16th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Genesis 18:1-10, Psalm 14: 2-5. Rv. 1. Colossians 1: 24-28, Luke 10:38-42
My Lord, I beg you, kindly do not pass your servant by.
Lord who shall dwell on your holy mountain?
The mystery is Christ among you, the hope of your glory.
Mary sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him.
38 In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him speaking. 40 Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.' 41 But the Lord answered, 'Martha, Martha,' he said, 'you worry and fret about so many things, 42 and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.
Make your home with Jesus.
Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. She was busy preparing a meal for her guest. She is distracted and agitated and complains to the Lord Jesus about her sister who is quietly sitting at his feet and listening to everything he is saying. ’Do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do all the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me’ Though Jesus speaks gently ‘Martha, Martha’, he does indeed rebuke her. His rebuke is not because she is working to prepare the meal. It is because she is agitated and worried.
As disciples like Martha we too should invite Jesus into our lives. Our place is at the feet of Jesus. There we listen to all he says. Our prayer is to listen to him. At the feet of Jesus we will receive peace and become absorbed in love for him. From his feet we will rise and go and work, doing the work he wants us to do, in the way he wants us to do it and for his greater glory. We will always experience his presence throughout the day and he will be with us as we work. Let it be working in the kitchen or washing the clothes, work in the fields or in the factory, we will do it because he wants us to do it and we will do it for him. We will do it, then, with all our heart and soul. This is to be his disciple. Being in his hands we will always enjoy his peace and doing it for him we make it our prayer. This is the high road to sanctity.
Jesus has a habit of turning up in unlikely disguises as Yahweh did for Abraham. Let us remember that he said, whoever receives this little child in my name receives me and whatever you did to the least of my brethren you did to me. We have an opportunity then to serve Jesus in a concrete way every day. Do you recognize him?
But Jesus is not our guest. He is actually our host. He says: ‘make your home in me’ and he welcomes us into his house. If we want to live with Jesus we should live as the psalmist tells us. Let us act with justice, speak the truth from our heart and not talk lies about our neighbour. Let us do no harm to anyone but honour those especially who love the Lord. Let us keep our word, let us not be a loan shark strangling our brother and never let us ever take a bribe. If we live like this we can make our home in Jesus and live in his peace.
Father, may I have the faith to sit daily at the feet of Jesus, listen to his Word and then do his work.
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