St Martha’s bustling zeal and spiritual priorities
Martha’s service at Bethany became the occasion for Christ to reveal that even the busiest charity must yield to hearing His word.
Martha’s service at Bethany became the occasion for Christ to reveal that even the busiest charity must yield to hearing His word.
Editor’s Notes
The following mini-series is about the Gospel traditionally read on the Feast of the Assumption – that of the different “choices” of Ss Martha and Mary.
This Gospel reading may seem like a surprising choice for this feast – especially as the Church has read the account of Our Lady’s Magnificat on the Assumption since Pope Pius XII’s dogmatic definition in 1950. However – as Fr Coleridge explains – many saints have explained how this incident with Ss Martha and Mary relates to Our Lady.
Our Lord visits the house of the two sisters: Martha chooses to busy herself with hospitality and service for Our Lord and his disciples; Mary chooses to sit at feet and listen to this words. Martha eventually asks Our Lord to send her sister to help her; and Our Lord responds.
The passage contrasts the active and contemplative lives, typified by Ss Mary and Martha respectively. Christ’s commendation of Mary teaches the priority and superiority of the contemplative life over the active life. Coleridge shows that the two sisters point towards Our Lady as the perfect fulfilment of the Chrisian life and what is best in both the active and contemplative life.
This event occurred during what Fr Coleridge calls the “Third Period” of Our Lord’s public life – which runs from the Confession of St Peter to Palm Sunday, and which was marked by Christ’s preaching of the Cross.
Sadly, Coleridge seems never to have completed a direct treatment of the Assumption itself.
The Choice of Magdalene
The Preaching of the Cross, Part I, Chapter XIX
St. Luke x. 38-42
Story of the Gospels, § 101
Burns and Oates, London, 1886
Order of incidents
We have already spoken of the question which will constantly recur to the mind, at this part of our work, with regard to the many anecdotes and discourses of our Lord of which this part of St. Luke’s Gospel is made up, and which seem to have but little connection one with another, whether we are to suppose that the Evangelist has in this part also of his work followed his usual rule of keeping to the order of time, or whether the arrangement of his materials has been regulated by some other principle.
In answer to this question we can only say that an historian like St. Luke might be on principle very careful to preserve the order of time in all material points, without of necessity binding himself never to deviate from that order.
If there were some sufficient reason for placing anecdotes or sayings of our Lord out of the order of time, for the sake of joining together different sayings which may have a relation to the same subject-matter, it would be natural for him to do this, as, indeed, we may fairly suppose St. Luke to have done with regard to the three answers of our Lord to those who volunteered to follow Him, or who made some petition for delay when they were asked to follow Him.
We shall therefore deal with these sections of St. Luke which he clearly intends to understand as relating to the interval between the feast of Tabernacles, of which we have lately spoken, and the time at which our Lord passed into Peræa, as they lie before us in the Gospel, without considering that we are bound to examine whether the Evangelist has arranged all that happened in this interval in the exact chronological order.
Certainly, the incident of which we have last spoken, which led to the delivery of the story of the Good Samaritan, has a character and importance of its own which might have led St. Luke to place it at the head of his collection. But we cannot be certain that it is not so placed because such was its natural position, and the scenery of the parable, as has often been remarked, is exactly what it would have been if our Lord had delivered it in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem.
In Judæa
The next incident is one which might have taken place at any time during the few months or weeks of the preaching of our Lord in Judæa. It has all the appearance of being one of those anecdotes which were current among the Christians in Judaea, and which St. Luke may have met with during the long time which he spent there while St. Paul was a prisoner.
Our Lord is spoken of as ‘the Lord,’ as is the case so frequently in this Gospel, especially in this part of it, and the other persons concerned in the narrative were well-known saints, characters familiar to all who knew our Lord and His history, and yet they are spoken of here as if the reader had never heard their names before.
The story is in itself of the very simplest kind. But the words and action of our Lord contained a great and deep lesson, such a lesson as belonged naturally to this stage of His teaching. Thus the anecdote has become famous in the Church, and its spiritual teaching has been caught up and applied in a manner which draws out its marvellous and pregnant fecundity.
Martha and Mary
‘Now it came to pass as they went that He entered into a certain town,’ which we have little difficulty in identifying with Bethany, although some writers would place it elsewhere. If it was Bethany, there would be no reason for the mention of the name, considering the circumstances under which St. Luke wrote, and thus the anecdote may have occurred very soon after the occasion on which the story of the Good Samaritan was told. At all events, the place was the home of Martha and Mary Magdalene, the well-known sisters of Lazarus.
‘And a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.’
It is probable that some at least of the Twelve, if not all, were with Him, and the company which was thus to be entertained was large enough to tax the resources of the willing and eager hostess.
‘And she had a sister, called Mary, who sat also at the Lord’s feet, and heard His Word. But Martha was busy about much serving…’
… that is, it would seem, she set to work all the loving energy of her active character, not simply to provide a plain meal for her guests, but to entertain our Lord and His Apostles in a manner, if not worthy of Him, at least answering to her joy and devotion and generosity.
What could be too much for Him? And, if the visit was, as may have been the case, unexpected, our Lord arranging matters lovingly so as to give them a surprise, and at the same time draw out thereby the points of character in the two sisters on which He intended to found a great lesson for the Church, there would be all the more reason for some little bustle and haste and a certain air of importance and responsibility in Martha which went a little beyond the requirements of the occasion, and which jarred somewhat on the deep peace and calm reverence which usually hung about His movements and guided the behaviour of His companions.
Martha’s arguments – corrected by Our Lord
‘Martha was busy about much serving. And she stood and said: Lord, hast Thou no care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me!’
It would seem that our Lord did not make any protest against the over-great trouble to which Martha put herself for the entertainment of Himself and His companions.
He always acted with the most exquisite courtesy, and although there may have been some little imperfection in the bustling and excessive preparations of His hostess, He accepted them all without remark or reproof, as He so constantly allows His servants to have their own way in unimportant matters in His service, interpreting gently all their slight excesses or blunders, and rewarding them all in His own Heart, not according to the wisdom which they display, but according to the zeal and goodwill of persons who are doing what they think best for Him.
But although He let Martha have her way, as it were, in spreading her board and preparing an over-sumptuous feast on an occasion which was so dear to her heart, He did not the less take care to occupy the time which these preparations consumed in His own divine way, speaking either to His Apostles, or to Mary herself as she sat at His feet, the words of heavenly truth and wisdom, feasting their souls on a far more magnificent and fruitful banquet than that which Martha was toiling to make ready.
For our Lord knew the value of time, and on the present occasion He showed how what we call the ‘odds and ends’ of time are never to be neglected, and of what great importance it is that they should be well employed. And so He went on conversing in His sweet and gracious way, seeming to take no heed of the labours and industry of Martha, and holding Mary and the others present, as it were, in the chains of His heavenly discourse, unable, while that flowed on, to disengage themselves, or even to wish for anything but that it might flow on for ever.
In this divine way did our Lord correct the over-balanced eagerness of Martha, who thought but little, perhaps, of the sweet and life-giving words which were falling from His lips while she was preparing the material and earthly banquet.
But what of Mary's choice? And how does this relate to Our Lady and her Assumption? Find out on the next two parts.
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The Choice of Magdalene
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