16th Week of Ordinary Time
To All the Friends of Martha and Mary at Epiphany
The One Thing Necessary— A Heart that Listens Before It Serves
(16 Week, Ordinary Time, Luke 10:38-42, 20 July 2025)
In this Sunday’s Gospel passage Luke, the Evangelist narrates Jesus’ visit to the house of Martha and Mary, Lazarus’ sisters (Lk 10:38-42). They receive him, and Mary sits at his feet to listen to him; she leaves what she was doing in order to be close to Jesus: she does not want to miss any of his words. Everything is to be set aside when he comes to visit us in our lives; his presence and his words come before all else. The Lord always surprises us: when we truly focus on listening to him, clouds disappear, doubts give way to truth, fears to serenity, and life’s various situations find the right placement. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 2019)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, In today’s Gospel, Saint Luke offers us a scene that is simple on the surface, yet profound in its meaning: Jesus visits the house of Martha and Mary. One is busy, concerned with service; the other is still, absorbed in listening. And the Lord says that Mary has chosen the better part—the one thing necessary. What is Jesus teaching us here?
Philosophical Insight: Attention as the Root of Being- Simone Weil, the French philosopher and mystic, once wrote: Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. Mary’s attentive stillness is not laziness—it is love. It is generosity of heart.
In a world of noise, efficiency, and results, Mary represents the soul that resists the pull of constant doing and instead chooses being with. She echoes Heidegger’s existential insight that to truly be human is not merely to act, but to dwell—to abide in presence.
Martha, on the other hand, is not wrong in her service. But her actions become restless because they are disconnected from presence. She is, in a way, scattered—divided in herself. The Gospel challenges us: Are we scattered, distracted, anxious like Martha, or do we have the courage to be still and let God be God?
Theological Depth: Listening as the Beginning of Faith- From a theological point of view, Mary’s posture is deeply biblical. Saint Paul says: Faith comes from hearing (Romans 10:17). And the Shema, the central prayer of Israel, begins: Hear, O Israel. Listening precedes doing. This is not passivity, but the foundational act of faith. Before we serve, we must be served by the Word. Before we speak, we must receive the Word in silence.
Jesus says Mary has chosen the better part. Not because action is bad, but because contemplation grounds all action. Without interior life, exterior ministry becomes activism—it loses its soul.
Saint Augustine beautifully comments on this passage by saying that Martha represents the active life and Mary the contemplative. Both are needed, but ultimately, the contemplative gaze—eternal, unshakable—will endure.
Mystical and Pastoral Application: Christ in the Ordinary- Notice something striking: Jesus does not perform a miracle here. There is no healing, no dramatic teaching. He simply enters a home. This is a domestic Gospel. Christ enters the ordinary, the kitchen, the living room. And there, in that quiet space, he becomes the center.
This is where today’s Gospel truly surprises us: Jesus wants not just to be served—he wants to be known, to be welcomed. When he visits, everything else must be put aside. The Lord always surprises us, as Pope Francis reminds us. But we will only notice the surprise if we are not too busy to receive it.
If we stop and sit—like Mary—we begin to see that His presence rearranges everything. Fears melt, priorities shift, life regains order. As the Gospel says: life’s various situations find the right placement. Why? Because when the Word of God enters, it does not just inform—it transforms.
Portrait of Martha: The Active Seeker of Meaning-Philosophical Portrait- Martha embodies the homo agens—the human person as actor, doer, and manager of the world. In Martha, we see the existential tension described by Kierkegaard: the individual who becomes absorbed in the finite tasks of life, constantly preoccupied, often anxious. She represents the person who is defined by function rather than presence—by the what she does rather than who she is.
Martha is also a symbol of the modern condition—what Heidegger might call das Man, the they-self, who is caught in everydayness (Alltäglichkeit), lost in tasks and distractions. Her busyness is not wrong, but it becomes problematic when it prevents her from being-toward-truth.
Yet Martha is sincere. She loves; she serves. Her error is not moral, but existential: she has forgotten the telos—the goal—of her service.
