Today's Gospel image of Mary and Martha entertaining reminds me of a dinner with a friend. Whenever this friend put a glass of wine to his mouth, he would close his eyes. I finally asked, “Why do you do that?” He replied that his doctor told him never look at a drink again.
On Wednesday, July 20, 53 years ago, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon: “one small step for a man...one giant leap for mankind." It was a remarkable moment of national confidence and unity: two attributes we desperately need today.
The word of God takes us back to an ancient legend. Abraham, a man of extraordinary faith in God's unconditional love, sees three strangers traveling out of the desert. He treats them like family and serves them warm bread, choice meats, fresh milk. Abraham and Sarah welcomed them as though they were welcoming God. The Russian painter Rublev interpreted the three mysterious strangers as the Trinity in a magnificent icon. This scene invites us to welcome those who enter into our daily lives. St. Bonaventure, whose feast day we celebrated Friday, put it: “Every creature is a divine word because it proclaims God.”
Paul, in his letter to the Christian community at Colossae (in Turkey today), refers to the redemptive power of suffering.
From a Christian point of view, the age-old reality of suffering is ultimately a mystery. War victims, or people with severe illness, may ask God, why? Yet somehow we believe that inescapable suffering, accepted in faith, can be redemptive. Why? Because Jesus, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, reestablished for us a right relationship with God.
Paul, who suffered much in his missionary journeys, invites us to ask God for the grace to unite our own inescapable sufferings to the redemptive sufferings of Jesus through whom we have eternal life. Why? So that these inescapable sufferings, like that of Jesus, can be redemptive for ourselves and for others.
Paul asks us to put our trust in God as he did. I quote a few lines from a favorite prayer of Thomas Merton:
My Lord God…I trust you always
Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
In the Gospel, we have the famous story of Martha and Mary. How many are sympathetic to Martha? The specific reply of Jesus to her is that "you are worried and anxious about many things."
Often, we worry. We are anxious and busy. We forget our relationship with God. Martha and Mary can symbolize the dual dimensions within each one of us: serving and praying. We have to be a combination: conversing with God, and doing good for others. Our ultimate purpose is to live in a right relationship with God and one another forever.
The Martha in us challenges us to actively reach out to others: for example, in some volunteer service in the community.
And the Mary dimension challenges us to pray. Wendy Beckett, a religious sister known for her popular BBC art history programs, once asked, “What do we really want when we pray? Do we want God to possess us?” Her point is good. To belong to God; to let God seize hold of our nothingness. Sister Wendy maintained that's what all prayer is.
There are so many ways to bring to consciousness the awesome presence of God. Almost anything can be a pathway to prayer. But there is one common denominator: prayer lifts us up out of ourselves into the awesome presence of God. Prayer is our longing for God and God’s longing for us. Prayer expresses our personal relationship with God.
So why don’t we pray more often. One obstacle is our addiction to distractions. Noise everywhere. People create so much noise that they can no longer hear the voice of God in their lives. That was the point of C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters.
Finding time to pray simply depends on the importance we attach to God. Think of the discipline of musical performance. If I miss practice one day, I may notice. If I miss practice for a week and then perform, a handful of people will know. But if I miss practice for a couple of weeks, almost everyone can tell. If we neglect prayer, people around us can recognize that we are not at our best.
I love St. Teresa of Avila’s famous advice to avoid distractions:
Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing frighten you;
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Nothing is wanting to them who possess God.
God alone suffices.
