Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the Apostles, only James the brother of the Lord. (As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying). Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. So they glorified God because of me.
Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works.
My soul also you knew full well; nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing”
Fr. Josep RIBOT i Margarit (Tarragona, Spain)Today, as every day, we can learn from the Gospel. Jesus, invited to Martha's home in Bethany, gives us a lesson in humanity: He, who loved people, lets people love Him, for both things are equally important. It would be a serious mistake, with harmful consequences to our sanctity, to refuse God's and others' affection.
Martha or Mary? But..., why oppose those who loved each other so much and loved God too? Jesus loved Martha and Mary, and their brother Lazarus, and He loves each one of us, too.
On the path of sainthood not any two souls are exactly alike. We all try to love God, but within our own style and personality, without imitating anyone. Our models are Christ and the Mother of God. Do you resent how others treat God? Try to learn from his personal piety.
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me” (Lk 10:40). To serve others, for the love of God, is an honor, not a burden. Do we serve with joy, as the Mother of God did in her visit to her cousin Elisabeth, or at Cana's wedding, or as Jesus did when washing the Apostle's feet at the Last Supper?
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing” (Lk 10:41-42). Let us lose neither our peace nor our good humor. And to accomplish it, let us take good care to see and appreciate God's presence. “Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it… Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him” (St. Josemaría Escrivá).
“Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her” (Lk 10:42). God wants us happy. May our Mother in Heaven help us to feel the joy of giving.
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“The soul, warmed thanks to contemplation, will live with greater perfection the active life” (Saint Gregory the Great)
“The spirit of prayer gives time back to God, it steps away from the obsession of a life that is always lacking time, it rediscovers the peace of necessary things, and discovers the joy of unexpected gifts. Two good guides for this are the sisters Martha and Mary, they learned from God the harmony of family rhythms” (Francis)
“(…) The home is the first school of Christian life and ‘a school for human enrichment’. Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous - even repeated - forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 1657).
