One Thing Is Needful Series

Tuesday of 27th Week in Course 2020

One Thing is Needful

People like me who are always busy can easily fall into what I call the “Martha trap.” Here we see two sisters, sisters of Lazarus of Bethany, during a visitation to their home by Our Lord. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, soaking up his instruction. Martha is running around gathering all kinds of dishes to serve, so she was not taking in the words Jesus had to share. And the way she responded is very important for our understanding: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me."

Most parents would tell you that Martha was the older of these two women, just by observing that before full maturity, firstborns tend to be pretty bossy. I get it. I was an only child, and my younger siblings really wouldn’t have liked me much. But listen to Martha’s approach: “Don’t you care, Lord?” This accusation occurs only twice in the Scriptures. Mark records that Jesus was asleep in Peter’s boat during a crossing of the Sea of Galilee. A storm blew up, started to swamp the boat, and Jesus remained asleep. The disciples woke Him up and asked that question, adding “we are lost.” Jesus awoke and rebuked the storm with a characteristic “Peace, be still.” The storm died down at once and then Jesus declared to His people: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” So He rebuked the storm, and then the disciples, and they remembered.

So Martha, exasperated at all the work she was doing by herself, and wanting herself to sit at the Master’s feet and hear God’s word, blundered badly. The last thing any of us can say about Jesus is that He doesn’t care. And the last thing that anyone should ask Jesus to do is to order someone else around. Jesus’s whole demeanor, in working to change minds and hearts of humans, is to invite. Yes, there are a few occasions when He reminds listeners that if they don’t listen and change their hearts and behaviors, they would end up separated from God’s love by their own free will. But almost all the time He is inviting them to “come and see,” and once they learned His way, they would freely pick up their crosses daily and follow Him. So Jesus kindly rebukes Martha, and calms the storm brewing in her mind and heart. In other words, He tells her “Peace, be still,” and reminds her that only one thing is needed.

What is that one thing that is needed by Martha, and the disciples in the boat, and the rest of us? It is absolute confidence, translated faith and hope, in Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Right now we are in as difficult a spot as we Americans have ever been in my seventy-three years. We face a watershed election that literally will be the difference between life and death for millions, born and unborn, young and old. Before summing up, however, let me make a point about our other two gifts from Scripture:

Lots of folks have a good understanding about what happens during a pregnancy, and how it happens, and the role of DNA and nutrition and all that technical stuff. What they often forget is given clearly in our Psalm 139. It’s the “why” and the four “whos.” Why does a woman achieve pregnancy? Because they have been given a great gift by God–to be a mother–from the first moment of conception of the child. And the four persons involved are the mother, the father, the child, and the giver, the Blessed Trinity. Those are the actors in the love story called “knit together in my mother’s womb.” We err seriously when we make decisions that literally cut out one, two or three of them.

And then there’s St. Paul, who calls himself “abnormally born” in another letter. See the story here. He admits he was a Jewish jerk, called by God before birth but by his own choice a persecutor of the early Church. His call, his teaching, was from the Resurrected Jesus Himself, who appeared to him even as he was planning to murder the Christians of Damascus. He never forgot how Our Lord hit him–as we say in Texas–upside the head and showed him that the community he was trying to murder was in fact the mystical body of God the Son.

So let’s learn some lessons here for our current trials. First, every moment of the day we must listen for the voice of God, usually in the tone and timbre of a fellow Christian, and with discernment follow His call. Second, we must remember that no matter what the trouble, Jesus cares about us and His Church. He died for our salvation, didn’t He? How better to show His loving care? And third, we must never tell Him what to do. We can ask for what we think He should do, and always ask for the grace to do His will, and accept His decisions. He always acts with love for His people, even when it does not feel like it.