Don Veitch
Hello Dear Friends:
The readings for today ask us to give some thought to what it might mean to be the kind of person God values and chooses for “his own.” I guess I have been brought to such a watershed event. In 1989, I finally gave in to an invitation to go on a weekend. I wasn’t sure what I was in for but had been invited by and sponsored by a dear friend. As I considered the readings for today, that weekend comes to mind.
In the Ezekiel reading, God promises to include those that He values among his flock and exclude those who are found wanting—judging between the sheep and the goats and the sheep and the sheep. He says He will save his flock from the ravages of the world and He will set up a kindly shepherd (David) to feed them and to be prince among them. God promises to free the enslaved, eliminate hunger for the select, and protect those who suffer the insults of nations.
But to be among the chosen, we cannot be the fat sheep, those who grasp more than their fair share—those who push others aside with shoulder or flank or butt others with their heads to gain position or dominance. We cannot be those who pollute the world for others. Greed seems to be the prime negative consideration for those rejected from God’s Kingdom.
To be fair, we live in a culture at odds with all this. The messages we constantly get, from the culture we are shaped by, are driven by greed. Ours is a world where success seems all too often measured by how much we can accumulate, how much we can “own,” how big or fast or loud our “toys” can be, how much better than others our position shows us to be. In Ezekiel, God seems to be turning this world on its ear. Those who are selected (judged “worthy”) are those who show concern and care for the weak, the ineffectual, the imprisoned, the hungry, those insulted by national leaders, and those who live responsibly in the world. It seems we need to care more about our neighbors than ourselves. Our selfish pride in position and power and status needs to go away.
In the Gospel reading from Luke, we encounter the Martha/Mary story. Here is a related situation. Martha and Mary approach life and Jesus in very different ways. Martha is concerned about the business of her day-to-day world: cooking, cleaning, food preparation, and serving. Mary seems concerned with the spiritual, with the “next world,” with being taught by Jesus as she sits at his feet, with hearing and living the messages of love, tolerance, and charity for each and every one of our neighbors.
Martha complains about Mary’s lack of help—which seems irresponsible to her—in moving the day’s business towards its necessary conclusion. I hear people say—rather often—that they find it better to be a Martha person than a Mary. The business of our lives – must get done . . . doesn’t it? Her complaint is to Jesus who must judge between the two, it seems.
Jesus’s judgment is that Mary has made the correct choice about what to do with her time, her energy, her attentiveness, her life. Martha needs to leave her alone. Mary has concluded correctly that she (and we?) have need of only one thing, and that she has made the better (the correct) choice.
In 1989 (and for some months before then), I was encouraged to “live” a Cursillo weekend. I offered my good friend my reasons for declining the invitation: the business of life (mowing the lawn, washing the car, etc., etc.).
Eventually, I gave in—reluctantly. As I reflect on that time from this point of my life I can see how that weekend changed my focus from a Martha viewpoint to more of a Mary stance and was a life-changing catalyst in leading me towards the wisdom of being involved in things like the St. Philip’s food pantry and Feeding Ministry and prison ministry. I can’t say I commit 100% to one or the other, but I do try to make room for the Mary side.
In the light of the readings for today, may I urge you to consider your own guiding principles? God has promised to judge between sheep and sheep and sheep and goats—approving some and disapproving others. Will he see you as a Martha or a Mary? Would he approve or disapprove? What areas of your life indicate which person you are?
God bless, friends. Go in peace.
Don Veitch