Martha and Me

One of my mom’s favorite expressions was “cleanliness is next to godliness.”  Usually, I heard this line as she was standing in the doorway of my room.  While it sounds Biblical, you can’t find it there.  However, it appears that this must have been a go-to line for Jewish moms in Jesus’ time, at least based on the many ritual cleansing rules in the Law of Moses.

But there was another virtue that the Jewish people considered even closer to godliness – hospitality.  Living in a land surrounded by rocky deserts and mountains, being a welcoming host was a paramount virtue.  In today’s reading from Genesis 18, we see Abraham and Sarah bustling about to provide a welcoming meal for the three men who wander by their tent.   Often, we hear the prophets call on the people to welcome the stranger and take care of the widows and orphans.

In the New Testament, the virtuous nature of hospitality sheds light in several ways.  At the wedding feast at Cana, we see why Mary considered it so important to tell Jesus that the host was running out of wine.  It would have been unconscionable and unforgivable to have breached hospitality in such a way.  In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that one of the hallmarks of those who will be blessed by his Father is hospitality – “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).  Next Sunday, we’ll hear Jesus tell a story of a man who banged on his neighbor’s door after everyone was already asleep!  (Lk 11:5-8) Why would he do such a thing?  It turns a friend of his had unexpectedly dropped by and he had nothing to feed them.  Desperate times called for desperate measures.

So what’s the deal with poor Martha in today’s passage (Lk 10:38-42)?  Here she is doing her hospitable best, working her fingers to the bone to provide for Jesus and the rest of the family.  When she points out to Jesus that Mary isn’t doing her share, Jesus seems completely unsympathetic.  He doesn’t thank Martha for being so hospitable; he doesn’t reprimand Mary to help her sister.  Instead, you can almost see Jesus with a wry smile on his face, shaking his head and saying, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things…”

As Jesus reminds Martha, so he reminds me.  Often, like Martha, I am so wrapped up in my busy-ness – even my supposedly virtuous busy-ness – that I lose the whole point of virtue.  Instead of living virtuously out of love, I live virtuously out of duty and obligation.  Instead of virtue filling me with peace, it fills me with anxiety – am I doing enough; why isn’t anyone helping me; is anybody out there noticing how darn hard I’m working, how darn good I’m being?  Instead of virtue leading me to God, virtue turns me into myself and away from God.  It seems I’ve done a miracle, but not a good miracle – I’ve turned virtue into vice.

Jesus tells Martha, as he tells me: take a breath, come to quiet, come to me.  By stilling myself and putting myself in the presence of Jesus – even if for only ten or fifteen minutes every day – I can put my busy-ness in the proper perspective.  I can keep the love that Christ has for me at top of mind, such that this love becomes my impetus and my motivation to love others as He loves me.

This is the better part that Jesus points out to Martha and me.  Only in this way, can my busy-ness make any sense.  Only in this way, can I stop being anxious and worried about many things.  Only in this way, can I realize the peace that Jesus offers.