Martha and Maria

Tuesday, October 04, 201627th Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading:
Gal 1: 13-24
Gospel Reading: Lk 10:38-42
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he entered a village and a woman called Martha welcomed him to her house. She had a sister named Mary who sat down at the Lord’s feet to listen to his words. Martha, meanwhile, was busy with all the serving and finally she said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the serving?”
But the Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you worry and are troubled about many things, whereas only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

To know if our established routine in life is aligned with the Will of God we use this relatedness test: “Are these routines related to our calling in life?” A priest, for example, using the relatedness test will easily recognize that a worldly lifestyle is not compatible with his calling, and therefore not in keeping with God’s will. A married person too will realize that staying in the church all day to the neglect of his family is misaligned with God’s Will. St. Dominic Savio expanded the relatedness test by doing his ordinary duties as a student extraordinarily well.
Another test is Chiara Lubich’s “call-of-the-present-moment” test. God disturbs our established patterns from time to time to check how generous we are in going out of our way to do his Will. Yesterday’s Parable of the Good Samaritan is instructive. The priest and the Levite had valid reasons to rush to their destinations because they held important positions in their religious communities and may well have been on their way to a community service. But not even these legitimate reasons exempted them from responding to the call of the present moment. When the moment calls for helping another person in dire need, we should be ready to make diversions from our established patterns.
Today’s Gospel reading deepens our case in point. One person’s call may differ from another’s at a given moment and there is no point comparing which call is pleasing to God. For Mary, the call was to listen to the Word while for Martha the call was to do hospitable work in the kitchen. Both pleased God. Then Martha began comparing herself with Mary. All merits were gone because her heart was no longer on her call of the present moment.
Once you have established by using these two tests that what you are doing are in line with the Will of God, put love into what you are doing, and hear Jesus saying to you, “You have chosen the better part”. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.

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