Martha Or Mary?

Have you ever been heading out the door to a meeting on a gray and rainy day when you learned it was cancelled? If you have, then you know that disappointment can turn to glee when you realize you have a couple of hours of unscheduled time.

Suddenly, you have a decision to make. Will it be a Martha morning or a Mary one?

We all have lists — either in our heads or on scraps of paper — of the dozens of things we need to do as homemakers. I remember being 24 years old and realizing that I was never going to get caught up. There would always be grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, cooking….

Forty years later, I know that to be true. And yet I try to stay ahead; I really do.

It’s the Martha in me.

I think we are blessed to have both a Martha side as well as a Mary one.

Martha, at her best, exemplified the gift of hospitality. She was the one preparing the house for guests, she was the one making the food — and, blessedly, she was the one who graciously welcomed Jesus into the home that she shared with Mary.

We all know Martha. We are her, and we connect with her contention that life’s not very fair. If it were, Mary would be helping out.

But there’s a part of us — a softer side — that connects with Martha’s sister, Mary. She was the one who sat at Jesus’ feet, content just to listen to Him speak.

We as Catholic women understand that our parishes need the Marthas, the women who prepare the coffee for meetings, work in the soup kitchens, teach the children, help with RCIA.

Yet as Catholic women we need to expand the Mary side of our lives. We need to embrace Jesus into our homes and into our parishes and into our hearts in a spiritual way.

How do we do that?

By stepping away from the lists and the daily demands that life presents to us, and by picking up the bible or a devotional and finding a quiet place to pray.

That’s so difficult. How many times have you settled into a chair, and started to reverently close your eyes — when you spotted the clump of dog hair, the plant that needed watering, the bill that needed to be paid?

To survive in our culture, the Martha side needs to be strong – but as women of faith we need to be fully integrated. It’s a challenge but we need to allow the best of Martha and the best of Mary to fill our lives.

And as women of a certain age, maybe we need to be trying a little harder developing the Mary side.

And if we do, then we will hear the Lord say, “You have chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from you.”