16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle C
We are so anxious and worried about so many things.
Only one thing is required.
Summertime is a time for barbecues and weddings and
such. There are so many events going on here, so many things to prepare for, so
many visitors in town and in our homes. Many of us travel to see family and
friends and welcome them as they visit us. Summer is the time for vacations. Summer
is a time for connections. Summer is a time of hospitality. And oftentimes
summer is a time for worry and anxiety over so many things to do, so many
things to get ready for, so many details to attend to.
Have you ever gotten back from vacation and felt you
needed a vacation from the vacation? You did and saw a lot of things but never
truly relaxed? It took you a couple days to unplug from work, you had a couple
days of real vacationing, then the last couple days you were thinking about
getting ready to go back to work again? We never really vacate, do we? We never
really leave our jobs and homes behind in our minds. Vacations are supposed to
help us recharge, to step out of the pressures of our lives for a while so that
we can return to them refreshed, stronger, and with new perspectives. For many
of us that is rarely the case.
There are some people who have chosen to spend their
entire lives or careers studying the scriptures and serving God. They seem to
be singularly focused on Jesus. Nothing else is as important as learning all
they can from and about him. And Jesus says today that that is the better
portion. Did Jesus mean we are to ignore everything except that type of
singular focus?
Most of us have not chosen the studious or professed
religious or contemplative life. Most of us are living and working in the
world. We have families and careers and mortgages. We take our relationships
very seriously, especially our relationship with Jesus. We invite him into our
lives, just as Martha invited Jesus into hers. We strive to keep Jesus the
center of our lives, even as busy as we are.
It is important, no, vital, that we all study and
listen and internalize the Word of God if we are to be his disciples. For he
has the words of eternal life. But we must do that in the midst of the hustle
and bustle of our everyday lives.
Martha wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was doing what
custom said she was supposed to do. She was being the good hostess. She was the
good servant.
There is grace in hospitality. Martha was serving, but
Mary was being fed.
Martha was focused on serving Jesus in a worldly way,
worried about the traditions and requirements of hospitality. Mary was focused
on the servant himself. Martha was making things complicated; Mary was keeping
it simple. Martha was concerned with getting it just right; Mary was concerned
with her relationship with Jesus.
And I think that is really what Jesus was getting at.
He wasn’t telling Martha that what she was doing wasn’t necessary or important.
Somebody had to make dinner. Martha’s problem was that she wasn’t serving with
joy. She was resenting her sister and begrudging her tasks. What was important
was that Jesus was in their midst. He was there right in front of them, and
that was where they should focus. There would always be time to cook and clean
and attend to the details of living. But when Jesus is present in our midst we
should not worry about all those things and just be in his presence.
There are a lot of preparations that must be made for
our liturgies to be sacred times. It takes the efforts of over 80 people to
celebrate our weekend Masses alone. But when Jesus is in our midst that is
where we should focus. It’s tough sometimes to get everything set up, get all
the people in their places, handle all the little mishaps that inevitably
spring up, and still be able to let it all go and experience the living Jesus
in our midst.
It is hard to get up early on a Sunday morning, get
the kids washed, dressed and fed, herd everyone into the pew, clean up the
spilled Cheerios, fuss with a crying baby, and still be able to experience the
living Jesus in our midst. It’s hard to turn off the world for a few moments to
be in the presence of Christ. We come here to experience a bit of peace in our
week. We come here to enter into the transcendent, to enter into the mystery.
Our everyday lives can be so worrisome and complicated. Here things should be
simpler. Here it should be all about Jesus.
But liturgy is messy. People are messy. There are many
times I think that we come here hoping to find peace and be fed, but
distractions in the church and worries about our problems do not allow us to
just sit at the feet of Jesus and be in his presence. We can’t just flip a
switch and the world goes away. And Jesus knows that. I think we can still find
joy in the midst of our distractions and worries. Joy is a decision. We
acknowledge our problems but we do not let them wear us down. We don’t come
here to escape the world, but to make the world holy. Our presence here is as
important to Jesus as his presence here is to us.
St. John says that the same Martha who was so worried
about getting it right was the one who declared Jesus to be the Messiah when
her brother Lazarus died. It was Martha who came out to meet Jesus before he
even came into the village. She had been waiting for him and looking for him.
Mary stayed at home. Mary the student did not go out in search of the Master
that day. Martha the servant did.
The person who was so concerned with convention and
doing everything just right is the one who found Jesus in the end. It was the
servant who recognized the savior. It seems that Martha had taken Jesus’
admonition to heart.
So don’t worry about it. Seek first the kingdom of
God, and its righteousness, and all other things will be given to you. Keep
your focus on what is truly important, on who is truly important, and all the
other things will work out. Serve one another with joy, and I think you’ll find
Jesus there, too.
We can find holiness in the ordinary. We are here in
the 16th week of ordinary time, and while technically all ordinary
time means in the liturgical year is that we are not celebrating any of the
great feast seasons such as Advent, Lent and Easter, the fact that there are
far many more weeks in Ordinary Time than in the other seasons is a sign that
most of the time we are living our ordinary lives, doing all the everyday
things that can seem so routine and cause us so much stress. And in the middle
of all of that Jesus is there, making the ordinary extraordinary.
I think it is important that we take time out of the
busyness of our lives to recharge with Jesus. Sit at his feet and just spend
time with him. Take a half hour a week and pray in quiet here before the
Blessed Sacrament. Go on retreat every once in a while. Come to the Way of
Christ talk and meal on Thursday nights here at St. Mary’s. Simply create a
habit of prayer every day to build your relationship with God. It’s those
little connection points with Jesus that make all the difference. They keep us
focused, help us live worry-free, and give us hope.
