16th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
July 17 & 18, 2010
Luke 10:38-42
Hospitality of Martha and Mary
The readings today present examples of giving hospitality as part of human relationships.
The first reading from Genesis is the story of Abraham and Sarah offering hospitality to three strangers who appear unexpectedly before their tent. Abraham realizes that they have come from the Lord. He and his wife Sarah rush around making preparations for a lavish meal to refresh their guests. He provides them a place to rest.
Then their generous hospitality is even more generously rewarded. God, speaking through the guests, promises the aged couple that they will have a son!
In the Gospel Jesus visits the house of his closed friends, Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus. The Lord receives two levels of hospitality from the sisters. The Gospel describes how Martha wants to extend the traditional hospitality to Jesus by preparing an elaborate meal for him. While her younger sister Mary, in her simple and trusting manner, sat at the feet of Jesus listening to him.
Definition of Hospitality
We define “hospitality” as “a cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests.” Hospitality is simply showing an act of kindness or a warm welcome to guests. Hospitality is a generous treatment or receptiveness of people. It’s a nice relationship between guest and host.
Unfortunately sometimes we don’t get hospitality for fee. We need to dine in a restaurant or stay at hotel or travel by plane in order to experience hospitality at its best. We call this “a paid hospitality.” When a flight attendant smiles at your and offers you, “coffee or tea?” it’s a paid hospitality.
In my four years in the priesthood I am blessed to experienced “unpaid hospitality” or “freeby hospitality” from parishioners, friends and relatives. Sometimes I feel embarrass how people give me special treatment at their homes.
My brother-in law once pleaded me if I could stay overnight to their house more often. I said, “Why?” He says, “so that they can have cooked breakfast every day!”
Art of Hospitality
How do we show hospitality? Many people misunderstand hospitality by preparing plenty of food and decorating the house lavishly.
Hospitality is an art of making other people feel comfortable and welcome. Only simply things are needed to make people feel at home, one of which is to sit down with our guests and listen to them speaking.
The best gift we could offer to our friends and in fact to anyone is the gift of time. Of course food is always important (for me anyway)! But for Jesus, in speaking of hospitality, it’s the undivided attention and our interest to listen to our guest has a greater importance.
I suppose this is also true in terms of looking after our children, we complain how busy we are at work, we are busy doing household chores cooking, cleaning and washing, that we forget to sit down at the feet of our children and listen to their stories.
Houseblessing
Yesterday I was invited to bless a new house. It’s very special for the family, so they prepared a lovely lunch following the blessing. We all sat down around the table and enjoyed the meal together except for grandmother. Grandmother was busy at the kitchen; she would serve all the food in front me...as if it would be my last meal.
I called her many times not to worry just sit and eat with us but she wouldn’t comply. I said gently to her politely, “you were like Martha in today’s Gospel.”
She paused and smiled. Then she served me more food!
Making time to listen to God
The story of Martha and Mary teaches us the need for balance between action and prayer -- the need for spending time with the Lord and learning from Him.
Martha has become a symbol of action-oriented people, men and women who "get the job done." And the world needs such people. There is nothing wrong with being a responsible, action oriented kind of person.
Jesus did not find fault with Martha for being responsible. Martha’s fault was that she was too busy to listen to Him, too distracted to sit at his feet and absorb his presence. She was too busy to hear what Jesus had to say.
Mary, by listening to Jesus’ word, by contemplating on his presence, has encountered Jesus more deeply in her heart. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.
We need both "serving" Marthas and "listening" Marys.
However the story suggests that “Mary’s undivided listening” is the first prerequisite for human love and Christian discipleship. The more one listens, the more love grows. The less one listens, the less love there is.
This is certainly true in marriage.
They say, In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens.
In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen.
Any good marriage will find a man and woman who have discovered what it means to listen to one another.
Listening means focusing on the other; it is concentrating on the persons before you, giving them your undivided attention.
In our prayer life, which Mary represents, the other word for listening is contemplation... contemplation is “living in the presence of God”. Contemplation is finding time to sit down before God. Contemplation is gently letting go of worldly distractions in order to hear and understand Jesus’ thoughts and insights more deeply.
In the words of St Teresa of Avila, "Contemplative prayer is... "I look at him and he looks at me"
Contemplation is just spending time with Lord gazing upon His beautiful face, and allowing God to gaze upon our face.
This is the best hospitality we can offer to God – our time, our attention, our listening. – Are you listening?
Amidst the hustle and bustle of our life, we are here at church today in order to spend time with Jesus, to ask his pardon and forgiveness, to listen to his words, to offer ourselves on the altar, to worship God together - not only in action but also with contemplation.
Conclusion
There is a Martha and a Mary within each of us: a part of ourselves which is active and busy, another part which sits at Jesus’ feet and listens trustingly to him.
We need our active self to accomplish God’s will, but the listening self, contemplative self, is the best part, and we must not allow it to be taken from us.
"Lord, to be in your presence is life and joy for me.
Free me from needless concerns and
preoccupations
that I may give you hospitality at its best
my undivided love and attention.
Amen."