Theological Portrait- In theological terms, Martha represents the active life (vita activa), classically affirmed in the Church as essential. She is a disciple who seeks to welcome Christ through hospitality and concrete service. Her activity is a form of love (caritas), but it lacks the contemplative root of faith (fides).
St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Gregory the Great both interpret Martha as the Church in her temporal mission—caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, serving the body of Christ. But even they caution: without interior union with Christ, action becomes toil. Martha must not be dismissed. She is every priest, parent, religious, or layperson tempted to forget that ministry flows from God, not to Him.
Portrait of Mary: The Contemplative Gaze of Love-Philosophical Portrait- Mary is the homo contemplativus—the human person oriented toward being, meaning, and mystery. She embodies what Gabriel Marcel called disponibilité—an availability of soul, a readiness to be present to the other without grasping or utility. In her stillness, Mary becomes a person-in-relation, not in function.
Mary reflects the Platonic longing for the eternal. She is the soul turning from the shadows of the cave toward the light. She represents the receptive intellect, as described by Aquinas, open to truth—not to dominate it, but to be transformed by it.
In contemporary terms, she resists the tyranny of productivity and reclaims the dignity of attention. Mary does not flee responsibility; rather, she chooses the interior integration of soul and truth.
Theological Portrait- Theologically, Mary is the model of the contemplative life (vita contemplativa), which the Church venerates as the highest form of Christian existence. Not because action is unworthy, but because all action must flow from union with Christ.
She is the image of the Church listening at the feet of the Word. As the Fathers said of the Virgin Mary: she conceived the Word in her heart before conceiving Him in her womb—so this Mary, sister of Martha, receives Christ in her interior silence before any action.
Mary prefigures the eschatological life: the eternal Sabbath, where love is no longer expressed in toil, but in adoration. She is also an image of the priest at the Altar, who must first hear the Word before proclaiming it.
Martha and Mary Together: The Necessary Tension- Ultimately, the Church does not choose between Martha and Mary. She needs both. As Thomas Aquinas said: Contemplata aliis tradere—we must pass on to others what we have contemplated.
Martha must become more like Mary: rooted in listening. And Mary must not forget Martha: love is not fulfilled until it gives itself in service. The Gospel does not condemn Martha, but reorders her. And it does not idolize Mary, but reminds us: the true disciple listens first.
Concluding Summary: The One Thing Necessary-Jesus visits the home of two sisters: Martha and Mary. Both love the Lord, but they respond differently. Martha serves Him actively, while Mary sits at His feet and listens. Jesus gently corrects Martha—not because her service is wrong, but because her heart is anxious and distracted. Mary, on the other hand, is fully present, attentive, and at peace. Jesus says she has chosen the better part.
Martha reminds us of ourselves when we are busy, overworked, and trying to do good—but without enough prayer, stillness, or inner peace. She represents the Christian who wants to serve Jesus but forgets to sit with Him. Her mistake is not in doing, but in doing without listening first.
Mary shows us the heart of discipleship: listening to Jesus, giving Him our full attention, even when there’s much to do. She reminds us that love begins not in activity, but in presence. She teaches us that we need time with the Lord in prayer, in silence, in the Word, so that our actions can be rooted in His love.
Both Martha and Mary are necessary. The Church needs active servants and contemplative hearts. But we must get the order right: being with Jesus comes before doing for Jesus. If we skip the listening, our service can become stressful, empty, or even resentful. But if we take time to be with the Lord, everything else falls into place.
Jesus wants to visit your heart today—not just to be served, but to be heard. Let us welcome Him not only with our hands, but with our silence, our listening, and our love.
Dear Epiphany, in this Eucharist, Jesus once again visits our house. What will we offer him? Service without stillness? Or the humility to sit and listen? Let us not be afraid to be still before the Lord. Let us choose the better part—not only today, but every day: to make space for his voice, to let our lives be reordered by his presence, and to remember that before doing anything for Christ, we are called first to be with Christ.
For in the end, the one thing necessary is not what we do for Jesus, but that we let Him do His work in us.
Fraternally,
Fr. John Peter Lazaar SAC, Pastor