But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

- Luke 10:38-42

Yesterday we read that a certain lawyer stood up and tested Jesus, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  He said to him, "What is written in the law?  What is your reading of it?"  So he answered and said, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and 'your neighbor as yourself.'  And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."  But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  Then Jesus answered and said:  "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  Now by chance a certain priest came down that road.  And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took our two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.'  So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"  And he said, "He who showed mercy on him."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."  Mary and Martha are the sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead (John 11:1-44).   They live at Bethany, to the east of Jerusalem.  My study bible notes that Jesus does not rebuke Martha for serving; these are the duties of hospitality, which, throughout the stories in the Gospels about these sisters, Martha takes responsibility for.  But Christ rebukes her rather for being distracted, worried, and troubled.   It adds that in following Christ, we serve in order to facilitate the spread of the gospel (see Acts 6:1-4).

I quite love the story of Martha and Mary.  In all the narratives which involve these characters, we see the personality traits of both.  When Lazarus has died, it is Mary who sits inside the house, appropriate to mourning, while Martha greets Christ outside the home, appropriate to hospitality.   Today's reading, as far as any other story in the Gospels, is a story about faith itself.  Martha is worried and troubled and distracted; she is busy with the serving duties of hospitality.  But Mary sits at Christ's feet, listening and hearing His word.  One presumes He is with all of His disciples as well, who travel with Him toward Jerusalem, and also that there are others who sit and hear Him, including, of course, their brother Lazarus.   Jesus calls Mary's sitting and hearing His word "that good part."  What is it to have faith but to sit at Jesus' feet and hear His word?  In prayer, we seek this kind of communion, a dialogue, to hear His word in response to our prayer.  Faith itself is sitting and listening at Jesus' feet, to hear His word.  It is in this way that we attend worship services, in this way we read and hear the Scriptures, His word in the Gospels and throughout the Scriptures.  Mary is expressing faith, in one of the purest ways that we can find in the Gospels.  She brings us to the place where we serve to begin with:  we seek to serve Christ and the purposes of faith.  It brings us home to the understanding of the power of faith -- that our good works are meant to shore up and to express this basic reality of a true connection to Creator, to Christ.  We can make a list of our achievements and good works, but faith is that secret or "hidden" thing, where we meet our God who is in the secret place and who sees in secret (Matthew 6:6), and where we find that good part, our most basic and true need that forms substance which touches everything else.  In John's Gospel, Jesus teaches the crowds who have followed Him after the feeding of five thousand in the wilderness, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him" (John 6:27).  The people ask Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"  Jesus replies to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (John 6:29).  There is no plainer statement about the power and importance of faith, that Christ calls it the work of God.  In our modern world, we tend to place great emphasis on abstraction.  That is, we abstract out the good things that we're given through faith, and particularly through the Incarnation of Christ, and we tend to build our lives on that basis -- and leave out this mysterious part called faith, which Jesus says is the true work of God.  We may read the parable of the Good Samaritan (see yesterday's reading, above) and think that it is simply teaching us about good works and the necessary practice of mercy.  But there is so much more to the parable we don't understand, because we don't see with the eyes of faith set out in the early Church; we fail to understand the Samaritan is Christ, and how much we need what He offers to us, which is only found through that good part of simply sitting at His feet and hearing His word, through the work of God which is faith itself.  It is faith that offers to us the way to live our lives, and faith that sets out purpose, principle, and most especially substance that sets our perspective in order, gives us courage (see the times Jesus reassures and encourages His followers with the command "Be of good cheer").  It is faith that must guide us, especially in the times when we seem to fail, when all our good works just don't seem to be enough to fill whatever it is we're trying to make of ourselves in life.  Those are the times when the lack we feel can be plainly seen as "that good part" that Mary chooses for herself, that thing we need that underlies and girds and adds foundation and substance and structure to everything else, the rock upon which we can build a life that realistically anticipates the rains and floods and winds we're going to encounter in life, when our plans and works fall through, or we find circumstances not completely in our control.  The real challenge Christ offers us is living a life of faith, sitting at His feet and hearing His word.  All the plans and works in the world will not necessarily prepare us for difficulty, adversity, and disappointment -- but faith can see us through and give us the good part that sustains and never fails, which cannot be taken away, even in the times when we disappoint ourselves (Mark 16:7).  It is the one thing needed.