Vigils Reading – 16th Sunday

MARTHA AND MARY

From a commentary by St Bruno of Segni

◊◊◊

Everything our Savior did was full of sacred teaching. In every situation

his actions were meant to point beyond themselves. For example, his outward

actions in the hillside village of Bethany are repeated every day in his holy

church. Daily the Lord Jesus enters in, not thinking frequent visits beneath his

dignity. There he is welcomed by Martha who takes him into her home.

Let us see then what Martha stands for, and what Mary symbolizes. Each

of them denotes something important, for these two make up the entire church.

One of them, namely Martha, symbolizes the active life; the other, Mary,

the contemplative. That is why Scripture says it was Martha, not Mary, who

received Christ into her house. Mary, of course, does not own a house, since the

contemplative life entails the renunciation of all worldly possessions. All that

contemplatives want to do is sit at the feet of the Lord – to read, pray, and give

themselves up to contemplating God is their whole desire. It is enough for them

to be always listening to the word of God and feeding their minds rather than

their stomachs. Such as these were the apostles and prophets, such are many

others who leave everything, flee from the world and cling to the Lord. They

seem to possess nothing, yet they have everything…

Now the reason the active life is so called is because it consists of constant

activity, weariness and toil, so that scarcely a moment’s quiet can be found in it.

We are not referring here though to that kind of active life that occupies thieves,

impels tyrants, tempts misers, stirs up adulterers, and incites all wicked people

to commit evil deeds. For just as we speak only of one Martha who was Mary’s

sister, so we are referring only to that type of active life which is most closely

related to the contemplative life, that is, an active life that is pure and blameless.

When the apostle preached and baptized, worked with his hands to gain a

livelihood, journeyed from city to city, and showed solicitude for all the

churches, was he not living the active life? In the same way then our text says of

Martha that she was busy with much serving. In fact, right down to the present

day we see prelates in charge of the churches and the other clergy devotedly

hurrying to and fro about their work, hot and bothered, sweating over the needs

of their brothers and sisters in various ways, so that we may rightly describe

them also as busy with much serving. The contemplative life then is superior to

the active because it is free from anxiety and will never end. Nevertheless the

active life is so indispensable that in this life the contemplative life itself cannot

exist without it.