We imagine Martha and Mary in the Gospel to be polar opposites, but according to Teresa of Avila, they can be combined as we advance in prayer. We can learn to be absorbed in the Presence of God even as we are occupied in service. It is not that Martha was occupied, but that her occupation was separating her from both Jesus and Mary. In her thoughts, she was resentful that Mary was not helping her, a natural reaction for most of us.
Service with resentment is just servitude. Service with joy is something else altogether---one might even call it prayer.
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A beautiful entry; I can't agree more about prayer as "love (joy) in action."
ReplyDeleteI have often thought that the Mary and Martha story is the age-old bugaboo of the story of humanity from the Bible, jealousy. It may very well be that Martha was usually the contemplative one and resented having to wait on her little sister whose "job" it was to serve the guests.
I can understand resenting those who shirk their human duties because they see their job as praying for the lesser mortals. They forget that someone has to cook, clean, and change diapers. The easy answer is to treat the "lesser mortals" as the untouchables.