Martha, burdened with much serving
29 JULY (Lk 10,38-42)
A man is perpetually assailed by things. This is not a matter in any case of a momentary assault. It is perennial, moment by moment and day by day, without respite. This is a perpetual war, without any armistice. We are attacked and overwhelmed by things to do. They rob us of all breath of life. Today, you do not even have time to celebrate with dignity the day of the Lord. Time is never enough. The more we have and the more it is not enough, precisely because of this savage attack of things toward us. And the more time we give to things and the more they take of it, till taking our breath away from us.
We can affirm that today man is perpetually distracted, not only for the big things, often also for the very small ones, often even by idleness, by doing nothing, by futility and vanity. Since things are matter, who pays the cost of it is the spirit and the soul. These are deprived of their true oxygen which is contact with the divine, with God, in His Word, in his sacraments, in the prayer, in the fellowship, from which you can draw a great good.
Our involvement in things is so invasive, as not to understand whoever next to us lives a governed, healthy and orderly life, in which the spirit and the soul always retain the first place, the place of honour and privilege which is proper to them. We wish they also let themselves be involved together with us in this vortex that stifles the spirit and makes it unfit to govern man according to truth and righteousness, holiness and grace, truth and deep and immense charity.
Whoever lets himself be grasped by things, becomes a thing among things. He loses his true identity. On the contrary, whoever lets himself be conquered by the spirit and gives it its proper nourishment; and be the spirit always be brought into the highest truth, he gives truth to everything. Everything is seen according to divine and eternal wisdom. Everything gets its fair value. Everything captures the truth of its origin. The spirit brought into the truth frees our relations from the lie that always surrounds them. The true spirit sees with truth. A free spirit always acts according to freedom. A spirit of light illuminates everything.
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.”
Marta is the figure, symbol of the world that always lets itself be attracted and overwhelmed by things, until nervousness, loss of moral and spiritual identity. This woman thinks that the relationship with the people must necessarily be founded on things. However, she ignores that some things are true and others false, some are pleasing and others unpleasant, some good and others bad. This woman lacks in true discernment. She act and that it is enough. She does not know that when you are in the true wisdom of the heart and mind, sometimes you do not even need to do things, because no one needs the things that we intend to do.
But Mary is a wise, prudent and shrewd woman. First she brings herself into truth and wisdom that come from God, from heaven and that are all in Christ Jesus. Once her spirit is full of light, of truth, of supernatural and eternal wisdom, she might carry out everything else with great simplicity. She will know that many things are useless, others harmful, others yet not pleasing and will be limited to do only what is very good. Apparently Mary lost time. In reality, she gained a lot of it. Marta seems the one that does not want to waste time, while in fact she is losing a lot of it, because she does useless things. One hour given to God to fill us with grace and truth, with wisdom and light, with justice and holiness, makes us earn a lifetime and all of eternity, because it makes us do things only useful for the earth and for Heaven.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints fill us with true wisdom.