much we pray, how much we serve, how much we sacrifice, how much we accomplish, how much we give. All of those things matter. But Christianity begins somewhere deeper.
Before we do anything for God, God has already done something for us.
Before we love him, he loves us.
Before we serve him, he gives himself to us.
Before we offer ourselves to him, he offers himself to us.
This is why Mary's posture is so important. She sits at the feet of Jesus and listens. She receives his word. She allows herself to be loved and taught before rushing out to accomplish something.
And that is difficult for many of us.
Sometimes we have become so accustomed to being useful that we forget how to simply receive. We may even feel uncomfortable allowing another person to care for us. We think, “I don't want to be a burden. I don't want someone to have to serve me. I should be the one doing something.”
But love does not merely give. Love also receives.
If we cannot receive love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness, our service can eventually become anxious, resentful, or self-centered. We may continue doing good things, but inwardly we begin keeping score: I am doing all this. Why isn't anyone helping me? Why doesn't anyone appreciate me?
Martha's anxiety reveals what happens when service becomes disconnected from communion with Christ.
Jesus is therefore not telling Martha to stop serving. He is teaching her where her service must begin.
Receive first. Serve second.
That principle reaches all the way into the sacramental life of the Church.
We come to the Eucharist not primarily to demonstrate what we can do for God. We come because God gives himself to us. At the altar, Christ gives us his Body and Blood. He nourishes us with his own life. He forgives, transforms, strengthens, and sends us forth.
Our Christian service should flow from that encounter.
We do not serve in order to make God love us.
We serve because God has already loved us.
The first reading gives us another extraordinary example of this reality. Saint Paul describes the person he once was: a persecutor of the Church, someone who tried to destroy the very faith he would later proclaim.
Yet God called him.
The man who once persecuted the Church became one of its greatest Apostles.
That is grace.
Paul's life reminds us that God does not simply take people who are already perfect and put them to work. God transforms sinners and makes them instruments of his grace.
Then the Responsorial Psalm says:
“You have probed me, and you know me.”
God knows us more deeply than we know ourselves. He knows our activity, our anxiety, our wounds, our ambitions, our fears, our failures, and our desires. He knows the person we have been and the person he is calling us to become.
That is why we do not have to spend our lives proving ourselves to God.
He already knows us.
And more importantly, he still calls us.
Mary sits at the feet of Jesus because she understands, at least in this moment, that the most important thing is not what she can accomplish for him but what she can receive from him.
Eventually, however, Mary will have to rise from those feet.
And Martha will have to continue serving.
The Christian life needs both contemplation and action, receiving and giving, prayer and service.
But the order matters.
We receive Christ so that we can give Christ.
We allow his grace to enter us so that his mercy can pass through us to others.
We allow him to heal us so that we can become instruments of healing.
We allow him to love us so that we can learn to love others.
This is why Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part. She has chosen the one thing from which everything else must flow: Christ himself.
So perhaps the question for us today is not simply, “Am I serving enough?”
Perhaps the deeper question is:
Am I allowing myself to be served by Christ?
Am I making room to sit at his feet?
Am I listening to his Word?
Am I receiving his mercy?
Am I allowing the Eucharist to nourish me?
Am I permitting God to love me before I rush out to prove my worth through activity?
Because if we forget this, even good things can become burdens.
But when we begin with Christ, our service changes.
We no longer serve because we are anxious.
We serve because we are grateful.
We no longer serve because we need recognition.
We serve because we have received love.
We no longer serve because we are trying to earn something from God.
For there is indeed only one thing necessary.
Jesus Christ himself.
God bless you
Amen
