From the Friars: Martha, Martha

When I was a kid my older sister, for some strange reason, used to like to clean the house. Of course, this made my mother happy and made me look like a lazy slob, which I was. Mom used to call my sister “Martha, Martha“, especially when she was busy scrubbing something.

In the Gospel today we hear once again this simple but profound story of the sisters Martha and Mary, both canonized saints, but very different people. Jesus rebukes St. Martha, not for her genuine desire to serve, but for not seeing the situation in proper perspective. She was narrowly focused on, and anxious about, relatively unimportant things when you consider that God Incarnate was in her living room and was teaching the guests.

Mary chose the better part. My mother used to tell me that I had chosen the better part after I entered religious life. But wearing a habit doesn’t make you immune from unnecessary anxiety and neglect of what is most important. You can spend an hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament all the while worrying about the never-ending problems that we all have to deal with.

I have noticed that it can take me an hour to pray for five minutes.

Mary chose the one thing necessary. She genuinely sat at the Master’s feet and listened to Him.

There is a vice called acedia which I think Americans are particularly prone to. It is to be spiritually lazy. This is paradoxically manifest by being very busy with lesser things. We avoid the most important thing, our relationship with our Lord, by choosing to do something else. I have often heard people say that they don’t have time to pray. They are anxious and worried about many things. Praying the rosary daily is a practical way to choose the better part, to make time for Him Whom we should love with our whole heart.

God bless you.

-Fr. Peter