Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week of Ordinary time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100912.cfm

Fungus on the forest floor

The Lord said to her in reply,
"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."


I can think of only a few places in scripture when God calls a person’s name twice:

• But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Genesis 22: 11
• God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Exodus 3: 4
• He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ Acts of the Apostles 9.4

These three are God’s call to a particular person. They are sudden, unexpected, intense and demanding. In this fourth incident, Jesus’ calling Martha is rich with human affection. In every case I hear the name used as a powerful call to the innermost self. “Martha, Martha, here I am, Jesus, your friend.” 

Clearly, the repetition means “Stop everything! Drop everything! Pay attention to me! I am your God!” Abraham and Moses respond with the perfect word of prayer, “Here I am.” Saul also immediately surrendered his life to the Lord who revealed himself as Jesus. 

Saint Luke leaves this story of Martha unfinished, just as he leaves the Parable of the Prodigal Son unfinished. Did the older son surrender his resentments and welcome his prodigal brother home? Did Martha roll her eyes in despair and storm back into the kitchen? Or did she fall at Jesus’ feet in tears? Perhaps she just sat down and took ten deep breaths until the raging stopped. 

We can well imagine a long period of nervous silence in the room as Jesus, Mary and the crowd of disciples waited for Martha to regain her serenity. Hopefully, after a while, it became a peaceful, friendly silence; and then Jesus resumed his teaching. When a scripture story remains unfinished, it’s left to you and me to decide in our troubled hearts how it ends. 

We do well in our personal prayer to hear the Lord calling us by name. His voice is dear and we hope to recognize it clearly on that day when he calls each of us by name, as he called Lazarus, out of the grave. 

But now thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

Isaiah 43.1

Occasionally, I like to pat myself on the back. This is my one thousandth homily-blog, a series I started in January 2010. Howaboutthat!