WORD AND WORK

Reference: Luke 10:38-42
Today’s Gospel is a popular story about Jesus as a guest in the home of Mary and Martha. Here, we read about Martha feeling crossed with Mary for failing to help her with the house work. The homily today explored some interesting themes which I share with you:

1. HOW TO BE A GOOD GUEST
Two simple sentences summarized this quite clearly: “A guest should not be imposing, looking around into the business of their hosts, and a guest should know when to go home”

2. PAUSE FOR A MOMENT
While Mary was sat the whole time at the feet of Jesus, Martha was running herself rugged all day.

The truth is ‘you can’t chase forever from morning to night at full speed. At a point, you will break down and express your sense of unfairness about the division of work, injustice and even a sense of helplessness. God sees all this, hence his invitation to take a moment to sit at his feet. The priorities in our lives when we are with God changes, and we can find time and space for everything. Without God, our actions don’t make sense because by moving away from God, we lose ourselves. It is only in drawing closer to Him that we find ourselves.

3. WE NEED BOTH WORK AND WORD

We notice Jesus did not rebuke Martha. In fact, scripture’s presentation of how Jesus spoke to her after her complaint “Martha, Martha”, was a sense of endearment” to show He appreciated her hardwork. St Paul wrote to the Ephesians (2:10) “you are saved unto good works”. We therefore need both the contemplation of Mary contemplation and work of Martha.

Simply put “Work does not exempt us from hearing the words of God, and prayer does not give us the right to neglect our work. There is a balance that we must find.

#sly