50th Anniversary Reunion Mass

The readings today are about Wisdom, very overtly so in the first reading from Wisdom, but also this true of the readings from Ephesians and the Gospel of Luke. Wisdom, as the first reading tells us, is spirit. She is the very breath of the power of God, a pure emanation of the glory of God. She is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God and an image of God’s goodness. We are given this wisdom at our Baptism and we spend our lives growing into the fullness of its meaning. Wisdom is nurtured in us in our families and in our education. We received inklings of wisdom in our years here at CSC, students at the feet of our teachers who reflected wisdom to us.

Wisdom is attained through experiences in which we fully immerse ourselves. The story of Martha and Mary was chosen for today’s Gospel because it is our story and it reflects full immersion. It is attributed to Luke who wrote in the last third of the first century for an early Christian community. The story needs to be considered in that context.

We have heard this story so many times through the years, and we certainly have reflected on its meaning. I’m sure that we have heard of and perhaps even adhere to some of the ways that this story has been interpreted. One popular belief about the story’s underlying meaning is the contrast of Mary as the one who exemplifies contemplation and Martha as exemplifying action. This is said to be a portrait of women’s role in the Church and perhaps even society – passive and active. We all know that the former has been held to be more true of our role even though we know from our own experiences that we have been very active in ways that are often not accounted as “of the essence.” We have been the mothers, the teachers, the health care providers, the social workers, who have modeled for others the true essence of who we are called to be as followers of Jesus.

In the story of Martha and Mary, notice that it is Martha who welcomes Jesus into her home, and them proceeds to do all that hospitality requires. We are not told what the “distracting tasks” that Martha was involved in were though we have assumed that they included preparing a meal for her guest. Some writers believe that when Jesus tells Martha that she is distracted by many tasks, he is referring to the many dishes she was preparing for a meal, while only a simple one was required. Some writers, though, believe that Martha was a leader of a small church community and that the pressure of this role was such that she would have welcomed help and therefore asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her.

Mary, on the other hand, sits at the feet of Jesus listening to his word. Jesus in this passage tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better part and that will not be taken away form her. In this was Jesus chiding Martha, criticizing her for what she was doing? Perhaps. Or perhaps he was simply reminding her to remember her grounding when she sat at his feet – the depth of the Spirit out of which she lived.

Meister Eckhart believes that rather than contrasting the two, we might see the situation as two parts of the same reality – contemplation and action are both essential; they are like potency and act. He tells us that Mary was a beginner, one who was in the early stages of her spiritual development and needed to be at the feet of her teacher to learn. Martha, on the other hand, had passed into a more mature stage of her spiritual development and had returned to the market place – so to speak – having fed on the wisdom which was presented to her. She now experiences the goal of contemplation – not ecstasy, but experiencing the Divine in “every form, in every motion, work and responsibility.” The goal is an every day life which includes the dear neighbor and all that comes because of involvements and experiences but which is deeply rooted in contemplation. Mary had begun the path but had not yet, in this story, achieved the goal; Martha had. As those steeped in mysticism tell us, Martha and Mary are two aspects of one reality. Contemplation without action is incomplete; action without contemplation lacks essential grounding.

So how is this our story? When we were students here at CSC all those years ago, we sat at the feet of our teachers. We probably don’t recall many of the words that were said, but we “caught” the attitude, the spirit of what was given to us. Our teachers were for us mirrors of the working of God, images of God’s goodness, though we probably would never have used those words. We left this campus and went into our lives full of knowledge and spirit. We experienced the Divine in all that we encountered whether we acknowledged that fact or not. We were and are mirrors of the workings of God, images of God’s goodness, just as our mentors were for us. Others have sat at our feet over these years – our children, our families, our students, our patients, our coworkers – imbibing what we had to give. And they in turn have matured in their spiritual lives, have grown to know the Divine in the everyday, and have given to the next generations. That is wisdom.

And so in the words of the second reading from Ephesians, we pray that God will strengthen us in our inner beings through the power of the Spirit so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God, living our lives more fully aware that we experience the Divine in all that is.