16th Sunday C: Revelation Comes To Deeds of Service

Luke 10, 38-42.

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.

She had a sister named Mary (who) sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.

Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me."

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."

The classical exegesis of this scripture is the priority of the contemplative life over the active life, although Jesus clearly approves both.

However, it is most significant that in John 11, 21-28, Jesus makes the full revelation concerning Himself as “the resurrection and the life” [Zoë; relational, eternal Life] to the active Martha:

²²But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."

²³Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

²⁴Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

²⁷"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ,^[a] the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

And this is the true state of affairs. The revelation of the transcendent reality of God comes as the result of making the gift of oneself in the small quotidian things of every day, as Martha.