The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, July 29, 2004
Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Saint Martha

Scripture from Wednesday’s Liturgy of the Word:
Jeremiah 18:1-6
Psalm 146:1-6
Luke 10:38-42

A reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture:

“You Are Anxious and Worried About Many Things”

Jesus is ever so loving and gentle in his rebuke of Martha, but she needed this adjustment to the way she was going. Martha seemed to follow the standards of her time. She hurried about making the guest various things that would convey how important He was. She prepared food. She pumped water for the hand and foot washing. She uncorked and poured wine. She was sweating profusely and nowhere near the end of all of her efforts when she saw her sister Mary -- just sitting there!

“The nerve of her. Here I am doing all of this work. I alone am seeing to all of these guests and she just sits there listening to stuff she couldn’t possibly understand anyway.” So the train of thought might go. “I need help! And the Lord is here at hand!”

So she went. And Jesus says to her, “You are anxious and troubled about many things.” And when He speaks to her, He speaks to us. We who go to Him babbling in prayer, pouring out a biased recounting of all the day’s events, telling Him once again all that He already knows.

And He says to us, “Take it easy. Stop worrying and hurrying about the world. Listen to Me.”

Listen.

Take time to sit down and hear Jesus as He speaks.

Remember Samuel in the Old Testament and follow him--the statement to the Lord is not “Listen Lord, your servant is speaking,” but rather, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” And if we’re listening, what we’ll hear will dispel all fear, all worry, all hurry.

Service must grow from hearing the Lord. If it doesn’t, we become complainers, whiners, people who are constantly on someone else’s case because they’re not doing as we would want them to. Service flows out of a heart overflowing with the Word of God. We need a heart like Martha’s--dedicated to service. AND we need to choose Mary’s better part, so that our service comes from an overwhelming, constantly outpouring love of God.

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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posted by joachim at 5:26 AM