Fr Matthew Reese

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.’
—Luke 10:38–41

Dear Friends,

Today is the Feast of Mary and Martha of Bethany, and at the noonday mass we will hear this famous Gospel lesson again, having just heard it two Sundays ago.

In the past week, I’ve been thinking a lot about this wonderful scene, in all its tenderness and domesticity. I suspect many of us know Martha’s feeling—the guests are over, the meal is not yet finished, the kitchen is a mess, and we look into the living room to see our sister or brother happily seated on the couch listening to conversation.

I swear my little brother Evan didn’t wash a single dish until I went off to college.

There is so much in our professional, familial, and spiritual lives that presses us to ever greater activity. Goals to meet, standards to keep up, people and things to attend to.

Many Christian writers through the ages have seen this passage as a discourse on the active and contemplative life, but I think that this dichotomy rather misses the point. Martha, of course, is doing everything that is religiously and socially required of her by serving an honored guest.

Jesus’s line is not an admonition, but rather an invitation to lay down the burdens of worldly convention. “Martha, there is need of only one thing.”

Luke and John seem unaware of each other’s story about Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. But Lazarus’s death and resurrection (John 11) surely occur after this.

And here we see Martha’s activity in a very different light. It is Martha’s grief, and Martha’s admonition that leaves Jesus “deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” And it is also Martha’s faith… “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”

That we might be able to confess Christ Jesus with the same fervor, the same zeal, the same depth.

Martha, pray for us.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew