SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR C
Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini
A good Sunday to all.
The episode narrated in today's Gospel is found only in the Gospel according to Luke. It is in a town of which the name is not given, but we know it is Bethany, for it speaks of a very well-known family: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Where is Bethany? Look in the background, and you see the eastern summit of the Mount of Olives; on the sides, you can see some houses. That's the Bethany of the early twentieth century. Today, the city of Bethany has more than 20,000 inhabitants. Notice that at the top of the Mount of Olives, a tower 61 meters high belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension. It is there that the Orthodox celebrate the ascension of Jesus. But you cannot climb that tower; I tried several times to get permission, but it was impossible.
From that height, you can see a vast panorama. You can see the Dead Sea, Herodium, Bethlehem, and Hebron to the south. To the north, you can see the Judean desert as far as Samaria. Let's imagine we go up to the top of the Mount of Olives, descend over the western part, and arrive in Jerusalem. And here is a picture showing the city of Jerusalem; in the background, you see the western part of the Mount of Olives and the tower I pointed out to you. This picture is taken from one of the three towers of the palace that Herod had built in the highest part of the city of Jerusalem, from where he could contemplate the whole city: in the background is the Mount of Olives, then the esplanade of the Temple with the sanctuary in the center, where the Golden Rock is located.
Why have I insisted on the Mount of Olives? This gives you an idea of how Jesus had to go when—as Mark the Evangelist says when he speaks of the last week of Jesus in Jerusalem—at night, he will go to Bethany to rest. In the morning, he would leave Bethany and go up to the Mount of Olives, and then he would spend the whole day in the Temple in Jerusalem, teaching, with discussions with the scribes and Pharisees. This gives you an idea of the journey he had to make every day to go from Bethany to Jerusalem.
Let's return to the eastern part of the Mount of Olives, where we were before. You can now see Bethany at the beginning of the 19th century; we are moving a little bit to the time of Jesus since the Bethany of the 19th century was not significantly different from the one you can see in the picture. Excavations have been done there, and they found caves inhabited by cisterns, utensils, ovens, jars, and many torches. Let us now see what happened one day in the town of Bethany. Let us listen:
"As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.”
The account begins by referring to the journey made by Jesus with his disciples. Let us remember that while he was still in Capernaum, he had decided to go to Jerusalem. They passed through Samaria, where they were rejected, and now he arrives in a town where a woman, Martha, receives him in her house. Let us notice what Luke tells us: 'Jesus went into Martha's house.' Where are the disciples? They have disappeared; they did not enter Martha's house; only Jesus entered. Why? This family in the Gospel, according to Luke, and in the Gospel, according to John, assumes a symbolic meaning. Let us observe by whom it is composed: No father, mother, husband, wife, grandparents, or children exists. It is a family consisting only of sisters and brothers.
The image of the community of disciples welcomes Jesus and his Gospel. This is the reason why the disciples do not enter Martha's house. They are this family that welcomes Jesus when he arrives. Martha receives Jesus; Lazarus is not mentioned; the evangelist John speaks about him. It usually was the man, the master of the house, who received the guest, and when he arrived, he sat with the guest. The women had to stay inside, in the kitchen, so they couldn't be seen. In this house, the roles are reversed. The landlady is a woman, Martha, and the one who entertains the guest is another woman, Mary.
Here we have an important message: where Jesus is welcomed, where the Gospel arrives, all prejudices and discriminations between men and women, which are legacies of a culture, of a pagan heritage, are denounced and overcome. And it is not only about overcoming the roles and subordination of women; there is a revolutionary behavior of Jesus. At that time, it was considered supremely improper for a man to accept a woman's hospitality. Jesus does not allow himself to be conditioned by traditions; he is free.
