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Sunday 20 July 2025 Trinity 5, Sixteenth in Ordinary time, Proper 11
Mary has chosen the better part
Genesis 18:1-10a; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42
Context: a suburban Parish Mass attended by many middle-class young couples, some of whom may be finding it difficult to get on the property ladder
Aim: to encourage greater attentiveness to the teaching of Jesus as found in the Gospels
John and Lucy had invited an important guest to dinner. John was a sports teacher and not very well up in money matters, but he was very good at cooking. Lucy was P.A. to Eric French, a top financial expert in a merchant bank. John and Lucy had not been married long and were eager to buy a house. Thinking about mortgages, endowments, and ISAs, made John feel ill. He just couldn’t cope with it. Very kindly, Lucy’s boss offered to advise them, so Lucy invited Eric round to dinner. When he arrived, John fussed around plying Eric with drinks and nibbles. At the meal, he kept leaping up to stir the exotic sauces that accompanied each dish. Whenever Lucy tried to bring him in on the important discussion about money matters, John either jumped up to get a sorbet or changed the subject to describe the ingredients of the food or the vintage of the vine. Eventually, under the influence of the best wine, marital pathology began to show. Feeling defensive about his own phobia at thinking seriously about family finance, John started appealing to Eric. ‘What do you think about me having a wife who can’t cook as well as her husband, and who is so busy chatting that she won’t get up to help me bring the goodies in from the kitchen?’ Eric felt annoyed and embarrassed by the rudeness of John for trying to get him to take sides in their quarrel.
‘Well, John’ he said, ‘I did very much appreciate the meal, but I thought that you wanted me to give you the benefit of my expertise. Lucy has been asking me some very good questions and, much as I liked the food, I find her attitude to her guest much more intelligent than yours!’
THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AMONG YOU
Nearly 2000 years before, two sisters, Martha and Mary, invited an important guest to dinner. Martha was a practical person and not very well up in religious matters. Very kindly, a great prophet agreed to come to their house to explain his message. When he arrived, Martha fussed around while Mary listened carefully to everything the prophet had to say. Feeling defensive and displaying more than a bit of sibling rivalry, Martha asked Jesus ‘Do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do all the serving? Please tell her to help me.’
The Lord felt annoyed and embarrassed by the rudeness of Martha for trying to get him to take sides in their quarrel: ‘Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’
TODAY’S GOSPEL IS ABOUT LISTENING
Sometimes preachers have interpreted Martha and Mary as representing the active and contemplative vocations respectively, and Jesus seems to be praising the contemplative vocation as a higher one. Alternatively, we can interpret the story by picturing Martha, like John in my story, fussing around instead of listening carefully to everything their guest had to say.
In the Eucharist, we like Martha and Mary, have Jesus as our guest. As Saint Paul says, in his Letter to the Colossians, ‘the mystery of Christ is among you’. Like Abraham with his supernatural visitors in the first reading, we want to show our divine guest proper hospitality — and the best way to show him hospitality is to listen to his words. We can fuss around finding ways to worship somebody we call Jesus, but if we don’t listen to his words, we might be worshipping the wrong Jesus — a Jesus who only tells us what we want to hear.
Today’s Gospel is about listening. We must listen to his words in the Gospels. At the very least, we could start by spending time each week thinking about the Gospel reading we heard on Sunday, praying about it and finding out how to apply it to our lives.
‘Few things are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.’
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