Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord's feet, heard his word.
But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? speak to her therefore, that she help me.
And the Lord answering, said to her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things:
But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:38-42 DRA)
Since the Gospel reading for this Sunday follows from the parable of the Good Samaritan last Sunday, and since the Holy Ghost inspired St. Luke to arrange His narrative in this significative way, I would like to continue on my theme from last week, namely, what does it mean to love yourself?
Our Lord gives new insights into this question with the example of Martha and Mary. In many ways, Mary could seem to be selfish, just sitting at Christ’s feet while her sister does her duty as a considerate woman and a hospitable host in serving her guest. Indeed, Martha wasn’t wrong in her actions – but she was wrong in the order of her love.
Charity has an intrinsic order to it. We must first love God above all things, since He is Goodness itself and the Source of all goodness in things. We must then love our neighbors for His sake in due order, according to the degree to which we share in fellowship with them. This fellowship is based on the beatitude or eternal happiness which we and our neighbors have from God, our share in His divine happiness and perfect possession of the Good.
In friendship, we reciprocally will the good for one another: God wills our good in communion with Him, and we will His Good by adoring Him in faith; we then will God’s Goodness for our neighbor, i.e. for all persons we may encounter whether angel or man, and we become friends with them in charity whenever they receive our love as a gift from God and love us in return. We should also love ourselves, as discussed last week, since only by receiving God’s Goodness in ourselves can we then share it with others in charity. This is the foundation of all true friendship.
So, according to the order of charity, we should love God above ourselves and ourselves above our neighbor. This is a difficult statement to make, especially in the modern world, where many think that we should be willing to do something wrong, even intrinsically evil, for someone else’s good.
But this is obviously wrong, since by sinning we hate God and reject our own share in His Goodness, thus making us incapable of sharing that divine goodness in charity with others and having fellowship with them in divine happiness. Since charity is based in our spiritual will, we should be ever ready to sacrifice our bodily good for the spiritual good of others – as Our Lord demonstrated by His Passion – but we should not sacrifice our spiritual good for the spiritual or bodily good of others. Sometimes this means making hard choices, cutting ourselves off from friends and family or from bad situations in life if they harm our spiritual good, but it is necessary if we are to love in right order, preferring God above all else.
Mary Magdalene understood this profound truth. Instead of helping her sister in her earthly tasks, she chose her own spiritual good in the loving contemplation of Christ, and as He told her, she “hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.” The bodily health, cleanliness and comfort served by Martha, and the tidiness of her house, will all pass away, but “[c]harity never falleth away”. (1 Cor 13:8)
In our culture, even the spirit of Martha, in her impeccable manners and hospitality, is sorely lacking and not to be denigrated, but this spirit must flow from and be properly ordered to love of God above all and love of self in our spiritual good received from Him. Without this, we have no goodness to give to others, only a superficial, worldly good which falleth away.
Join the Fellowship at Saint Tolkien!
Cor Jesu Press is a Catholic publisher recovering forgotten classics. Help promote their important work!
You can also check out my new Etsy shop, Via Pulchritudinis, celebrating the beauty of Catholic Tradition!
I’m a huge fan of the subtle mention that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany are the same person. Thanks for throwing that in there.
Amen