Today’s Gospel (Luke 10:38–42) takes us into the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary – and of course there was a brother Lazarus, who doesn’t get a mention today. Jesus, weary from His journey, is welcomed, and Martha, ever practical, busies herself preparing the meal and seeing to the house. Mary, by contrast, simply sits at the feet of Jesus giving him her full attention.
At first glance, using a modern lens of interpretation, it may seem like the gospel is highlighting a contrast between the contemplative life and the active life. So this story is not about choosing one over the other – its deeper meaning has to do with where our attention and hearts are when we serve. It’s not a rejection of Martha’s activity, but an invitation to recognise what gives that activity meaning – being grounded first in a relationship with Jesus.
Martha is not wrong to be serving. Hospitality, after all, is at the very heart of the Gospel. In our first reading from Genesis (18:1–10), Abraham receives three mysterious visitors and spares no effort in welcoming them. He runs to greet them, hastens to prepare food, and serves them with great care. In that moment of generous hospitality, Abraham doesn’t just entertain guests – it turn out that he welcomes God.
That moment of hospitality reminds us that acts of service and welcome can become sacred spaces. They make room for God to enter. So when Martha voices her frustration that Mary has left her to do all the work, Jesus does not scold her for being active or generous.
He simply reminds her that her anxiety, her fretting, has drawn her away from what matters most. She has allowed the work of service to become her focus, and in doing so lost sight of why she was doing what she was doing. Jesus reminds her that service without presence can become a burden rather than a gift. In other words he is reminding her – and us – that it is possible to be so busy doing things for God that we forget to be with God.
Mary, in that moment, has chosen “the better part” not because she is doing nothing, but because she is fully present to the One who gives meaning to everything we do. Perhaps, this is something that we all wrestle with. Life is full of noise and demands. Whether it is raising children, caring for family, managing a household, working long hours, or even serving in the Church – it is easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of responsibility.
It is easy to be like Martha: faithful, committed, generous – but slowly worn down by resentment or stress – anxious and worried about many things. The danger is not in the busyness itself. The danger lies in becoming so consumed by activity that we forget who we are doing it for – or why we are doing it.
Even the holiest of tasks can become burdensome when they are disconnected from the One who gives them meaning – Christ – the one who inspired us to serve in the first place. That is when resentment can creep in, when even little things begin to irritate us, when we start feeling unappreciated and when joy begins to fade.
Jesus gently calls Martha – and each of us – back to what matters when He declares, “There is need of only one thing.” Jesus is saying that Mary has chosen the better part because she has recognised that the most important thing in that moment is to be present to her guest – to Jesus. She offers no words. She simply listens. This is not laziness. It is discipleship. It is prayer. It is, in fact, the foundation of mission – of everything we do as Christians.
We cannot go out to others until we have first gone in – into that deep place of encounter with Christ. We cannot speak words of hope to the world until we have listened to the voice of hope in our hearts. In other words, before we act, we must be still. Before we go, we must Present, we must listen. From that place of encounter, everything else flows.
The world today is aching for a different kind of presence. We are surrounded by division – across race, gender, culture, politics. Often, our differences become walls. But the Gospel teaches us a different path.
St Benedict, the great sixth-century monk, once wrote: “Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves. It is the first step toward dismantling the barriers of the world. Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time.”
Real hospitality begins by welcoming Christ. Because once we have encountered Christ – really encountered Him – we cannot help but see others differently – and this is the heart of what Jesus is getting at in the gospel.
From Him flows our desire to honour the other. When we spend time in the presence of Jesus, we learn to recognise his image in those who are different from us: the refugee, the outsider, the stranger, the one who is doesn’t sit around our fire!
True hospitality begins with the heart that has welcomed Christ. That is the heart of our mission as Christians: not just to work for God, but to live in such a way that others can meet Christ through us. That begins by choosing the “better part” – not instead of service, but as the foundation of our service. It is from there that our mission flows – heart to heart, one life at a time.
Each new encounter becoming a well-spring of grace, not only bringing life to the one we encounter, but renewing our own spirit as well.
So what might the scriptures be asking of us today? Maybe to take a few quiet moments – whether at home, at church, or even during a walk – to sit with Jesus again. To say nothing – but to simply listen; to remember why we do what we do – and who it is we serve.
From that space of stillness will come a renewed joy, a deeper peace, and a clearer purpose – because once Christ has entered our hearts, all our other encounters begin to change.
May we listen like Mary, serve like Martha, and welcome Christ as we encounter him in all that we meet this coming week.
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Please consider praying a decade of the rosary on a daily basis for the evangelising Mission of the Church and the Pope’s intentions.
The Pope’s prayer intention for July is: ‘For formation in discernment’
Let us pray that we might again learn how to discern, to know how to choose paths of life, and reject everything that leads us away from Christ and the Gospel.
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Blessed Pauline Jaricot, Pray for us. 
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