Episode Transcript  

One

Martha and Mary

We all know the famous episode of Martha and Mary. Martha, running around with the details and preparations for hospitality, asks Jesus to tell her sister, Mary, to get up and help her with the practical matters. Mary, who has been sitting at the Lord’s feet, simply attending to Him. And Jesus says, simply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious about many things. There is need for one only. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.”

 Of course, Martha and Mary are both saints. And, also of course, there are some vocations in the Church that are going to be more active, in imitation of Martha, and some vocations that will be more contemplative, in imitation of Mary. But it’s important for us all to remember, whatever our vocation is, how to maintain God as the background motivation for all our activity. But even more importantly, we’ve got to be able to step back and make God the singular, foreground focus of our consciousness.

Two

God as the Background Motivation

Martha was doing good work for Jesus, the work of hospitality, of corporal charity. And if you had asked her, while she was scuttling busily around the kitchen, “Why are you doing this?” She would have answered, without hesitation, “To serve Jesus, of course!”

What a beautiful attitude, what a wonderful state to be in! Where our activity is in service of the Lord. Even if we’re focused on the concrete task at hand, if somebody should interrupt us for a moment and say, “Why are you doing this? What’s the point?” We should all be able to say, “I’m just trying to serve and please my Lord.”

And during those times when we’re doing concrete work for God, the thought of God won’t be in the foreground, because, after all, the immediate task before us will be at the foreground. That’s okay. If we have a task we need to do, then we need to be able to focus on it. But more important than focusing on any task for Jesus is the ability to focus on Jesus Himself. And that’s the perfection that is timelessly modelled by Martha’s sister, Mary.

Three

God in the Foreground

Martha was doing good work for God, but Jesus was in the background. Literally, He was in the other room. By contrast, Mary had put herself in the presence of the Lord; she had drawn near to Him, and was focusing on Him directly. This is the better part. This is the part of prayer: loving attentiveness to God.

John of the Cross says that the holy soul “withdraws in matters pertinent to the active life and other exterior exercises for the sake of fulfilling the one thing the Bridegroom said was necessary, and that is attentiveness to God and the continual exercise of love in Him… Martha thought she herself was doing all the work and Mary, because she was enjoying the Lord’s presence, was doing nothing. Yet since there is no greater or more necessary work than love, the opposite was true.” (Spir Cant, st. 29, #2).

This is the ultimate goal: to be able to focus our minds, lovingly and attentively, on Jesus. But how do we do that?

Four

Going from the Many to the One

Martha doesn’t just represent activity; she represents mental multitasking, and the anxiety that can come from thinking about too many things. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious about many things.”

How quickly our minds jump from one thing to the next, whether items on our to-do list or texts we need to respond to, or just one reel or meme or headline after another. No wonder the dominant mental disorder today is anxiety. Look how many things we’re thinking about!

But Mary sits quietly at Jesus’ feet. She knows that “there is one thing necessary.” We all have many things we feel we should get done, and hopefully these things are all things that in some way can be dedicated to God’s glory and God’s service. But until we learn the skill of stepping back, being quiet, and remembering that there is only one thing needful, the good God who loves us and takes care of us, we will never know the peace that is the better part.

Five

Resolution

We are all in different places spiritually, but every one of us can take the next right step. Maybe your next right step is to move from simply saying this Rosary to really meditating, to listening intently and giving Jesus your full attention. It might help to print the transcript, read it slowly, think about it, and apply it to your life. Maybe your next step is to move from praying this Rosary once in a while to praying it every day, seven days a week. Maybe it is to make sure that every day you leave prayer with one concrete resolution and actually practice it.

And if you are already doing all of that, perhaps Jesus is inviting you to spend more time with Him. Stay with Him for another fifteen or thirty minutes after the Rosary. Think about what He impressed upon you. Talk with Him about it. Process it more deeply. Simply spend more time giving Jesus your attention and loving Him. Or set aside another thirty minutes each day for meditation with the Word of God, perhaps the Gospel of the day.

Ask Jesus now: What is my next right step? Then make that your resolution and begin today.

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