Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

A few weeks ago, for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, I was able to ask you: are

you more of a Peter, or a Paul? This time, my question is: is your style of life

more like Martha or Mary?

They both show important aspects of living a Christian life: Martha is more

involved with the practical things, in this case, preparing a splendid meal; Mary

is the one who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what He had to say.

When it comes to religious orders, there are two main divisions, if you like, the

active, and the contemplative. The active might be a bit more like Sister Anne-

Marie, going into schools to teach, or visiting the housebound. The

contemplative religious orders are more like the Benedictines, who gather in

church to pray multiple times throughout the day, maybe six or seven.

But we can’t have one style to the complete exclusion of the other. No one can

be completely Martha or completely Mary. Sister Anne-Marie also prays

throughout the day and attends Mass; the Benedictines usually have some work

that they are supposed to do; among the monks, some are teachers, whilst

others might be beekeepers, make chocolate or even blend incense.

Take the example of St Theresa of Calcutta’s Order: in Calcutta, they certainly

have their work cut out. But they also make time for deep prayer. She said

once:

“To be able to live this life of vows, these four vows, we need our life to be

woven with the Eucharist. That's why we begin our day with Jesus in the

Holy Eucharist. With him, we go forward. And when we come back in the

evening we have one hour of adoration before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,

and at this you will be surprised, that we have not had to cut down our work for

the poor.

“It has brought us so close to each other. We love each other better, but I think

we love the poor with greater and deeper faith and love.”

But this advice is not just for those who join religious orders, or for priests; it

applies to everyone. We have to be both/and, both Martha and Mary in our

style of life. If we are just action with no prayer, then we become practical

atheists: whilst we claim to believe in God, in practice, He has no part in our

lives. If we are all prayer, but then have no interest in the world around us, no

desire to spread the word and make God known, then there is also something

not quite right.

This is always a danger to be aware of when we follow the Lord: the devil will

try to distort our faith and practice. Many heresies in the Church have come

about because someone has taken one aspect and exaggerated it, to the

exclusion of other dimensions.

But take a more modern-day example: the idea of tolerance. Apparently, it

seems, we have to be tolerant, and that means allowing anything. But nobody

is completely tolerant. Tolerance is not an absolute. Whilst we need to make

room for each other in different ways, there are limits. And some things should

not be tolerated. To do so would be a grave neglect of duty. If a school

tolerates bad behaviour and poor standards, is that good Christianity? If a

police force tolerates crime, because we must let people be free to express

themselves, wouldn’t that make them a laughing stock?

The relationship between prayer and work has to be balanced. Yes, it looks

different for different people. At our hospitals, some of the nurses work

twelve-hour shifts. But that’s only supposed to be for three days a week, and

then they are supposed to have four days off (note I say “supposed”, as the

practice isn’t always the ideal). So that kind of life would affect when you are

able to pray. Conversely, if you are elderly and housebound, and spend many

hours on your own, you can spend more time in prayer, and you are not being

lazy by not going to work five days a week.

Another way of putting it is this: love of God and love of neighbour. Love of

God is supposed to take up all of our life, but love of neighbour is an important

way in which we love God. And Mary has chosen the good part. It would be

heresy to say that Martha’s was better.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk