Jesus’ visit to Martha and Mary’s home is a well know story. But we tend to oversimplify the encounter and lose the importance of what really happened that day. This is not a story about choosing an active life or ministry or a life of contemplation and prayer. Those two options are not necessarily opposed to each other. Hospitality was a prime cultural value and obligation in that culture. Martha’s consternation with her sister does not come only from the fact that she feels abandoned with the household chores and the obligation of hospitality. In those days in that culture, men and women lived in separate worlds with very defined roles. Men sat in the front room of the house to discuss things while women took care of the kitchen towards the back of the house or even outside. Martha’s way of life was full of restrictions, strict legal regulations, and obligations. Rather than intensify the people’s relationship with God, as was God’s original intention, all that rigid, legal culture and religious system produced worry and anxiety and even tended to distance people from the Word of God.
Mary had to actively abandon the cultural norm to hear Jesus’ words. She had to leave behind the culture obligations of hospitality and her place as a woman. In a way she had to invade the front room to sit with the men to hear Jesus. Mary began to abandon her traditional way of thinking and living to be able to hear the words of Jesus. This is the conversion process that all of us live daily. She was gifted with wisdom and discernment, and she was brave enough to choose to act based on that discernment. She began to change her lifestyle because of that conversion.
Jesus very clearly recognizes her conversion and action:
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”
Image: https://theplymothian.me/2014/08/16/luke-1038-42-challenging-a-womans-role/