Readings: Genesis 18.1-10a; Colossians 1. 15-28; Luke 10.38-end
Theme: Contemplative in Action
When the Lord appears to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre in our first reading for today, he appears in the form of three men. Some interpreters have seen this as a trace of the Trinitarian God who will later appear more clearly, if not explicitly, in the New Testament. Abraham and his wife Sarah treat these mysterious visitors so well, that they promise Sarah will have a son the next time they visit. This promise of a son is a promise of blessing and abundance because of the way that Abraham and Sarah have received the Lord. They listened to the Lord who had visited them and so their actions were blessed.
This theme of listening, blessing and fruitfulness is continued in our second reading for today which is that wonderful hymn of the writer to the Colossians, that portrays Christ as the ‘image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation in whom all things in heaven and on earth were created.’ In the middle of that hymn, in verse twenty, we hear, ‘through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things’. This work of reconciliation is one of reuniting the head, who is Christ, with the body which is the church. This is so that the whole body of Christ can be presented to the glory of the Father at the end time (eschaton). However, it is Jesus who is the first born in this project of reconciling both parts of the Christ, the heavenly head, which is the eternal Son of God, Jesus, and the earthly body, which is the church. Jesus already unites in himself heaven and earth. He is the image of the invisible God in which all of the creation is seen for what it is; namely, the work of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
This work of God, Opus Dei, reconciling all in the body of Christ, is carried out by the Church. This is another way of saying that the work of God is to build the kingdom of God, which is the theme of this year’s program of renewal: Purpose and Path: Your Kingdom Come. However, for this work of God to proceed, God has chosen human beings to be his special agents in the reconciling mission of the kingdom of God. This is why we are to be contemplative in action. We are to listen, like Abraham and Sarah, to the visitor in our midst, the Lord, who instructs us to build his kingdom. This is our part in the work of Christ which has been inaugurated by Jesus and is now being completed through the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel which we are presented with today, of the Martha and Mary passage, is the quintessential portrait of what it means and does not mean to be a contemplative in action. It reveals a vision of building the kingdom through a series of rule breakings that illustrate this church is not only confined to the select few, but is meant to be a universal community of solidarity in which all nations participate in the building project.
In the context within which this ‘Martha-Mary’ Gospel passage is set, of first century Judaism, the fact that Jesus is alone with two women, Martha and Mary, who are not related to him, that Martha is serving him, and that Mary is being taught by him in her own house; all these occurrences represent Jesus breaking the cultural norms of his day. It is a passage which teaches us a core principle of Luke’s Gospel; namely, that we are to listen to God’s word and receive it openly receive it, so that salvation may be shared as a free gift for all.
But why is it that Luke teaches us this lesson through an incident of divine-multiple-rule breaking? The answer is to be found in the fact that a key theme of the Gospel of Luke is that the salvation brought by Jesus is not simply meant for the Jewish community. It is meant for all, for Jews as well as Gentiles, for Samaritans and for all those who are on the fringes of conventional societies. In fact, of all the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), it is that of Luke which most privileges an inclusive understanding of God’s salvation.
This attitude of listening to the Lord’s teaching, allows the universal salvation that God offers to be heard by all. It is through such listening that we come to learn what we should do; the kinds of action that we should take in a particular situation and context. This is what doing God’s will in our daily lives means. If we are to become what Jesus calls us to be; namely, ‘contemplatives’, we must first listen to God’s word just like Abraham and Sarah. Such contemplative listening enables the salvation that God has visited upon us to be manifest in and through our graced actions for all peoples. This is the fruitfulness that will be born in the womb of Sarah, even though in her case, she is a little like Martha and does not really understand who it is that is teaching her and Abraham, so she is slow to believe in all her busyness for the three mysterious guests, that she, in her old age, will bear a son.
But Mary in our Gospel passage is different to Sarah in this respect. She does the ‘one thing necessary’ and is not so taken up by busyness. This ‘one thing’ is to truly listen with an open heart to the word of the Lord. This does not mean that ‘contemplation’ is superior to ‘action’, as it has been interpreted in some historical movements in Christian spirituality, with priests, monks and nuns (Mary) being considered superior to ordinary ‘lay people’ (Martha). What it does mean, however, is that whatever we do, we should do it out of an attitude of listening to God’s word, so that we can truly be, like Mary, a ‘contemplative in action’ sharing God’s salvation with all.
This does not mean adopting the persona of a ‘spiritual aristocrat’, as Martin Luther so poignantly criticized monks, priests and nuns of his day for looking down on the ordinary lay people. Rather, it means to recognize that without listening to Jesus, our actions will not truly be of God. It is these actions which serve the best food and drink of all: salvation for our sisters and brothers.
But we should not be too hard on Martha, because it is when Martha realizes that Mary has chosen the better part, that no doubt, she wants some share in this too. We can only hope that for her sake, following this encounter with the Lord, she realizes that she too can be a contemplative, but in her own case given her personality, a ‘contemplative in action’; serving Jesus out of a true loving wisdom (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) and not simply out of her own need to be busy!