Novena Sunday Day 3
Luke 10:38-42
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her."
Today, the third day of our Novena to Saint Anne and our topic is the family. Our quote says that Families are factories of hope and through our families we can come to know real joy. In today’s gospel we meet a family in Bethany, and it doesn’t sound like it is factory of hope today, there doesn’t seem to be real joy. There seems to be fighting and at least one of the sisters is not very happy.
Bethany is close to Jerusalem and whenever Jesus was in Jerusalem he would stop in Bethany to visit Martha, Mary and Lazarus. I don’t know where Lazarus is in today’s Gospel, we just find Martha and Mary. Martha is excited about the visit of Jesus, and she has pulled out all the stops. We can imagine that she had been cleaning the house getting ready and now she is in the kitchen making Jesus’ favorite foods. And her sister Mary… where is Mary? She isn’t in the kitchen where the women belonged, no, she is sitting at Jesus’ feet.
Martha was doing what was expected of her, what she was supposed to do. In her day and in that culture, women would be busy in the kitchen. They wouldn’t be in the living room entertaining the guests. That was what the men would do. So, Martha’s rebuke is simply telling Mary to remember her place. Mary was playing the role of a disciple of Jesus and that wasn’t the role of the women in Jesus’ time. Their place was in the kitchen.
Martha makes her complaint known to Jesus; she lets Jesus know that she is alone in the kitchen and she asks for Mary’s help. But Jesus’ response surprises Mary. Jesus doesn’t respond like every other Jewish male of the 1st century. Jesus doesn’t criticize Martha and her service. No, he responds with sympathy repeating Martha’s name twice: “Martha, Martha” "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her."
The women had been relegated to the kitchen, but no more. Mary has the right to sit at the feet of the master as well as the men. Jesus doesn’t think that women are just meant to be servants in the kitchen. No, they have the right to sit down as well. They are called to be disciples of Jesus just like the men were. We are all called to be disciples.
We’ve come a long way from the 1st century Palestine, but we still have a long way to go to treat women as Jesus treated them. Women as much as the men have the right to sit at the feet of Jesus.
This week we will be continuing our novena. This is a week for sitting at the feet of Jesus, the grandson of Good Saint Anne. Our lives are filled with much busy work and busyness. That is all important, but we also need to make time for the better part. I invite you to join for the next 6 days of the novena. To come and sit at the feet of Jesus for a while.
And let no one criticize us, we have chosen the better part, and it won’t be taken from us.
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