One Thing Only Is Necessary

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.” You are anxious and worried about many things. The Lord ever want to say that to you? I think it goes to me. I often think I could put my name. So many of us are familiar with a classic interpretation in this passage, and as a good example, I’ll read, this is from Pope, St Gregory the Great. He says, “the two women signify two dimensions of the spiritual life. Martha signifies the active life, as she basically labors to honor Christ through her work. Mary exemplifies the contemplative love, as she sits attentively to listen and learn from Christ, while both activities are essential to Christian living.” Well, that’s important; both activities are essential to Christian living. “The latter is greater than the former, for in heaven, the act of life terminates while the contemplative life reaches its perfection. Both are necessary here, but in heaven, the contemplative life reaches its perfection while there won’t be the same need for after service.” So, he sees in two sisters, Martha and Mary, as Mother Magdalene was saying, we have St. Mary Magdalene, it’s providential, we have her feast coming up in a few days. We see in these two sisters like the life of service in prayer, the act of life and the contemplative life. But I think that there’s a conclusion which is often drawn from this, which can be erroneous, is just downplaying the importance of service. Does this mean that it’s always better to be praying or sitting in prayer than to be out serving? Because, as our Lord Himself said, “obtain to serve, not to be served.” Jesus Christ Himself came to serve, and He also says, “what you do to the least of my brothers,” those works of charity and service, “my brother should do to me.” And another great example is more at the Annunciation right after she has just received the great the great Annunciation and the incarnation of our Lord. If ever there was a moment that would seem to be a moment to sit quietly in contemplation, there would seem to be that moment of receiving, receiving the word incarnate, and yet, what did she do? And inspired by the Holy Spirit and the words of the angel, immediately, she set off for a long journey to begin serving and helping her cousin Elizabeth. It’s not so simple. If nobody was serving as everybody said, Well, okay, then I’m just, we’re all going to choose the better part. That would be pretty, pretty difficult. And so, I think that there’s another lesson that is often overlooked in this passage, and it can help us a lot. So, Jesus says you are anxious and worried about many things. And as I said, I think that applies to each, this applies to a lot of us. It applies to me, because there’s a lot of things which pull us in all sorts of different directions. We live in a very complicated world. There’s a lot to do. So, we can feel torn between so many things, pulled, as I say, in so many directions. There might be so many things that we want to do or think we should do, or things that other people are asking us to do, and I know that that’s the case of the Mission of Divine Mercy, all the different things that we would like to be doing and wish we could be doing. People are asking us through people, asking us through many different things and so, this applies to us, not just personally, but as our little mission. And obviously we can’t do everything. So, this gospel is very helpful. Jesus says, “only one is necessary.” But what is that one thing that is necessary, only one is necessary. So, the one necessary is the Lord Himself, loving him and doing His will. Mary Magdalene is doing, in any situation, many different things we could be doing. But the Lord’s not asking us to do 15 different things at one time. Just like right now, there’s a lot of other things you could be doing, than being at Mass. Taking it easy, and all sorts of other things, and you’ve made the decision to be here. Why? Because you feel that that’s what the Lord is calling you to do. So, the one thing necessary is to seek His will, and oftentimes, His will is to be actively serving other people. And since, if there was a mother who said, I’m called to be a contemplative and I’m called to, I want to follow this gospel, so she just spent all her time in prayer and neglected her family, especially little ones. Would that be a good thing? So, there are many times that God is calling us. It’s God’s will for us to be in act of service. But in this case, here, at this point of the gospel, at this point of Mary Magdalene’s life, she senses; and the heart has become very sensitive to the Lord, and she’s still recovering from her recent past and all the disorder, all the sins of her past; she’s discerning that the Lord wants her to sit there quietly in His presence. Even her own sister doesn’t really understand that, and so the Lord has to defend her. Martha wants to serve the Lord and to serve His disciples, but she’s doing it in a more human way. There’s probably still too much of her way, of a good thing to serve the Lord and His apostles, but as I say, there’s probably too much of her own, own way, her own criteria. And so, this gospel is very helpful for simplifying our life. And a lot of us would like our life to be simple, because we do feel torn. How can we simplify our life? And especially also it’s very helpful as we’re going through these very confusing times, which is all sorts of ideas and different opinions about what we should be doing. And so, as I say, this gospel can help us simplify our life by asking the question, the simple question,-what does God want me to be doing now? Not what do other people want me to be doing now? What are my own ideas about what I should be doing? But what does God want me to be doing more? And as I say, God’s not asking us to do 15 things at one time, only one thing at once. And you could say, well, but it’s not always easy to know what God wants us to do. And even when we know it’s not always easy to do it. That’s true. What is it’s, as I say, it’s not always easy to know what He wants us to do, but just the fact of asking that question, just the fact of seeking His will is already opens us up to His grace. Already, it’s like kind of orienting us in the proper direction by saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? Even if you’re not sure what that answer is, just the fact that you are seeking His will, you’re doing what He needs you to do. He’s the only one who can reveal His will, He needs you to be seeking His will. So let me say that again, He’s the only one who can reveal His will, that if He doesn’t reveal His will, that’s His and He can reveal His will in many ways, you know, not just by an interior sense, but also by circumstances, by scripture, by the teaching of the Church, and so forth. But the important thing is that we are seeking His will. We are wanting to know and to do His will, and that depends on us.  And so just that act simplifies things along. Because, as I say, there’s many different things that we would want to do, or people want us to do, but there’s only one thing that God is asking us to do at each moment. I mean, think, for instance, of our Lord Jesus Christ, He was like three years, and it’s public life. So how should He spend those three years? I mean, if anyone had pressure, you could say pressure, but made good use of their time, and such an immense mission, which involved saving the whole world. And so, it seemed like Jesus would just be running around, scrambling, scrambling, scrambling. And He was very often, very active, but He was just doing at each point one thing, the thing that God was asking Him to do. And so, I think that’s the one thing necessary, is to seek God’s will at each moment. That’s the better part. And so, one of the helpful things that also shows us is that God’s not always asked us to do more stuff. Sometimes God is asking us to do things. For instance, He sends out His apostles to commission. He himself to Jesus, and His public life was very active, but sometimes also, and this is helpful for us to know, sometimes He’s asking us to sit quietly with Him, to rest with Him. So sometimes He’s asking us to, for active service, for work, but sometimes He’s also asking us to rest, to rest in Him, to sit quietly. And again, at the heart of the Sabbath for us now; it’s not the Saturday, it’s the Sunday, but the Sunday as a day of sacred rest, which is because sometimes we have an image that God’s always asked us to do more and more and more and more. And we forget life in the very beginning of creation, He established each week the special day of rest to remind us of how He wants us to rest and rest in Him. So sometimes He’s asking us to for active service, but sometimes He’s asking us to do, to be less in the sense of activities, but which can actually be more helpful for His plan of salvation. And so, God’s will is the one thing necessary that in a very complicated, chaotic life, can simplify our life. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things, only one is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.” And so, with our Blessed Mother right now in this Mass, we can ask our Lord, what is His will for you, in your life, right now.  Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 10:38-42