KAALAGAD Gospel Reflection – Luke 10:38-42
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the LORD’s feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “LORD, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41“Martha, Martha,” the LORD answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but few things are needed-or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Listening as the Foundation of Faith. And Theology.
Luke the Evangelist was a gifted writer, a craftsman. Writing later than Matthew and Mark he had valuable written and oral traditions as his sources. Further, being of non-Jewish origin Luke enriches our perspective of the Good News of Jesus Christ. He is not arbitrary in items of what he includes in his manuscript, and how he includes it. Nor is he arbitrary in what he omits. His is the work of a craftsman.
Thus has he crafted the episode with Martha and Mary in very specific terms, stripping it of so much detail that was available to him, and adding other detail that was important to him for the purpose of his message.
Jesus, accompanied by his chosen seventy-two disciples, is on his journey. To Jerusalem, the essential locus and focus of Luke’s gospel.
- Luke does not identify the village he came to as Bethany.
- He makes no reference to Lazarus as being the owner of the house, the man who would welcome him as per Jewish custom, and the person Jesus raised from the dead.
- The seventy-two disciples disappear from the picture. Did they go hungry?
- He makes no mention of Martha being the one who berated Jesus for arriving after Lazarus had died.
- He has Martha welcoming him in her house. A big no-no in Jewish custom.
- He has Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, the position of a disciple. Luke makes no mention that the same Mary had washed his feet and dried them with her hair.
- In Jewish culture, Martha would be in the right and Mary would have been rebuked. It was scandalous for her to be sitting at the feet of Jesus.
By omitting/adding so much detail Luke has crafted a story that boldly highlights his singular message:
Listening attentively to the Word of God is not only valuable but essential. It is “the better part”.
Well might we respond that this is stating the glaringly obvious, that of course the Word of God is essential for Christians; we need no lecture to remind us of this.
Yet there is an alarming amount propagated in our time about Christians and Christian faith that is definitely not based on an attentive listening to the Word of God. This is done via a plethora of media: newspapers, printed publications, broadcast media, Facebook and other on-line media. It is propagated by national and international political leaders, commentators of all colours, alt-right populist movements and – most unfortunately – by some bishops, clerics and lay people who proclaim allegiance to a form of traditional faith that does not reflect an attentive listening to the living Word of God.
Consequently, we witness the embracing of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and ultra-nationalism within many nominally Christian countries and societies. We witness leaders in these so-called Christian countries – whether America, Australia or the Philippines – align themselves with the theology of economics and the worship of power rather than the theology from God’s Word and upholding the mandate of service to the people, especially the poor.
Into this global maelstrom of conflict and the suppression of peoples steps one person who is truly radicalized by the Word of God and who stands as a bulwark against the seeming self-destruction of our churches and our humanity. He neither shouts nor berates, stands not on his dignity, admits to mistakes, is beholden to no form or tradition except the Word of God.
Pope Francis is a true disciple, taking the place of Mary at the feet of Jesus to listen to His Word. Like his namesake Francis of Assisi, his concern is not with power or privilege; his mission is that the Church be newly radicalized to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That the Word of God be incarnated into the concrete situation of today.
Last June 21 Pope Francis spoke to students at a school of theology in Naples, Italy. He asked:
“How can we take care of each other within the one human family? How can we foster a tolerant and peaceful coexistence that translates into authentic fraternity? How can we make it so that the welcoming of the other person and of those who are different from us because they belong to a different religious and cultural tradition prevails in our communities? How can religions be paths of brotherhood instead of walls of separation?”
In response to his own question, Pope Francis stated:
“These and other issues need to be discussed at various levels, and require a generous commitment to listening, studying and dialogue in order to promote processes of liberation, peace, brotherhood and justice.”
“It is important that theologians be men and women of compassion – I emphasize this: that they be men and women of compassion – inwardly touched by the oppressed life many live, by the forms of slavery present today, by the social wounds, the violence, the wars and the enormous injustices suffered by so many poor people who live on the shores of this ‘common sea'”
Pope Francis teaches us that true Listening is not an activity, it is a state of being, the way we evolve and develop ourselves. Listening to the Word of God is not an activity that is separate and distinct from action. It is not a set of clothes we put on and take off. It is a consciousness that all we do is informed by the Word of God. Listening is the way we are.
