Reflection on the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Genesis 18:1-10 Colossians 1:24-28 Luke 10:38-42

Guess who’s coming to dinner! The readings today remind me of a time when I was about 8 or 9 years old, when my mother would fix a sandwich for the occasional visitor at the back door before he hopped on the next train out of town.

I also remember that It was not unusual for someone to drop by just in time to eat. It was sort of a joke to add another cup of water to the soup, but we always had an extra place set at the table for the one who happened by. 

We didn’t live in the desert like Abraham and Sarah where guests were a welcome surprise. Abraham told Sarah that there were guests for dinner and asked her to get a meal ready. Did that mean someone had to kill the fatted calf?  Sarah, being a woman, was busy in the kitchen, while Abraham tended to the needs of the guests by offering them shade and water for them and their animals, but I suspect that Abraham, being a typical man, had lots of time to sit and visit.

In the Gospel, Luke tells us that Jesus dropped by the home of Martha and Mary as a family friend and probably brought some of his followers. In this very familiar story, we find Martha in her hospitality mode. She’s hard working, laser-focused on what needs to get done to feed her guests, perhaps that’s why today she is the patron saint of cooks. Martha, however, becomes impatient and even resentful at her sister Mary, who is just sitting and listening to Jesus.  That’s when she tells Jesus to get Mary to come help her. 

Jesus chides her “Martha, Martha you are worried and distracted about many things.” (I wonder what Jesus would have thought of cell phones, texts, emails, TV, computers, etc.?)

Maybe this Gospel is not really about Martha and Mary, or differences in personalities, because each one of us has a little bit of both of them in us. We see this best in a family or community setting. What would we do here at Loretto, for instance, without the Marthas to see to it that the altar is set and the candles are lit before our church service, or the cookies get baked at Christmas, or the flowers get put on the dining room table, or the liturgies get prepared each week, etc.? At the same time, where would we be without the outgoing Marys who oftentimes are the first ones to approach a guest and make them feel welcome by sitting and visiting with them, showing an interest in who they are and where they come from and what they do. Clearly, neither a Martha or a Mary can do it all, yet both have their unique gifts to offer. There is a time and a place for everything. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus shows us that there is a time to serve, a time to be served and even a time to rest and just be, because in essence, we are not Human “Doers,” but Human “‘BE’ings.”