Homily: True Model of Hospitality

The First Reading from the book of Genesis is part of the story about Abraham happily welcoming the heavenly visitors. The three unidentified men arrive in front of Abraham’s tent and immediately Abraham rushes to greet the strangers, bows before them, and, invites them to partake of his hospitality. He gives them water, washes their feet, and lets them rest in the shade while he offers to prepare a substantial meal for them to eat. The visitors accept his invitation. Meanwhile, Abraham tells Sarah, his wife to prepare a generous amount of food for their guests. As they take leave they promise to return in a year and by that time they foretell that Sarah will be the mother of a son. This was the reward for their hospitality granted to them by God himself.

In the second reading, Paul writes to the Colossian community about his own suffering and the joy with which he accepts them.  His appeals to them follow patterns that were familiar in his time and world: his personal experience of suffering, his devotion to the Gentile mission, his hard work, and especially his divine commission to preach God’s “mystery”. Paul lived his life in Christ.  Paul indicates that Jesus wants his followers to continue his work by sharing in the afflictions, thus building up his body in every age. Christ is in them and they are in Christ.

In the Gospel passage, we see the true model of hospitality where Jesus is the guest. The house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus seems to have been a place where Jesus was always welcome and where he could find shelter when things were getting too hot in nearby Jerusalem. Luke indicates that Jesus was welcome there as he was a constant visitor.  The incident described concerns the two sisters only. The story tells us that there were certain customs regulating the activities of men and women while showing hospitality to guests.  Generally, it was not permitted for a woman of the household to sit with the male visitor or engage him in conversation.  They would just extend a greeting and stay discretely away. Martha is upset that her sister has broken the boundary by sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his words.  This was equivalent to Mary assuming the role of the man in the house. Martha does her best by requesting Jesus to send her to lend her support.

The Gospel tells us that Mary sat at the feet of Jesus listening to him.  That meant real listening, which is love in action and hard work.  Jesus’ gentle, loving and inoffensive correction of Martha was directed at her being preoccupied to the point of distraction about many things. The problem was not that Martha was just working but that she was obsessed with working.  She wanted to be an extremely good host.  Jesus spoke to Martha those often misunderstood words that apply to all of us.  There is a need for only one thing and Mary has chosen it.  Jesus while speaking of the choice made by Martha and Mary did not refer to the two states of life contemplation and action and that contemplative life was better.  He wanted a balance between action and contemplation and both are necessary and important.

When he went to Martha’s home, Jesus gave her the grace to put herself in his service. Mary received the grace of listening attentively to the word of the Master. Mary listened to Jesus speak, and the grace she received made it possible for her to understand and to meditate on this word, which is none other than the Word of God. While Martha was busy in the service of the home. She did not seem to understand that there can be different ways to serve the Lord. Martha would have preferred that Mary were like her and would also do housework. But, in fact, Martha was wrong.  It is not Mary who should be like her, but rather Martha who should be like Mary.  And Jesus wanted her to understand this and told her that she was anxious and troubled about many things; one thing was needful. Mary had chosen the good portion.

The story of Martha and Mary pre-eminently speaks of hospitality and indicates divine presence in every guest.  It happened that at that moment Mary attended to Jesus’ presence. What Jesus expected of the sisters that there should be balance and we must live an anxiety-free life. Jesus tells us that one thing that is necessary for us in our lives is love and we must show it both in action and contemplation. Luke emphasizes his concern for the role of women in the ministry of Jesus and the church. Martha and Mary were both in the service of the Lord, for both of them had answered the call of God’s grace.

This story concerning Martha and Mary has often been used by spiritual writers to prove the superiority of the contemplative life over the active, pastoral form of life. That there is need and necessity for some members of Christ’s body, the church, to dedicate their lives solely and entirely to meditation and prayer needs no proof. Each member of the body can and must help the other members.  The correct lesson which the story of Martha and Mary gives us is that we must not let the affairs of this life, innocent they might be in themselves, prevent us from attending primarily to the one affair that really matters, namely our future life.  The emphasis is on Martha and not on Mary.  In her anxiety to be an excellent host, she had less time to listen to the master’s words of divine wisdom.

The passage tells us that there is absolutely nothing that should separate us from sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to his words. Jesus points to another dimension in Christian living, which is also of prime importance and that is the direct personal relationship between a person and God. So it is Mary has chosen the “better” part, which is to listen to Jesus, the Word of God.

Mary the Mother of Jesus is our model in the service of the Word of God!  She was the faithful disciple and she listened to the word of God and kept his word in her heart. Did Mary not leave Nazareth right after the annunciation in order to help her cousin Elizabeth with her difficulties? But it is in the intimacy of the Word of God, in the union with the Holy Spirit that Mary resolutely put herself in the service of the Lord.

There is a well-known fable about Jesus visiting his friends.  Once Jesus promised a pious old lady that he would visit her that day. She got ready, cleaned the house, scrubbed everything to shining, kept things in order, and sat waiting for the Lord to come to her house. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. She rushed to open the door and saw only a poor shabbily dressed beggar. She was disappointed and told the beggar that she was not free and was waiting for an important guest. He must quickly go away.  The beggar was confused and sad. A bit later there was another knock to find a familiar old man for help.  She was not free to take care of him and she sent him away by slamming the door. After some time there was another knock and she ran to the door to find a hungry beggar asking for bread. She was annoyed and sent him away empty-handed.  She sat down and waited for Jesus and there was no sign of him. She went to bed with a heavy heart. The good Lord came to her in the dream and she complained. He said that he did come three times and she had denied entry to him.