What is the better part? The world, and the devil, constantly entice us to take our eyes off Jesus. To try and convince us to instead turn to drugs, pornography, and temporal pleasures that will never fill our souls with the life it was designed for. Jesus will always be there, so instead of trying to convince us He isn’t, it’s much easier to simply get us to turn our eyes to something else. Martha wasn’t doing anything wrong world-wise. She was simply being a hostess. In her haste to get everything done, she forgot who she was doing it for. Feeding guests is a good thing. Hospitality is a good thing. We can’t forget the guest though, to stop and show them the dignity and respect they deserve.
Mary sat at his feet, listening to him. That was a rarity in that culture and time. Women were supposed to be in the kitchen, not receiving any sort of teaching or instruction. I think though, it wasn’t that particular peculiarity that Jesus was talking about when he said she chose the better part. He wasn’t saying “don’t feed your guests, don’t clean your house, go out and learn instead.” Don’t get me wrong, I think every person deserves and should have access to education (regardless of any adverb you can attach to their name). What I think Jesus meant though was that at this moment, she had her eyes on him.
During this whole Amazonian Synod thing, people seem to be looking at ordination like a job. Priests and deacons are seen as just varying levels of education. Questions are asked: What about women deacons? What about ordaining married men? What about women priests? There are those in liberal circles who think this is the critical moment when the church is going to change its traditions and simply start ordaining everyone, and then those in the conservative circles who think the church should go back in time and start doing things as they did before Vatican II. Both of which express a fear. The anxiety that not only makes it so no one even wants to have discussions about those ideas but a fear that clearly says some of us are taking our eyes off Jesus.
I think that is the message for today: don’t fear. Martha simply had taken her eyes off Jesus and needed to reorient her focus. That’s why he told her don’t be full of worry and anxiety. Whether you are cleaning and sprucing the house, raising a family, out in the world working for a wage, or sitting in a classroom learning; no matter what you are doing, keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your heart sitting at his feet, hanging on every word. Everything else will fall into place.
A reflection on the readings for October 8th, 2019: Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time.