Reflection
For centuries our faith communities have read the Martha and Mary passage in today’s Gospel as an Active/Contemplative tug-of-war. Martha is ruffled doing all the kitchen work to entertain their special guest, Jesus. Mary is sitting on her bee-hind listening to him. What gives? wonders Martha.
But we have mistaken this passage as a contest between active and contemplative vocations. Scripture scholar Luke Timothy Johnson instructs us instead to read it for what is really is: the other who comes into our space is a messenger of grace. “The story . . . refines the understanding of hospitality.
Jesus’ response to Martha makes clear that the ‘one thing necessary’ for hospitality is attention to the guest, rather than domestic performance . . .
Jesus nicely turns the point from one of providing a service to receiving a gift: the other who comes into our space is a messenger of grace.”
And who comes into our spaces? Not just a visitor at our door. The ones we take for granted are also messengers of grace, including family, friends, neighbors, strangers, and even enemies.
It is common to go to a café, fancy eating establishment, or even a McDonald’s and witness people dining together but not interacting. The hand-held screen is more important than the human being seated across the table.
What would our world be like if more of us put down the screens, pulled out the earbuds, turned from the TV, and focused on the human being in front of us?
Marriages would be closer, families would be more joyful, friendships tighter, the lonely loved, and enemies reconciled.
All because of moments of grace.
“How was your school day?”
“Tell me what happened at work?”
“How can I help?”
“What was that like for you?”
“What led you to that opinion?”
Open-ended questions spark conversation. And the key to a good conversation is listening — just what Mary was doing in the presence of her messenger of grace.
That person next to you in the waiting room, the grocery line, or in front of you at church is a messenger of grace, a miraculous creature of God, sharing this moment in history on our little blue planet with you. Attending to them with a receptive attitude, not judging them, listening with intention, is a radical act in a rushed world, a world full of stimulation, profit-making, self-satisfaction, and looking good. A world where no one wants to miss out on anything exciting.
Such intense listening means consciously calming ourselves enough to entirely focus on someone else.
Not speaking over the other, not dominating the interaction. This is not just radical; it is transformative. The person talking feels accepted, appreciated, and nurtured by you.
And we are transformed as well because we connect with what Alan Lightman, in a recent Atlantic magazine article, describes as the Ordinary Miracle of Existing.
In prayerful moments today, perhaps an examination of what effort we place on paying close attention to who is with us in any given moment, looking them in the eye, clinging to every word they speak, will help us recognize them as a messenger of grace. There is more to life than what you see. A close focus on the bum or loved one transforms the other and transforms us as Christ-like miracles of existence, miracles of love, what God wants us to be.
