art careful and troubled about many things! one thing only is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part[1], which shall not be taken away from her.”
COMMENTARY.
The Love of God. The story of the Good Samaritan gave us an example of the love of our neighbour. In Martha and Mary we have a model of the true love of God. Both sisters loved our Divine Lord, but they showed their love in different ways. Mary was all absorbed, listening to and meditating on His words; and, carried out of herself by her love of Him, she forgot everything else. Martha, on the other hand, was taken up with active work in His service, and could only think of how she might most perfectly minister to His wants. Martha spent herself in her efforts to prepare food for our Lord, while Mary was entirely occupied in being fed by Him. We can and we ought to learn lessons from both sisters. Like Martha we ought to do our best to fulfil the duties of our state of life: but we should not, on this account, neglect to hear and meditate on the divine word. “These things you ought to have done, and not leave those undone” (Mat. 23, 23). Pray and work!
Works of mercy. We cannot, as Martha did, minister to the wants of our Lord Himself, but we can and ought to minister to Him in the person of His brethren, the poor and the sick; for whatever we do for these we do for Him (chapter LXIII).
The one thing needful. Men are taken up with a multitude of busy occupations, and yet a great many of these are quite unnecessary. There is, however, one occupation absolutely necessary and indispensable for each one of us, namely, to love God and to care for our salvation. To save our souls and to win heaven is the highest and last end, to which every other object must give way. Christian self-love consists in caring for the salvation of our souls before all things.
Our Lady the perfect Mary and Martha. Mary, the Mother of God, all her life through practised most perfectly those virtues for which
- ↑ The best part. By His answer our Lord took Mary’s part, and at the same time gently reproved Martha for being too entirely taken up by business. “You are too much occupied with a number of things,” He meant to say; “whereas there is only one thing which is worth all this anxiety, for there is only one thing which is absolutely necessary. You are indeed doing a good work by seeking to minister to My wants, but your sister has chosen the better part in listening to My teaching, and feeding her soul with My divine words. Her undivided attention to the, things of God shall not be taken away from her, for the contemplation of what is divine and the Vision of God are the eternal inheritance of the Saints in heaven.” The one thing necessary, of which our Lord spoke, is the work of salvation. Jesus does not blame Martha for working, but because she worked in a restless and uneasy state of mind.
