The Better Part

Homily July 17.

“The better part”

^{In the scene from today's Gospel Martha and Mary welcome Jesus to their home, but they seek to welcome him in two different ways. Martha seeks to please the Lord by doing various things for him. The Gospel doesn't specify exactly what she was doing, but I reckon she was probably putting on the lamb roast, peeling some spuds and opening up a good bottle of Hugh Hamilton red wine...}

^{Yet when Martha asks for Jesus' help in persuading her sister Mary to set the table and put the soup on, Martha receives what seems to be a mild rebuke.}

^{I don’t think Jesus was castigating Martha for her service. What he was saying to her, was that the polishing of the silver and the kneading of the bread wasn’t a reason to get worked up. There was something more important, something that Mary, who had chosen the "better part," realised and that Martha didn't.}

^{And what Mary recognised but Martha didn’t, was that Jesus had come to their home not to be fed…, but to feed.} 

^{The welcome Jesus seeks from us is (not our caviar and champagne, cognac and cigars) but rather he seeks out and craves our time, our friendship, our love, our open ears and our open hearts. Like his visit to Martha and Mary, he wants to come and make his home amongst us. He earnestly wants to live amongst us and to live within us. This is what he desires and wants more than anything else. Mary understood this and sat at Jesus' feet listening to him as if nothing in the whole wide world really mattered - because nothing in the rest of the world does matter as much as… HIm.}

^{Some very sketchy thoughts.}

^{First, our hospitality is toward Jesus. Each of us is called to welcome Christ into our homes, our physical homes and the spiritual abode of our hearts and souls. At this Eucharist … today,… Christ knocks on the door of each of our hearts and our homes. He wants to come in and enjoy us.}

^{The question is whether we, like Martha, are too caught up, anxious, and distracted by so many other less important things that we're welcoming into our minds and souls each day, that we no longer have the energy or space to invite him in. It's Christ, however, who ought to be invited in first.}

^{Like Martha, we are called to work hard serving others but we're supposed to do it with the spirit of Mary. That's why all our work is holy. We should aim to have Martha's hands and Mary's contemplative heart so that we won't be distracted by many other things. Both are important, both are vital. This will free us so that we can be focused on Jesus even when we are doing our vacuuming, our typing, our visiting, our praying, our washing the dishes, hanging out the washing, and our family life. Then we will understand that we are getting fed by him in action so that we might feed others; not just by our work, but with the One who is always working within us. That's the vocation of every Christian.}

^{Something else.}

^{One of the most important forms of service we can give to others is to help them to form the priorities that will bring them to lasting happiness, holiness and heaven. Jesus wants to send us as missionaries to show them by our witness and words how to choose the better part and make God the true priority of our life. We live in a century where there are so many modern distractions and anxieties. Each of us is called to work as hard as Martha in setting an eloquent, attractive example like Mary, the example of a life with Jesus at the centre.}

^{Today, at this eucharist we too, like Mary, have listened at Jesus' feet while he has fed us with his word. If we are very adventurous we will ask him to give us the courage to reorder the priorities of our life, and to base our lives on what he has reminded us of today. Jesus is the one thing necessary. Mary chose the better part. We can ask her to pray for us from before Jesus' feet in heaven for the grace to make the same choices today, tomorrow and each day going forward.}

^{Last thing}

^{I wonder if we understand how much we feed others?}

^And 

^{When we have been fed by another do we let them know that they have been Christ to us and fed us … Do we let them know what a joy it was and is to sit at their feet and engage with them. And just as Mary and Martha were forever changed by their pastoral visit; do we let our brothers and sisters know that we too, can never be the same again? All the time, every day we are, subtly, slowly, bit by bit changing people's lives just as surely as our lives are being changed.}