(Sixteenth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given on
July 21, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Genesis 18:1-10; Psalm
15:2-5; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10: 38-42.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Sixteenth Sunday 2019]
One day back in the 5th century, a man came to
visit Abba Silvanus and the other Christian hermits who were living at the time
near Mt. Sinai. When the man arrived, he
happened to notice some of the hermits working in the fields, and he said to
Abba Silvanus, “Why are these men working so hard for the food that perishes?
Remember what Jesus said to Martha: ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried
about many things.’ These men are acting
just like she did. Mary, on the other
hand, chose the good part—she didn’t worry at all about earthly food. She sat at the feet of Jesus and drank in his
words.”
Abba Silvanus called one of the other hermits over and he
said, “Our friend here has come to visit us, and he needs a place to stay. So give him a good spiritual book, and put
him in a nice room.”
Well, for the first few hours, the man enjoyed the peace
and quiet, but after a while he began to get hungry. He kept looking out the window, expecting
someone to come and call him for lunch and dinner, but nobody ever came. Finally, as it was getting dark, he left the
room and went to see Abba Silvanus.
“Abba,” he said, “didn’t you and the brothers eat today?”
He said, “Of course we did.
And I must tell you—the food was quite good!”
“But I didn’t eat.
Why didn’t you or one of the brothers come to call me for the meals?”
Abba Silvanus said, “Why would we want to disturb you? Obviously you are a deeply spiritual person
who doesn’t need this kind of food. On
the other hand, the rest of us here are earthly, so we must eat. That’s why we pray AND work. Indeed, you—like Mary—have chosen the good
part.”
Needless to say, the man immediately repented of his pride
and arrogance—and then I presume he got to eat some of the leftovers!
In trying to understand the story of Martha and Mary, it
would be wrong for us to set these women in opposition to one another! That’s
the mistake this man made! Jesus said
that Mary had chosen the “better” part—not the only part, not the only
necessary part!
Jesus wants us to have a certain BALANCE in our lives! This man’s mistake was that he embraced the
spiritual but totally neglected the physical.
The tendency of our age, of course, is to do the opposite: to embrace
the physical and neglect the spiritual.
St. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we are
tri-dimensional: body, soul and spirit.
Consequently, if we’re going to live the balanced life Jesus wants us to
live, we need to care for and develop all 3 dimensions of our person, not just
one.
This morning I’d like you to think about your own life for
a few moments. How “balanced” are you
right now? How balanced is your life?
I wrote down several points to help us in this
reflection. Here they are:
1. If you’re too
busy to get to Mass every single Sunday and Holy Day, then your life is out of
balance. If you are chronically late for
Mass and/or leave early, your life is out of balance.
2. If you don’t
have time to give God at least 15 minutes a day in personal prayer, then your
life is out of balance.
3. If you come to
the end of the day and can’t think of at least 1 charitable, selfless deed
you’ve performed since you got up in the morning, then your life is definitely
out of balance.
4. (This one is
related to the last one)—If you are preoccupied with what you want to do, and
with what others can and should do for you, then your life is out of
balance.
5. If you don’t
have time to pay a special visit to the Blessed Sacrament and make a Holy Hour
at least once a week, then your life is out of balance.
6. If you don’t
have time to get to Confession at least every month or so, your life is out of
balance.
7. If you are
ever bored, then your life is out of balance.
(For those who want to do God’s will and win the world for Christ,
there’s plenty to learn and plenty to do.)
8. If you don’t
make the effort to learn something new about your Catholic faith every week,
then your life is out of balance. (If
something is really important to us, we will certainly want to learn as much as
we can about it.)
9. In your life,
if prayer is not a priority over recreation, then your life is out of
balance. (In 1 Timothy 4:8 St. Paul
says, “While physical training is to some
extent valuable, the discipline of religion is incalculably more so, with its
promise of life here and hereafter.”)
10. And finally,
if you spend so much time in church or in prayer that you neglect your earthly
responsibilities (especially the responsibilities you have to your family),
then your life is out of balance. (In a
sense, that’s the error of the man who went to see Abba Silvanus.)
So what’s the message for the day? Simple: Balance
your life! Be a good steward of every dimension of your person: your
body, your soul, and your spirit.
And in the process, remember: it’s not either/or, it’s
both/and: it’s not either Martha or Mary, it’s BOTH MARTHA AND
MARY. It’s contemplation and charity; it’s prayer
AND action!
O Lord, help us to achieve this very difficult but very
important balance in our lives, because it’s the balance that will help us to become saints!