Homily—16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

—Fr. Timothy W. Castor

Our Gospel today has often been interpreted as signifying the two primary forms of consecrated life in the Church: Martha represents the active life, the life of service toward God by serving others through education, medical care, social work; and Mary represents the contemplative life, the life ordered directly and entirely toward God through prayer and meditation, hidden away in the cloister. There’s a great deal of truth in this, and it’s well worth our consideration.

This interpretation usually goes a bit further, however, and proposes that the contemplative life is a higher calling than the active life because of the way our Lord apparently affirms Mary and rebukes Martha. And, we have to say, there is some truth to this as well: Objectively speaking, the contemplative life is of a higher order than the life of active service because the contemplative life is focussed entirely on God. After all, praising and worshiping God is what we’ll be doing for all eternity; so contemplation is closer to heaven than active service.

But the Church has always emphasized that this is an objective truth, looking at the various vocations in and of themselves, apart from any particular individual person. Subjectively—that is, on the individual, personal level—the highest calling is the vocation God has for you. Are you called to marriage and the raising of a Christian family? Then that is the highest calling. Are you called to serve God in the business world, in the teaching profession, in medical care? Then that is the highest calling. Are you called to be a member of an active religious order or to be a diocesan priest? Then that is the highest calling. It does no good to look at others in other states of life and wish that we could be them or that they could be us. We should serve God in whatever state of life He has placed us. And, unless He has clearly indicated otherwise, we should remain in that state of life.

So, I think it is possible to draw truths out of today’s Gospel which apply to all of us in any state of life. In the first place, notice the reason our Lord rebukes Martha: it is not because he disapproves of her service. Rather, he gently corrects her because she has criticized and found fault with Mary. He reminds them that they both intended to serve the Lord through their hospitality; but somehow, in all the busy-ness and details, Martha had forgotten the Person she set out to serve. She had lost her focus, and was caught up now in her work, her service … her vocation, if you will. By extolling Mary, Jesus was helping Martha to refocus—to realize that she, too, could choose the "better part", even in the midst of her busy life.

And so can we.

How often do we become "anxious and worried about many things" and forget that "there is need of only one thing:" To love the Lord our God with all our hearts, allowing him to be the center of our lives, the reason behind everything we say and do, the one we see and serve in others. And when we live this way, we truly will have attained the highest call, in fact the only call, the call that embraces all vocations: the universal call to holiness. This is within the reach of all Christians, regardless of their state in life.

Do you have doubts? Then listen to this ancient story from the lives of the desert fathers:

A holy hermit had spent so many years in the practice of prayer and penance that he began to imagine he was the holiest person in the world. While he was thinking of this, God made known to him that he was mistaken, and that he was not nearly so far advanced in perfection, and in the love of God, as a certain poor servant-girl in a hotel in the city. This astonished the good hermit. "How can it be possible," he said to himself, "that a simple servant can be equal to me in virtue, since I have done nothing else for many years but fast and pray continually? I must go and visit her, and ask her what she does that makes her more agreeable in the eyes of God than I am." So he went to the city, and easily found the person of whom he was in search. He told her what God had revealed to him and asked her to let him know what great practices of piety she performed that made her more perfect than he was. "My Father," she replied, "I do not know what God can see in me that can please Him so much; I am only a poor simple servant-girl, and I have no learning. All that I can say is that I endeavor to perform all my actions with the greatest care, in order that I may please God and do His blessed will. When I am carrying wood for the kitchen fire, I think of the love of Jesus in carrying His Cross for me, and I tell Him that I love Him because He is so good; and in all my other works I always try to think of Him in some way or other." The hermit returned home, thanking God for having put it in the power of even the simplest and lowliest of His children to love Him as much, and sometimes even more than those who have consecrated themselves entirely to His service.

May God grant us the grace to see him and to serve him in everything we do.

© 2004, The Rev. Timothy W. Castor

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