Andy (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} emperoraf) wrote,@ 2009-06-04 02:23:00 |
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On Mary & Martha
RECENTLY, THE GOSPEL (in the BCP Daily Office Lectionary) was the familiar story of Mary and Martha from St. Luke. Of course, there is Martha who is frantically busy with hospitality as a head of the house, making sure everything is just right. There is her sister, Mary, who is sitting at the feet of Jesus just soaking it up. “What the heck, Jesus” Martha demands, “My sister is a lazy bum who needs to help out! Stop talking to her so she can do her work!” Jesus calmly responds: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (10:41-42)”
THE MYSTICS ALL go crazy for this story. The anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing spends most of the book describing the difference between Mary-Christians and Martha-Christians to prove why Centering Prayer is superior. Without looking, I believe St. Teresa of Avila makes use of it in The Interior Castle and St. Julian uses it in her Revelations, too. All the Contemplatives like to point to this passage because they believe that it shows that Jesus likes the contemplative monks more than the actives. I’m not kidding. Even the Protestants are in on the action with a book called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. I haven’t read it, but I assume it carries the same theme as the above.
IT IS FAR too easy to sort out everyone’s faith into two categories: these Mary’s and these Martha’s! We have been doing it for centuries, I suppose, just changing the titles and the names around like the cup-stacking game from Church camp: the Mary’s, the Martha’s; the Sheep, the Goats; the have’s and the have-not’s; those within and those without. The names change to fit our circumstances to damn or demean those we do not like or understand. I do this all the time.
PERONSALLY, I PREFER these biblical titles to aid Christ with his judgment of the world. “Here, O my Lord,” I lean over the divine throne on the day of wrath and whisper, “here is a folder with all those who we think deserve what they are about to get. You know the ones we don’t like” -- all the while, of course, categorizing myself as a Mary, a Have, someone within, and as a sheep-who-hears-his-voice. I have every right to do that, don’t I? I was raised to believe in the assurance of my salvation! I firmly believe in the divinity of Christ! I am under the authority of the Church!
I KNOW THAT this reads as over the top. But this is exactly what I am saying every time I turn to my brother in Christ and judge his faith. Or every time I look down on someone who does not meet every qualification. Or judge someone who is criticizes me. Or hate someone who doesn’t understand my faith. It is exactly what I am saying. And it is exactly what you are saying every time you do these things! Oh, how these God-given categories can quickly reveal the inner selfishness and egotism of the soul – even the soul of a believer.
HOW QUICKLY WE turn these God-given gifts into sin. We turn people into categories. We fashion sacraments into blunt force objects with which to beat each other. We turn away from the God-in-others, while turning to magnify the god-within in haste. “Get to work,” we yell, “you’re not doing enough!” We do all of this in the name of Christ, in the name of scripture, in the name of the Church. Surely, this must make Our Lord weep again.
REMEMBER THIS, THEREFORE, next time you raise your voice or dwell on a critical thought, Martha! For the very next soul you claim to be someone without could be the very same soul that reaches to the Lord in an adoration so deep, so longingly, so lovingly that it has yet to reach the surface. They could be the very soul that I might to convince of my worthiness so that they can lean over the divine judgment seat and whisper favorable things in Our Lord’s ear (as the Orthodox might put it). The very person I think to be lazy could be the one that “hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her (10:42).”
HOW FOOLISH I am. How foolish we are. Open our eyes, Lord.
RECENTLY, THE GOSPEL (in the BCP Daily Office Lectionary) was the familiar story of Mary and Martha from St. Luke. Of course, there is Martha who is frantically busy with hospitality as a head of the house, making sure everything is just right. There is her sister, Mary, who is sitting at the feet of Jesus just soaking it up. “What the heck, Jesus” Martha demands, “My sister is a lazy bum who needs to help out! Stop talking to her so she can do her work!” Jesus calmly responds: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (10:41-42)”
THE MYSTICS ALL go crazy for this story. The anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing spends most of the book describing the difference between Mary-Christians and Martha-Christians to prove why Centering Prayer is superior. Without looking, I believe St. Teresa of Avila makes use of it in The Interior Castle and St. Julian uses it in her Revelations, too. All the Contemplatives like to point to this passage because they believe that it shows that Jesus likes the contemplative monks more than the actives. I’m not kidding. Even the Protestants are in on the action with a book called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World. I haven’t read it, but I assume it carries the same theme as the above.
IT IS FAR too easy to sort out everyone’s faith into two categories: these Mary’s and these Martha’s! We have been doing it for centuries, I suppose, just changing the titles and the names around like the cup-stacking game from Church camp: the Mary’s, the Martha’s; the Sheep, the Goats; the have’s and the have-not’s; those within and those without. The names change to fit our circumstances to damn or demean those we do not like or understand. I do this all the time.
PERONSALLY, I PREFER these biblical titles to aid Christ with his judgment of the world. “Here, O my Lord,” I lean over the divine throne on the day of wrath and whisper, “here is a folder with all those who we think deserve what they are about to get. You know the ones we don’t like” -- all the while, of course, categorizing myself as a Mary, a Have, someone within, and as a sheep-who-hears-his-voice. I have every right to do that, don’t I? I was raised to believe in the assurance of my salvation! I firmly believe in the divinity of Christ! I am under the authority of the Church!
I KNOW THAT this reads as over the top. But this is exactly what I am saying every time I turn to my brother in Christ and judge his faith. Or every time I look down on someone who does not meet every qualification. Or judge someone who is criticizes me. Or hate someone who doesn’t understand my faith. It is exactly what I am saying. And it is exactly what you are saying every time you do these things! Oh, how these God-given categories can quickly reveal the inner selfishness and egotism of the soul – even the soul of a believer.
HOW QUICKLY WE turn these God-given gifts into sin. We turn people into categories. We fashion sacraments into blunt force objects with which to beat each other. We turn away from the God-in-others, while turning to magnify the god-within in haste. “Get to work,” we yell, “you’re not doing enough!” We do all of this in the name of Christ, in the name of scripture, in the name of the Church. Surely, this must make Our Lord weep again.
REMEMBER THIS, THEREFORE, next time you raise your voice or dwell on a critical thought, Martha! For the very next soul you claim to be someone without could be the very same soul that reaches to the Lord in an adoration so deep, so longingly, so lovingly that it has yet to reach the surface. They could be the very soul that I might to convince of my worthiness so that they can lean over the divine judgment seat and whisper favorable things in Our Lord’s ear (as the Orthodox might put it). The very person I think to be lazy could be the one that “hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her (10:42).”
HOW FOOLISH I am. How foolish we are. Open our eyes, Lord.
“Never look down on anyone. You do not know whether the Spirit of God prefers to dwell in you or in them”
--Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers
