Daily Reflection Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

After reading this passage I asked myself which sister I was. Am I Martha or am I Mary? 

 Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.” But I wonder what Mary did the next day. I wonder what she did after hearing Jesus speak. I wonder what he spoke about. Did he speak about putting faith into action? Did he speak about repenting and turning to God? Did he speak about caring for each other? You see, depending on where we are in life or on any given day this gospel is a call to action and action is not always doing. We can be called go and sit quietly in the presence of Jesus and listen with our heart to what he is saying to us. Or we can be called to jump to action and go make a difference in this world. Sometimes Jesus just wants to put us on a time out. He wants us to regroup, relax and be with him in prayer. He wants us to take the time to care for ourselves. In doing these things we can then be of service to others. We don’t have to be Martha or Mary we can be a combination of both. The catch is that we must embrace the best of both. We need to learn to sit with Jesus, as Mary did, and feel his peaceful presence. We need to jump into action, as Martha did, and serve all God’s children. Both roles are challenging, and both are rewarding. One gives us peace in just being still and the other gives us joy in serving others. 

Someday, God willing, we will master both. We will not need to choose between being Martha or Mary, we can choose the best of both.  We can find both peace and joy with Jesus at our side. We won’t need to ask ourselves if we are Martha or Mary. We can be the best of both.