Bible Readings
GENESIS 8: 1-10
PSALM 14: 2-5 R. v. 1
COLOSSIANS 1: 24-28
LUKE 10: 38-42
It is not always evil things that draw us away from following Christ.
We can often get ourselves sidetracked with what is seemingly good things that we have no time for God.
In one of the Gospel parables, those who refused the invitation to the banquet were not acting out of bad motives, but from perfectly good ones.
One wanted to go and inspect a piece of land he had bought; another wanted to check the oxen he had bought, and a third was newly married.
Many things that occupy our time are important and urgent but few are truly essential.
Life today can be so busy.
Often we worry and fret over so many things, jobs, money, and responsibilities.
There are so many things to be done; so many duties to be fulfilled that we have little or no time for God, for prayer, for worship.
The evil lies in that we have made other things into idols, more important than God.
In today’s Gospel, Some people may sympathize with Martha.
She appears to be the generous one who gives in today’s Gospel while Mary sits around enjoying herself.
If Mary’s prayerfulness never expressed itself in loving service, we would agree.
But there is nothing in the Gospels to show that this was so.
Rather, Jesus is using this occasion to teach that the most important thing is our union with God.
Jesus is not saying that service in not important.
Last Sunday’s Gospel of the Good Samaritan, he said ‘go and do the same.’
This would indicate that Martha service is also important.
Here, Jesus points out a defect of Martha: she is a worrier.
Well-meaning and generous though Martha may be, Jesus says she hasn’t got her priorities right.
The demands of the present moment distract her from the one thing necessary, the Word that offers life.
It is not enough merely to ‘do good things’ for people.
Christianity must be inspired and nourished by a sitting at the feet of Jesus so that we might hear and be guided by his word.
We all need to be first a Mary before we can be a Martha.
A waiting room was jammed with applicants for a job as a telegraph operator.
Noisy conversation competed with a flow of dot and dashes from a loudspeaker overhead.
The door opened and another young woman joined the already large crowd of hopeful applicants.
Suddenly this young woman rose to her feet and walked directly into the office marked ‘private’.
A moment later she came out smiling; she was hired for the job.
“Now look here,” barked an angry man who had been waiting for a long time, “What right have you to go in ahead of everybody else?”
“That’s what the message said to do,” said the woman.
“What message?” snapped the angry man.
“Why, the dots and dashes coming over the loudspeaker. They said: ‘If you hear this, come directly into my office for the job.’”
Often God speaks, but like the people in the waiting room, we are too busy, too distracted to listen.
It is important to listen to God speaking to us through the scriptures, prayer, our very neighbour and the Church.
What we need to do is to let go of so much that fills our wants and desires so that we may let God into our lives.
Fr Philip
Merredin Catholic Parish 