July 21,Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Poor, flustered Martha is one biblical figure who elicits a great deal of sympathy from others. To many people, it just doesn’t seem fair that Jesus preferred Mary’s quiet listening over Martha’s frenetic serving. However, for us to truly appreciate where Jesus was coming from, we need to understand two things. First, you and I view this story through a modern, Western lens. We don’t appreciate the importance that ancient Jewish culture placed on paying attention to one’s guests. Viewed this way, it’s Martha, and not Mary, who was being selfish and rude. Second, this was no ordinary meal. Jesus’ time was short; he was on his way to Jerusalem to die. He didn’t want an elaborate meal. Instead, he simply wished to spend time with two of his dearest friends. We too are friends of Jesus. And Jesus wants us to spend some quality time with him, in quiet, personal prayer. So often, however, our daily responsibilities and hectic routine seem to preclude time for prayer. There’s work, the commute, grocery shopping, paying bills, cleaning house, cooking meals, and folding laundry. Moms and dads contend with tubs, storytime, playdates, soccer games, homework help, and endless driving. We seem to be running around “24/7,” and we can end up feeling very much like Martha: Anxious, overburdened and exhausted. When we feel like that, prayer can begin to seem like an unattainable luxury. If this is a description of your life, perhaps you might consider rising a few minutes earlier each morning or staying up a few minutes later each night, even just once or twice a week. And try to take advantage of those little quiet moments that punctuate our day: Behind the steering wheel, over the stove, in the shower, brushing teeth, waiting in the checkout line, and so forth. If we add all these short moments together, we may find that we have quite a lot of time for prayer. St. Dominic prayed as he walked; St. Isidore the Farmer prayed for hours as he ploughed his fields; and many people today pray the rosary, or engage in other forms of prayer, while they drive or even jog. As St. John Chrysostom, an early Church Father and a magnificent preacher, once said, “It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone, or seated in your shop…while buying or selling…or even while cooking.” If you still don’t think you have time for prayer, it might be a good idea to take an honest inventory of how you actually spend our time. Consider this: Since 1965, University of Maryland sociologist John Robinson has had people keep time diaries so he can calculate how much free time they have. And believe it or not, since he began his project, Americans on average have actually gained almost an hour of free time every day. We’re still busy. It’s just that sometimes we busy ourselves with leisure activities, like watching television. If you watch TV, I challenge you to give up one half hour program this week in order to make time for prayer. I guarantee that if prayer replaced TV watching as our number one free time activity, our church and our nation would undergo a spiritual revolution! Another obstacle we face in making time for prayer is that we live in a nation which prizes hard work, productivity, and efficiency. To we pragmatic Americans, busy Martha is the virtuous one, multi-tasking and scurrying about, getting the job done. Mary, on the other hand, appears to be something of a “slacker.” We’re puzzled when Jesus says that it is she, and not Martha, who has chosen the “better part.” Now don’t get me wrong: Hard, honest work is indeed important. The danger, however, is that our “bias toward busyness” can lead us to think that prayer is just a waste of time. Nothing’s getting done! We’re not producing anything! Even religious people fall into this trap. One cartoon I’ve seen pictures a bishop in his office, kneeling devoutly in prayer. All of a sudden, his secretary bursts into the room. “Thank goodness!” she says. “I see you’re not busy.” On a more serious note, St. Francis Borgia, the second Superior General of the Jesuits, once mandated a daily hour-long meditation for all Jesuits, because he thought they were getting too wrapped up in their work, to the detriment of their spiritual life. It’s significant that in Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ dinner with Mary and Martha follows the story of the Good Samaritan, which praised a man who took the time to help another in need. It’s possible that the Mary and Martha story was intentionally placed immediately afterwards, so that we wouldn’t get the impression that Christianity is about nothing more than doing good works. Good works are essential, but they have to flow from a life of prayer. To be sure, it does take faith to believe that prayer is not a waste of time. But think of it this way: God calls us to a deep and personal relationship with himself. And if we want this relationship to blossom and flourish, we need to give it time. Trust is established only with time. Love grows only with time. And mutual knowledge is built only over time. Relationships that aren’t given time usually stagnate, become superficial, or dissolve altogether. But God doesn’t want our relationship to suffer. And he doesn’t wish to be simply a casual acquaintance. God wants to be our friend, and that’s where prayer comes in. As St. Theresa of Avila once wrote, “Prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with the God who loves us.” And that’s the challenge of today’s gospel: To make time for prayer; to be a bit more like Mary, and a little less like Martha. Or as St. Augustine once put it: “Martha is who we are; Mary is who we want to become.” Posted by Father Scott Hurd
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 12:29:52 +0000
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