Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Saint Bruno, Priest
Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, Virgin [USA, Canada]
Today's Gospel passage about Martha and Mary is increasingly salient for all of us in the present age because we're just so increasingly busy all the time. To be clear, this passage is not a critique of hard work, responsibility, or diligent labor. These are are, of course, all good things. The gentle critique of Martha is that she has made herself so busy that she does not have time to sit quietly and listen to the Lord. We allow ourselves to become so busy with so many pursuits (many of them necessary, noble, and worthy), that we forget what we were made for. We forget that God designed our hearts for rest in his. We forget that the destiny of the soul is to rest in the infinite Lord in marvel, wonder, joy, peace, and awe. We forget that we are not the source of ourselves or the makers of our own destinies.
We live in an age where productivity is often treated like a virtue. We feel pressure to do ever more, and to do it at an ever faster rate. What’s somewhat ironic and seemingly paradoxical is that the most productive thing we can ever do is just sit and spend quality time with the Lord. You cannot have a relationship with a person you never spend time with. So how attentive are we to carving out quality time for Christ? Do we make time in the course of daily life to simply sit and listen to the Lord.