St. Martha, Pray for Us

On this Sunday, the Church points us toward the life and work of Martha, sister of Mary Magdalene and Lazarus. This family from Bethany elicits more emotion from Our Lord than possibly anyone else in the Gospels. It is at least safe to say that His tears are mentioned nowhere else. The reality of Christ's affection for this entire family is often obscured by pitting Mary against Martha. The end of Luke chapter 10 has an air of chastisement about it.

"But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her."

The point is not that Martha is performing a worthless task. Far from it, she is providing for the corporeal needs of the Savior. Augustine is quick to point out that such an action is only made possible by the resurrection, the created providing for the Creator, and is full of dignity. Instead, Luke emphasizes the hierarchy that exists between the part each sister has chosen. The Medieval church drew out an entire vocabulary of vita activa and vita contemplativa from this passage and recognized the relation Christ draws between the two. Things of nature are never worthless, merely transitory, and must be rooted in the realm of grace to have any lasting value.

John's account reveals another side of Martha. She accuses Christ even before Mary, running out of the house before anyone arrives. ""Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Her unshakeable faith is what causes her to plead with him in a tone that is bold and demanding. Her question is met by another question (something that must have made Jesus quite unpopular with his good friends) and she reaffirms her faith in almost Petrine language. "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." John saves us from the trap of considering Martha to be worldly and Mary, spiritual.

Is it not fitting that the Church should ask us to both honor the contemplative Mary Magdalene and her sister of ardent practical charity? Even among saints there are distinctions of personality and charism. Becoming Christ-like is not a cookie-cutter affair. Gerard Manley Hopkins expresses the many-faceted character of sanctification most aptly when he says...

"Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces" 

Heaven is filled with Seraphim and Cherubim both, each glorying in the fulfillment of their respective natures and seeing the unity of wisdom and love in the Godhead.

(Oh, and according to the Golden Legend, Martha used to live in the castle Magdalen, sold all her possessions after the Ascension, moved to Avignon, slayed a dragon, and started a convent. I approve.)

" And she cast on him holy water, and showed to him the cross, which anon was overcome, and standing still as a sheep, she bound him with her own girdle, and then was slain with spears and glaives of the people."
-Golden Legend

A great St. Martha post I just found after writing this here