Concerning the relationship with the woman, he who is so demanding with the purity of heart, when he says, 'he who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery' ... he who is so demanding is free in the external relationship with the woman because he has a pure heart. Even more important, There is a message that constitutes the passage's central theme. Jesus is God who asks to be received. Our God needs to enter the heart of each of us into our home. We have learned to consider God as a king, sitting on a throne, to whom we must prostrate ourselves to obtain some favor.
Our God is very human and tender; we see it in Jesus; he is a God who seeks our company and needs to be heard. Jesus is in Jerusalem, and the environment there is very hostile; traps are set because they want to accuse him to eliminate him. In this context, when Jesus arrives at night, he must find a familiar environment to feel at ease and understood by those who share his courageous choices. He seeks a home where he can also vent his grievances. Our God is like that; he needs affection and human warmth; he seeks our friendship. No god is like the one we see in his perfect image, Jesus of Nazareth.
In the third chapter of the book of Revelation, we have a famous text of a letter that the resurrected Lord writes to the Laodicean community. He says: “I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him, I will dine with him, and he with me.” God knocks at the door, a voice not imposed by force but proposes love. The lover wants to conquer the heart of the loved one. This beloved person could even keep him out of his house because the lover makes his love proposal but always leaves the person free to welcome him.
Now, Mary enters the scene. Let us listen:
"Martha had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.”
Why does Evangelist Luke mention the position assumed by Mary? She was sitting at the Master's feet. In the houses of Palestine, there were no chairs; there were mats, so everyone had to sit on the floor. This is not a trivial notation but a technical expression with precise value. Sitting at the feet of a master meant to be welcomed among the disciples. This expression was applied to those who participated officially and regularly in the lessons of a rabbi. In the Acts of the Apostles, for example, Paul proudly recalls that he sat at the feet of the great Rabbi Gamaliel.
This devoted expression of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus constitutes an absolute novelty; no teacher would accept a woman among his disciples. The rabbis used to say: 'It is better to burn the bible than to put it in a woman's hand.' And also: 'Women may not pronounce the blessing before meals'; and 'if a woman goes to the synagogue, let her remain hidden; let her not appear in public.' This mentality was so widespread that it infiltrated even the early Christian communities. For example, Paul gave orders in Corinth that women should keep silent in the assemblies and not be allowed to speak; if they want to learn anything, they should ask their husbands at home because it is improper for a woman to speak during the community meeting.
Let us pay attention, then, to the message that the evangelist wants to give us. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus not to chat about trivialities but to listen to the Word. The image of the disciple devoutly sets himself to listen to the Gospel, to listen to the Master. And now Luke puts Martha on the scene, who does not understand her sister's choice; she would like her to stop listening, for it seems to her a waste of time, and, instead, she should immediately engage herself in some service. Let's listen:
"Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to do the serving? Tell her to help me.’”
Luke is not telling us about a trivial dispute between sisters, one of the many arguments in our families. It presents Martha; it represents the members of today's Christian community who, like Martha, love Jesus well and receive him in their homes, that is, in their lives; they are baptized, confirmed, they go to church, but for them, the hearing of the Word passes to a second-place; they consider it as something secondary to the doing, the commitment to the effectiveness of the work, the fruits... this is what is important, and listening is something that can be put aside.
This is the dangerous behavior he wants to warn the disciples about; he wants them to realize that the activity which is not born of listening to the Word and which is not continually nourished by this listening easily becomes agitation, in stress which then ends up by absorbing all the energies, all the interest to see the objective, the meaning of everything that one does in his life. Let's think about how many Christians are successful in their profession; as soon as they wake up, they start to agitate themselves with a full schedule of commitments; they run all day long and arrive at night exhausted without having had a minute for reflection and ask themselves if what they are doing is in tune or not with the Lord's plan for their life.
