How many times do you just stop and say to yourself, "Life will be victorious"? If you have faith, it will be so for you. You deserve it. Believe you do. Think of possibilities. Imagine yourself receiving from the universe all you ever dream of. Life will be awesome, and you will enjoy every moment of it. Rest in this knowledge, and be like Mary. Wait patiently at the feet of the master. Open your heart and receive. Bob Marley would sing, "Don't worry about a thing. Because every little thing's gonna be alright." Relax, and take life easy. Are you upset, agitated, confused; is your blood pressure going up - are you stressed out? Just take it easy. Breathe deeply, exhale; get off your feet - go get a massage or something. Sit down and listen. Listen to the birds sing, to the running streams; feel your own pulse. Breathe again, and smile. Know that "every little thing's gonna be alright."
I know there's work to do; your boss is riding you. You've got lots of commitments, tons of stuff to do. You feel you can't take it easy. You feel as if you're on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. You're screaming inside - can someone help! "Lord, ask my sister to come and help me," Martha exclaimed. She could not understand it. Here she was, frantically busy with the cooking and the serving and the cleaning and everything, and there was Mary seated and listening to Jesus. Crazy. "Do you not care that Mary refuses to help me?" Could Jesus not see that it was all unfair? Why do I have to file all these documents? Why is it always I who has to take out the garbage? Why can't I get a freaking break! God, where are you - I'm stressed the hell out!
"And Jesus said to her, 'Martha, you are concerned and disturbed about many things'" (Lk 10:41). How true this is for many of us. We lead very active lives. We juggle two or three jobs with raising a family and being responsible for our aging parents. We are overwhelmed with financial and relationship issues. Indeed, we are concerned and disturbed about many things. And how can we not be? There are bills to pay; there are obligations to fulfill; there are standards to maintain. We have a reputation to protect and uphold. We feel justified to be so concerned. Yet, Jesus says, "But only one thing is necessary; Mary has chosen that valuable thing, and it shall not be taken from her" (v42). The rushing about and hustling; the frantic chasing and bustling; the brouhaha and scurrying - none of this matters. Only one thing does: sitting at Jesus' feet.
But what does it mean to sit at the feet of the master? What does it mean to go after the one thing that is truly important? It means contemplative humility. What is contemplative humility? It is the acceptance of our human limitations, based on the recognition of our dependence on God. Philippians 4:13 acknowledges that we can do everything, but only through Christ that gives us the strength. We cannot simply take the first part of the verse, the part about our being able to do everything, without paying attention to the latter part of it, which supplies the impetus of such ability - the strength that comes from the divine. While Martha was busy tasking her human strength to meet the occasion of Jesus' visit, Mary was leaning on the everlasting gift of the savior's strength.
This strength is a spiritual one. It is strength of mind, what philosophers call nous. This nous is the principle of the universe, which Aristotle would call the agent intellect. It inspires all of creation. It is the principle of harmony, of unity and of all that is good. We taste of it when we contemplate the divine presence. We sense its rhythm when we pray. It is all around us. The song-writer says of this abiding spirit: "It's all over me; it's moving me around." It is the power of the Holy Spirit, embedded in the word of God. Jesus declares, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (John 6:63b). And the strength they impart is responsible for the conduct of everything moral, everything just, everything needful for the salvation of our souls.
We connect with the nous through our own intellect. For Aristotle, when our intellect aligns perfectly with the agent intellect, we experience indescribable beatitude, similar to the heaven we know of as Christians. The agent intellect, nous, speaks to our own intellect imparting messages of peace and consolation, revealing visions of success and joy. The mind of God speaks to our own mind and makes us believe that everything will be alright; makes us realize that we are not alone, that our future will be glorious. When we receive such beatific vision; when we heed such consoling message; when we accept such soothing communication - we rest in the peace it affords, and we do begin to believe in the potential of a bright future. We begin to truly hope that life will be victorious. And this hope wells up within us and drowns out all negativity, doubt, worry and stress.
But we must listen. We must place ourselves close enough to the source of the healing message; we must place ourselves within earshot of this communication. We must, like Mary, sit close to Jesus and listen attentively in humble contemplation to his healing message. We must choose the necessary thing. We cannot afford to be like Martha, distracted by all the mundane and material things of this world. We cannot afford to be blinded by the hullaballoo of commonplace existence. We cannot be so wrapped up in chasing material comforts that we lose sight of the heavenly vision that endures even after everything else has faded. The song-writer declares: "I'm coming back to the heart of worship, and it's all about you, Jesus." Indeed, humble contemplation leads to a similar declaration. It is and should always be all about Jesus.
The lyrics of the song include this pertinent line: "I'm sorry for the thing I've made it when it's all about you, Jesus." What are the things that we've made to be more important than our relationship with the master? What are the things we've put first instead of the Lord? Money? Relationships? Material success? What have we made idols of? When have we been like Martha and distracted ourselves with mundane things when we should have been focusing on Jesus, on his divine word? Are there times in our lives when we chased after the trappings of material success and ignored the call to focus on spiritual wholeness; hankered after physical reality and ignored the beatitude of the spiritual? Jesus reminds us: Only one thing is necessary. And it is to be found in humble contemplation; in sitting close to Jesus and listening to him speak the words of eternal wisdom, nous, into our open hearts; words of consolation and peace.
So let us not worry too much about worldly matters. Recall what Jesus said concerning the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, who neither toil nor fret, and yet are taken care of by the divine providence (Matt 6:25-34). Similarly, we should cast all our worries on the Lord (1 Pet 5:7), who always cares for us. Let us not stress ourselves out over things we cannot change or resolve. Whenever we have done our best, we should leave the rest to God. "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? If you cannot do this, then why worry at all?" (Lk 12: 25-26). Jesus calls us again and again to let go and let God, as the saying goes. Again, the Alcoholics Anonymous pray "Grant me Lord the strength to change the things I can; the serenity to accept the things I cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two." Serenity and wisdom - ring a bell? Sounds to me like humble contemplation, the type that Mary had as she sat at the feet of the master with open heart and ears.
Jesus went a-visiting today to the house of Martha and Mary. They were his friends, and he loved to visit them. Martha was being hospitable, which is not at all a bad thing - we all should be hospitable. But there is more than one way to show hospitality to our friends. Martha chose to busy herself with cooking and cleaning and serving - mundane things - while Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet and listen patiently to him. Martha was overwhelmed and complained, asking Jesus to instruct Mary to help with the cooking and cleaning and serving. Jesus said Mary had chosen better by listening rather than doing all the mundane stuff with which Martha was overburdened. We like Mary should never overwhelm ourselves with the cares of this passing world, but realize instead that, through humble contemplation, we can align our minds to the eternal wisdom and behold thereby the beatific vision of a glorious afterlife in heaven with Jesus and the saints.
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