Preview: Mary's "Good Part" and Martha's Due

On Monday, March 28, I'll continue the Son Rise Morning Show series of reflections on Lenten sermons by Saint John Henry Newman edited and excerpted in The Tears of Christ. This week's sermon is "The Good Part of Mary" in which Newman explicates the meaning of the story of Jesus at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus when Martha asks Jesus to get Mary to help her serve the dinner rather than listen to Him. We'll be on the air at my usual time, about 6:50 a.m. Central/7:50 a.m. Eastern time. Please listen live on EWTN Radio or on your local EWTN affiliate. 

Newman juxtaposes this story from the Gospel of St. Luke with what we read about Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (whose shared feast is now celebrated on July 29) in the Gospel of St. John, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb:

Martha and Mary were the sisters of Lazarus, who was afterwards raised from the dead. All three lived together, but Martha was mistress of the house. St. Luke mentions, in a verse preceding the text, that Christ came to a certain village, "and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house." Being then at the head of a family, she had duties which necessarily engaged her time and thoughts. And on the present occasion she was especially busy, from a wish to do honour to her Lord. "Martha was cumbered about much serving." On the other hand, her sister was free from the necessity of worldly business, by being the younger. "She had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word." The same distinction, at once of duty and character, appears in the narrative of Lazarus' death and restoration, as contained in St. John's Gospel. "Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him; but Mary sat still in the house." [John xi. 20.] Afterwards Martha "went her way and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee." Again, in the beginning of the following chapter, "There they made Him a supper; and Martha served ... Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair." [John xii. 2, 3.] In these passages the same general difference between the sisters presents itself, though in a different respect;—Martha still directs and acts, while Mary is the retired and modest servant of Christ, who, at liberty from worldly duties, loves to sit at His feet and hear His voice, and silently honours Him with her best, without obtruding herself upon His sacred presence.

To return:—"Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her," in the words of the text, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her."

I appreciated how Newman emphasized Martha's essential role in her household with her brother and sister: she is the head of the family in his view, not Lazarus. She is in charge of many details and she even leads her sister to Jesus before he raises Lazarus from the dead. Nevertheless, Newman focuses in this sermon on Mary's not just good, but better part. Thus, he follows the age-old tradition of highlighting the superiority of the contemplative life over the active life.

(Please remember that England, until some of her Catholic exiles had returned from their monasteries and convents during and after the French Revolution, had not benefited from the presence of contemplative religious praying for her people's intentions for a few hundred years. Since the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Friaries, and Convents during the reign of Henry VIII, that way of life had been absent from England, Wales, and parts of Ireland too (and Scotland under John Knox's "reformation"). The only official religious vocation in England until the 19th century had been the active ministerial life in the Church of England: deacons, priests, and bishops. Vocations to the contemplative community life--and God surely called some to such a life--were thwarted in England in those intervening years.*)

And I think Newman is a little careful about this point--the fact that Anglican Christians in England have not known this contemplative form of life, haven't seen it modeled in their religious life--when he both acknowledges the superiority of Mary's part, the need for his congregations to follow her example, and yet remembers that they have active duties and responsibilities:

Mary's portion is the better of the two. Our Lord does not expressly say so, but He clearly implies it. If His words be taken literally, they might, indeed, even mean that Martha's heart was not right with Him, which, it is plain from other parts of the history, they do not mean. Therefore, what He intimated surely was, that Martha's portion was full of snares, as being one of worldly labor, but that Mary could not easily go wrong in hers; that we may be busy in a wrong way, we cannot well adore Him except in a right one; that to serve God by prayer and praise continually, when we can do so consistently with other duties, is the pursuit of the one thing needful, and the good part which shall not be taken away.

Newman cites several verses from the letters of St. Paul and St. Peter, and even St. James, in support of the need to pray constantly, including

"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." (Col 4:2)

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and as you sing psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Col 3:16) . . .

"[C]ast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you." (1 Peter 5:7) . . .

"Is any one among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise." (James 5:13)

In passages not included in The Tears of Christ, Newman acknowledges that although he can readily cite the prayers of the Apostles and the Mother of God in the Upper Room between the Ascension and Pentecost as an example of this kind of contemplative prayer life, the early Church, the Apostolic Age, was an era of active ministry, preaching, forming the Christian community, bringing the Jews and the Gentiles to the Way of Jesus. ("Thus Mary's portion was withheld from the Church for many years, while it laboured and suffered.") Once the Church was established, Mary's lot returned:

From that time onwards to the present day, Mary's lot has been offered to vast multitudes of Christians, if they could receive it*. Blessed indeed are they whom Christ calls near to Him to be His own peculiar attendants and familiar friends. Blessed even if they are allowed to seize intervals of such service towards Him; but favoured and honored beyond thought, if they can, without breach of duty, put aside worldly things with full purpose of heart and present themselves as a holy offering, without spot or blemish, to Him who died for them. These are they who "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev 14:4) and to them He more especially addresses those lessons of faith and resignation which are recorded in His Gospel. [Here Newman cites Luke 12:15-40]

Since most of us listening to EWTN's Son Rise Morning Show on Sacred Heart Radio are living the active Christian life, we are only able to "seize intervals" of time for contemplation and prayer, before the Blessed Sacrament during our hours in Perpetual Adoration chapels, on retreats, during set times of mental prayer and devotion in our homes, at work, at school, etc. Therefore, Saint John Henry Newman's admonition that we seek Mary of Bethany's good part whenever we can, "without breach of duty" applies readily to us.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus of Bethany, pray for us!

Image Credit (public domain); Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary by Johannes Vermeer (c. 1654-56)