THE CALL OF
RECONCILIATION ( ...page
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THE CALL OF
RECONCILIATION ( ...page
3
)
October 6th 1998
Luke 10, 38-42
As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, he came to a village where a
woman named Martha welcomed him in her home. She had a sister named Mary, who
sat down at the feet of the Lord and listened to his teaching. Martha was upset
over all the work she had to do, so she came and said, «Lord, don't you care
that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to come and
help me!» The Lord answered her,
«Martha, Martha! You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one
is needed. Mary has chosen the right thing, and it will not be taken away form
her.»
Meditation
How can we link the today Gospel to
the theme of reconciliation and peace?
Jesus is on his way, on the road, he is in the movement and we also have decided
here to go ahead. In order to start such process, we have to move, because
reconciliation is accepting a change, a change of heart, a change in the way we
look at things, a change in relationships. Jesus arrives to the village. Jesus
doesn't wait for the village to come to him, he is the one who goes to the
village.
This also means that the process we have decided to start will require an effort
from each of us, it will force us to give up some of our ways of seeing, of
saying, each of us will be asked to accomplish an inner conversion.
We can already say, that at the end of this process we will not be the same
persons as we were at the beginning.
When arriving at the village Jesus is welcomed by Martha.
In fact Lazarus, Martha and Mary are old friends of Jesus, they have known each
other for a long time, and each time Jesus was in the area, he stayed with them.
The two sisters have two very different attitudes.
Martha is very busy with all the preparations, the meals, the rooms, and during
this time Mary is in the sitting room, at the feet of Jesus, listening to his
words.
Let's disgress for a moment: the sentence in the Gospel of St. Luke: «Mary who
sat down at the feet of the Lord» means something. It describes the attitude of
a disciple. The one who is sat at the feet of a master is a disciple. It means
that Mary is a disciple of Jesus. On Jesus opinion, a woman can be a disciple.
He invites women to be disciples.
This is not Martha's task, and she is not happy about it and she asks Jesus
«tell her to come and help me».
We are confronted here precisely with the question of differences.
What Martha wishes is everyone to be doing the same work, everyone to be
together doing the same things.
And it is here, when refusing differences that conflicts are often born. What
Mary was doing was not recognized at the time as being appropriate for a woman.
She had left the kitchen in order to become a disciple.
What Jesus grants Mary is the capacity to assume a responsibility that for a
woman is more important than the one linked to pots and pans. And Jesus also
recognizes that taking the responsibility of being a disciple is not equivalent
to doing nothing.
What this Gospel reveals is that there is not just one right way of believing,
of existing, of living. It is very difficult to recognize the other as another
person. One would like the other to be the prolongation of
oneself.
Jesus refuses to be the referee, he refuses to tell Mary «go and give a hand to
your sister», he doesn't say to Martha, that she should leave her pots and
should come to listen to him. Jesus refuses to become a referee and resolve the
conflict.
The real issue in reconciliation is not to find out what should be done. The
real issue is to find the way things are experienced, in real life.
One always has to go back to the essential question of Gospel: what is the
meaning of it? What does being in the kitchen mean? What is the meaning of
listening to the word of Jesus? Both are not as contradictory as they seem.
Actually, Mary is the one who welcomes the word of Jesus, and Martha is the one
who welcomes Jesus.
The danger when conflicts arise, is to act by comparison. But… are we in tune
with the message of the Gospel?
The way is not you or me, it is the Gospel.
When Jesus says «Mary has chosen the right thing» and in the context time, when
it was unimaginable for a woman to be a disciple, he gives her the right of
listening to him and become a disciple of the word.
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