In Martha's reaction, we see the result of this doing that is not preceded by listening to the Word. The verb 'περιεσπᾶτο' - 'perispato,' which is employed here, means that Martha was distracted by the many services. What does she do? 'She went ahead' - no, the Greek word is not that she went ahead, 'ἐπιστᾶσα' - 'epistase' = she got upset, she was very angry. This happens with the person who has not heard the Word, is absorbed in action, and has no time to breathe anymore. What is the result? She is not satisfied; she is not serene. In her reaction, we see poorly configured work, not guided by listening. What is the result? Anger, restlessness. Martha takes it out on everyone, even the guest, who has nothing to do with it.
Now let's listen to what Jesus answers her:
"The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.’”
"Martha, Martha." Why is the name repeated? It is how, in the Bible, a person's vocation is often presented: 'Samuel, Samuel,' 'Moses, Moses,' 'Saul, Saul.' Martha is called to become a disciple. Martha is a good person; she gives herself but is not yet a disciple. To become a disciple, she must understand that she must put work first, listening to the Word of the Master, which must guide all her activity. The consequence of not listening to this Word: "Martha, you are anxious and worried."
The verb worry - 'μεριμνᾷς' - 'merimnás' in Greek describes a division that takes place in the heart of the person when drawn between two opposing goals. Martha wanders from one place to another. And "anxious,' the verb 'θορυβάζῃ' - 'zari base' means: Martha, you have great confusion because you don't even enjoy the beautiful things you are doing; you have no time to stop and enjoy life, the encounter with the brothers. Be aware that it is not the work, the commitment to others, that takes you away from God; it is the alienation in this work; it is the losing of your mind, not having a moment of respite and time to think about something else. This dehumanizes and makes you neglect the essentials. Only one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen a good inheritance that will not be taken away from her.
What is this opposition among too many things and the only necessary one? Our translation says that 'Mary has chosen the better part'; there is no better part; Mary has chosen the 'good part.' Pope Gregory the Great, in the 6th century, distinguished between three degrees of sanctity: that of the laity, the lowest; above, on a higher rung, is the holiness of priests; and then, the highest holiness, that of the monks because they live in contemplation.
What is the good part chosen by Mary? The reference is the inheritance; we find it in Psalm 16, which was composed by a priest of the tribe of Levi. When the land of Canaan was divided up after the conquest, the Levites did not inherit a specific territory but only the city where they could reside. Service in the sanctuary was what they had inherited and later left as an inheritance. This is the magnificent inheritance: to be always with the Lord. This is the inheritance that Mary has chosen; by listening to the Word, she lives her whole life in tune with the Master.
The significant problem of people today is precisely the neglect of this good part, of what is necessary, of what is essential. It also happens in our parishes; we can verify that there are priests, catechists, and Christians who devote themselves to many services, to active charity, to catechesis, but if this work is not preceded by listening to the Gospel, it becomes an anxious search for results which often also becomes a motive for jealousy, quarrels, or search for visibility. Jesus does not say that Mary should not work, but that the good part, the indispensable part, that she has chosen is listening to the Word that then guides all her choices.
To the words of Jesus, no one responds. The story seems to have not concluded; Luke wants to draw attention to the silence. Here, we see Mary's silence; during the narrative, she does not say a word, defend herself, explain her choice, and is silent. Everything leads us to suppose that her silence is a sign of meditation and interiorization of the Word she has heard. This silence was prolonged even afterward; it is not enough to listen to the Gospel, the Word of the Master; it must be meditated and assimilated, and this can only happen in silence. Now, Martha needs to sit at the feet of Jesus to listen to him and regain calm, inner serenity, and peace.
If we want to conclude this story, we can remember what the evangelist John narrates in chapter 12 of his Gospel, where he presents Mary, who manifests the result of this listening to the Word of the Master. She pours, without calculation, the precious spikenard, which is the symbol of gratuitous love, and donates this spikenard to Jesus through the love of the brothers. This perfume of love, which is the love of Christ, is of the highest quality, and the evangelist John says that all the house was filled with this perfume. It is the perfume of love that all should immediately perceive those who approach our communities when these communities, in their commitment to their work, make listening to the Word precede all activities.
I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.
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