One Thing is Needful
One Thing is Needful
A Simple Reflection on Today's Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
Luke 10:38-42
The traditional interpretation of today’s Gospel is how Mary is a model of the contemplative life while her sister Martha represents the active life.
The text reads: “Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Jesus tells Martha that Mary “has chosen the good portion” and that will not be taken from her.
As I reflected on this Gospel this week, I am reminded that it is easy to fall into the thinking that there is an incompatibility between the active life and the contemplative life. As we are in the grind of daily secular work, the demands of parenthood (and for some of us grandparenthood 😃), daily household tasks, social life, and countless others things, it is easy to give into the active life and neglect the interior life of prayer. Jesus has called us to a life of holiness in which we can enter into an interior life of contemplation with him and in turn sanctify our active life. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church §2013)
If we neglect the interior life, the result will be that of Martha in which we become riddled with anxiety and worry. Conversely, if we are like Mary and sit with Jesus and listen, the active life can be united and the very work (whatever it is) becomes a form of sanctification since it becomes a gift given to Him.
In the Apostolic letter called Christifideles Laici (The Vocation and Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and the World) Pope John Paul II teaches:
“Everyone in the Church, precisely because they are members, receive and thereby share in the common vocation to holiness. In the fullness of this title and on equal par with all other members of the Church, the lay faithful are called to holiness: “All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity”; “all of Christ’s followers are invited and bound to pursue holiness and the perfect fulfillment of their own state of life.” §16
“Life according to the Spirit, whose fruit is holiness (cf. Rom 6:22; Gal 5:22), stirs up every baptized person and requires each to follow and imitate Jesus Christ, in embracing the Beatitudes, in listening and meditating on the word of God, in conscious and active participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, in personal prayer, in family or in community, in the hunger and thirst for justice, in the practice of the commandment of love in all circumstances of life and service to the brethren, especially the least, the poor and the suffering.” §16
[…] the fruitfulness and the growth of the branches depends on their remaining united to the vine. “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5). §17
What can we do to enter into the interior life? Maybe more visits to the Blessed Sacrament in which we just sit with the Lord. Maybe its sitting in silence before a sacred image of Jesus.
Let us pray today to be open to the grace that we can slow down, sit with our Lord and simply listen. As the Mass collect says today, […] mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.
Lawain
You can download Christifideles Laici at this link.