Today is July 20, the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
We read at
today’s Mass, “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” (Lk 10:41-42).
For many of us, these words feel challenging. Like Martha, we often carry concerns and responsibilities that weigh on our hearts. When Jesus speaks of Mary choosing the better part, it may sound as though he is dismissing
Martha’s efforts. But that is not what is happening. Jesus is gently reminding us that only one thing matters in the end: the love we give and receive in him.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati lived this balance between Martha and Mary. His life was a steady rhythm of prayer and action. He never neglected daily Mass or time spent with the Lord, yet he also
threw himself into service. He called this his “Apostolate of Charity.”
‘Based on charity’
Continued below.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s devoted prayer and service reveal Jesus’ invitation to choose love over anxiety.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
Today is July 20, the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
We read at
today’s Mass, “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” (Lk 10:41-42).
For many of us, these words feel challenging. Like Martha, we often carry concerns and responsibilities that weigh on our hearts. When Jesus speaks of Mary choosing the better part, it may sound as though he is dismissing
Martha’s efforts. But that is not what is happening. Jesus is gently reminding us that only one thing matters in the end: the love we give and receive in him.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati lived this balance between Martha and Mary. His life was a steady rhythm of prayer and action. He never neglected daily Mass or time spent with the Lord, yet he also
threw himself into service. He called this his “Apostolate of Charity.”
‘Based on charity’
Continued below.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati’s devoted prayer and service reveal Jesus’ invitation to choose love over anxiety.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
I am truly sorry to respond to this post with a fundamental negative conclusion, but this error is so common in Catholic homilies, that to pass it by without comment would be to add to the error in understanding, and allow it further spread. The error is most clearly revealed in this : "Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati lived this balance between Martha and Mary."
I sincerely hope that he did not live "a balance between Martha and Mary"! We are not entrusted with the highest of the virtues, to "balance it" with something else. Charity ought never, ever be set aside in order to
do anything. Charity must be
lived always.
"Charity is the
form of all the virtues." (CCC 2346).
"Charity is
the soul of the holiness to which all are called: it 'governs, shapes, and
perfects all the means of sanctification.'” (CCC 826)
"Even though incorporated into the Church,
one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church,
but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart.’“ (CCC 837)
"Charity is the theological virtue by which
we love God above all things for his own sake, and
our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God." (CCC 1822)
"Charity is
superior to all the virtues. It is
the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But
the greatest of these is charity.” [1 Cor 13:13] (CCC 1826)
Finally, beware of doing a "good work" in order to gain goods for ourselves (the praise of men, a reward from God, something to advance my ambition,....) we in such a case would be a mere "hired man", a mercenary working for pay. No, "If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally
if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children." [St. Basil] (CCC 1828)
We see the problem again here: "He never neglected daily Mass or time spent with the Lord, yet he also
threw himself into service." May we never "throw
ourselves into service" or works of any kind, again! We are too much, still, in our [old] selves and not in the new man or woman transformed in Christ! We must seek and long to
die to ourselves
in fact and Truth not just sacramentally and symbolically in Baptism. We must seek and long to live -
to LIVE - in Christ, we in Him and He in us, in all that we are and do. Jesus calls us:
Abide [Remain, Dwell] in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide [remain, dwell] in Me. [Jn 15:4]
May we never again leave prayer, to work. May we always
remain in prayer,
in our works! May we never again leave Christ and become of the world, in order to "do" works acceptable and pleasing to the world. That is the most "unbalanced" and contradictory of moves. Martha was fallen and of the world when she ordered Jesus to "tell her sister to help" her. She had judged and misjudged Jesus, accusing Him: "Lord,
do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" Martha's "good" works had brought her no peace - He told her ""Martha, Martha,
you are anxious and troubled about many things..."
No, it is not a good thing thing to seek a "balance" between Mary, a woman here at peace in the Holy Truth of Jesus, and Martha, then a woman deep in the troubles of the world. There is no righteous balance to be found here. Martha
became a saint! But her sister was way ahead of her in this scene.
