3-29-17 - The Contemplative

Isn’t it amazing how people can grow up in the same family and be so different from each other? Where Martha is all action, Mary seems geared toward reflection and a quiet devotedness. It is Mary who sits at Jesus’ feet listening to his teaching instead of helping Martha cook; Mary who anoints Jesus’ head and feet with a whole jar of expensive ointment shortly before his arrest, an act of extravagant, wasteful worship (arguably the way worship should always be…).

So it is here, in this story. When word comes that Jesus has finally arrived, Martha goes out to meet him while Mary stays at home. But as soon as Martha tells her that Jesus is asking for her, she goes to him:

[Martha] went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." When she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him... When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Mary utters the same words of gentle rebuke and profound faith as Martha did. But where Martha and Jesus engage in theological conversation about death and life and resurrection and Jesus’ identity, with Mary it is her open display of feelings that communicates with Jesus’ spirit:  

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

In these two sisters we see different elements of a spiritual whole. A healthy spiritual life makes room for emotions and intellect, receptivity and action. Most of us tend to emphasize one mode over another. How is it that you most readily experience holiness or the presence of God? In thoughts and actions? In silence and feelings? Some combination of these?

How do you most naturally express your spirituality?
Are your emotions available to you in your prayer and worship life? 

Are you able to sit still on occasion and wait on the Lord, see what the Spirit is saying?

It is good to know how we’re wired spiritually. Then we can look to see if we’re missing anything. Is God inviting us to play with a form of spiritual expression or reception that comes less naturally to us, but opens us to a new dimension of God-life? If you only ever read the bible (or this...) as a devotion, how about singing a hymn in your personal prayer time? If you only feel connected when serving dinner at the shelter, try going on a retreat alone, and seeing where God is in silence and inactivity.

Martha and Mary of Bethany are among the most fully drawn characters in the Gospels. We know little about them, but they are a rich gift to us, these sisters, embodying different ways to love Jesus, and different modes of receiving his love.