One True Essential

christ-in-the-house-of-martha-and-mary-ca.-1618-diego-velazquez_12005
Diego Velázquez, ‘Christ in the House of Martha and Mary’, 1618

When Martha invited Jesus into the home she shared with her sister and brother, she couldn’t have known the splendid friendship she’d just instigated. You never know the remarkable string of events you’ll set in motion by something so ordinary as opening your door and laying an extra plate at the table.

Martha got right to it, cranking things up in the kitchen and preparing for the many guests who followed the rabbi into her living room. After a while, Martha grew agitated because there she was working her finger to the bone over a hot stove while Mary refused to leave Jesus’ side, soaking up every word. When Martha protested, Jesus, in the gentle tone every over-exerted person needs to hear, answered Martha, Martha, you are anxious and distracted about so many things. Then Jesus added, Mary has chosen the one thing most essential here. Let’s not take that from her.

It’s easy to think that in this short narrative Jesus takes sides in the long feud between competing spiritualities: the spirituality of action versus the spirituality of contemplation. This war rages on even now, between the justice-loving activists and the mystic-minded contemplatives. Of course, it would be silly to think Jesus was interested in, much less bound by, our divisions, the ways we like to codify paradigms and categorize everything and everyone according to some flavor du jour.

Jesus did not push against Martha’s labor, but rather against her distraction, her worry. God knows we need people who clear the fields and announce the truth, people who get antsy whenever we forget that there’s a world we must tend to. But God also knows that those of us who’ve recognized how much our work matters are tempted to think it matters too much, to forget that God and love stand at the center of our labor and our noble causes, to forget that our soul is our deep treasure – and that our soul can absolutely shrivel and die. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than to find a person who’s given themselves to a cause and then, amid their fervid exertion, completely lost themselves in it. Now, only a shell of a human remains, barking burdensome platitudes.

The truth is, however, contemplatives struggle just the same. When we too heavily emphasise “the disciplines” or “the practices,” as if they are a force unto themselves, we entirely miss the point. There are few things more obnoxious than a would-be mystic who’s worn themselves out (not to mention everyone around them) because they thought the work of silence or “spiritual union” was their mission they must accomplish.

What Martha and Mary needed, what we need – that one thing that is necessary – is Jesus. In our seasons of grit and grind as in our seasons of quiet and sabbath, what we need is Jesus. Jesus may come to us in a thousand ways, through Psalm and Gospel, wind and river, worship or children or wine or sweat or solitude – but we must choose him. We must choose that which is absolutely essential, the one thing that, unless we have it, we will die.

 

5 Replies to “One True Essential”

  1. Did you eaves drop on the homily that was offered here yesterday? Another aspect to this Mary/Martha situation…I live w/ an elderly women in very ill health. Consequently she spends many hours at home whereas she used to be hyper active in our Community of Jesus life. I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger, while my housemate is praying frequently throughout the day for many people, situations, etc. sent to her by our Prioress. My friend’s contemplative work enables me to fulfill what God has served onto my plate. So I think of the infirm and elderly who are unable for various reasons to be as physically involved as they once were; they can now enjoy the blessing of the contemplative life and see valuable purpose to their aging. Their work and mine –both needed.

    1. I love this, Treva, and I love that you see the gifts she brings (and your Prioress sees it too), even as you see the gifts you bring. Your one-armed paper hanger comments is surely giving me a good laugh.

      1. Well, I have lots of wallpaper paste on my chin! I just printed your One Essential and posted it on our Chapter House bulletin board. We have a Chapter Meeting here tonight, so it will be read by many after they depart the meeting. Our household mail slots are beside the bulletin board, so as people come to pick up their notices, they read what is on the board. So many of them have commented on your thoughts – favorably – your words call us higher.

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