Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Galatians 1:13-24
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
Daily readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100626.cfm
Jesus comes into a village and Martha welcomes him into her home. Her sister Mary sits at his feet and listens. Martha, burdened with much serving, says what many of us have felt at the end of a long day: Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do the serving by myself? Jesus does not scold her. He says her name twice, gently: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part.
Martha is not wrong to serve. Hospitality is love, and someone has to make the meal. But the serving has quietly taken over her attention, and somewhere along the way the guest has become a task. Most of us know this. We can be at the dinner table with our family while mentally answering emails, or at Mass while running through tomorrow’s list. Jesus is not asking us to do less out of guilt. He is inviting us to sit with him first, so that what we do afterward comes from love and not from worry.
Paul’s reading adds a tender thread. He looks back at his life, including the years he persecuted the Church, and says that God had set him apart from his mother’s womb and called him by grace. After his conversion he did not rush to prove himself. He went away into Arabia, and he waited. The Psalm sings the same truth: you have probed me and you know me. You knit me in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. We are known and loved before we accomplish anything. That is the ground Mary is sitting on.
A few questions to sit with tonight:
1. Where today did I feel anxious and worried about many things? What was underneath the worry?
2. Was there a moment when I was with someone I love, or with Jesus in prayer, but my mind was somewhere else? What pulled me away?
3. Do I believe Jesus knows me fully, as the Psalm says, and still delights in me, even on days when I got little done?
4. Paul took time in the desert before he began to serve. Is there a quiet space I need to make room for, even a small one?
For tomorrow:
Choose one ordinary moment tomorrow, a meal, a drive, the first five minutes of the morning, and give it your full attention. Silence your phone, sit down, and say quietly: Lord, I am here with you.
Lord Jesus, you speak my name with tenderness, even when I am scattered and worn out. Thank you for knowing me completely and loving me anyway. Forgive me for the times I have rushed past you in order to serve you. Teach me to sit at your feet, and let my work flow from that place. Quiet my anxious heart and help me to choose the better part today. Amen.
If you would like to share: where do you find it easiest to sit quietly with Jesus, and where do you find it hardest?
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