Click here to download Chinese translation of the homily here (在此下載中文翻譯錄音)
Fr. Gerard Kelly
You probably remember that last week we
heard the gospel parable of the Good Samaritan.
Jesus told this parable in response to a question from a lawyer about
the meaning of love of God and love of neighbour. The lawyer had asked, “Who is my
neighbour?” Jesus didn’t give a direct
answer, but told a parable and then asked the lawyer which of the three
characters had acted like a neighbour.
The lawyer recognised that it was the Samaritan, and Jesus told him to
go and do likewise. In other words,
Jesus shifted the focus away from a theoretical discussion about neighbours and
placed it squarely on the way we act.
Now, the gospel incident we have heard
today comes immediately after the parable of the Good Samaritan. We may well wonder how the two connect. In fact, we could imagine Martha replying to
Jesus: here I am doing my best to make things right for my neighbour – I am
doing something – and my sister Mary is sitting there doing nothing. When we hear it like that, I am sure that our
instincts are to feel sorry for Martha.
But let’s look at Martha and see what
is going on. In some ways she is the
perfect model of many people in our generation.
How often have any of us said that we are very busy or that there are
too many things to do and not enough time to do them? The word “multi-tasking” is so common today
that it seems to describe the way we live.
For many of us, if we are not busy we begin to feel guilty. More than that, we can easily describe other
people as lazy if they look as though they are idle. It is probably fair to say that most people
today are more like Martha than Mary.
And in fact, we tend to look down on the Marys of this world.
So what is the gospel telling us? That we should stop doing all the things that
we do? That we should become lazy? I don’t think so. We need to remember the context. This gospel comes after the parable of the
Good Samaritan. It can’t be telling us
that we should do nothing. I think the
way we need to interpret it is to ask how it might help us to learn the best
way to act in loving our neighbour.
It struck me that the central question
last week’s parable put to us was about the basic instinct out of which we
act. When we are forced to act
spontaneously, what will we do? The
Samaritan saw a man, battered and bruised, lying on the side of the road and
knew that he had to act to help him.
This was in contrast to the other two people – the priest and the Levite
– who walked by on the other side because the Law would not allow them to come
into contact with blood. The Samaritan
acted out of a deep instinct of care for other people – even if they were
different. The parable was really
pointing to us the problem of indifference: that we can become so focused on
ourselves, or even social custom, that we ignore what is happening around us. Just last week Pope Francis, on a visit to
the Island of Lampedusa, referred to the “globalisation of indifference”. Lampedusa is probably the Italian equivalent
of our Christmas Island. It is where thousands of refugees, fleeing persecution
in Northern Africa, arrive to seek asylum in Italy. The pope quoted the parable of the Good
Samaritan.
The problem of indifference is
ultimately a problem that goes to our basic instincts. In the parable, the priest and Levite had
poor instinct when faced with human tragedy.
They were so preoccupied with the Law that they were blind to the
fundamental commandment to love their neighbour. At times our instincts can be more shaped by
politics, economics, technology or a range of other doctrines, rather than by
the love of God.
And this brings us back to Martha and
Mary. The incident points out to us that
love of neighbour cannot be separated from love of God. Martha was so busy doing everything that she
had no time to sit like Mary at the feet of Jesus. It is there at the feet of Jesus, that she would
hear a word of love. It is there at the
feet of Jesus that she would experience the love of Jesus washing over her and
giving her new energy to go about her tasks.
At the feet of Jesus her attention would be turned for a little while
away from herself and on to him. All of
this goes toward shaping her basic instinct.
The more time she spends with him, the more she will be energised to do
the tasks that are before her.
It would be wrong to read this incident
of Martha and Mary as forcing us to make a choice between either one or the
other. In fact, the church has always
struggled to keep both instincts alive.
We need Marthas as well as Marys.
Perhaps it is better if we see them as two faces of the one person. We each need to wear both faces. What we learn today is that only by taking
time to be with God can we gain that energy that we need to love like God
loves. It is not a question of spending
all our time in prayer so that the world passes us by – just as it is not a
question of being so preoccupied with the world that we have not time for God
or for others. A balance is needed. When we have that balance it will show itself
in our fundamental instinct that comes into play in a variety of situations we
face.
