Episode Details

The short story of Mary and Martha occurs only once in all of the Gospels. And yet throughout the history of the Church is has attracted much attention. It has been taken to be a commentary on the interplay between the active and contemplative life, with Martha representing the active life of service and Mary representing the contemplative life of prayer and devotion.As such, the questions it poses for us in the modern world are still crucial to our personal and spiritual well-being: How are we to find true rest and happiness? Where and how are we to direct our time and energy? What role does prayer play in the midst of a busy and distracted world?The story begins with Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord listening to his teaching whilst Martha serves. After a while, Martha grows exasperated and asks Jesus to rebuke her sister for not helping, to which Jesus replies with the immortal words, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her”.We must attend closely to the words of Jesus here because, as he almost always does, he subverts our expectations in his desire to lead us to true life.Action and AnxietyIn the character of Martha and with only a few words, the author Luke describes our modern condition.We are told that she is ‘distracted with much serving’. The Greek word from which we derive “distracted”, perispao, has several meanings including distracted, pulled away, overburdened. All of this implies a centre from which Martha has been removed, something that is taking her away from where and from what she should be.Later on, Christ tells her that she is anxious and troubled about many things. The Greek here for ‘many things’ here is pollawhich indicates a multiplicity of concerns that replace the one thing that is necessary.Before we talk about that one thing that is necessary consider what is being said here: Martha is being removed, taken away from where and from what she should be by a multiplicity of things. Instead of having a singular focus, her focus is multiple. She has many thoughts swirling through her head, her imagination is filled with, in the words of St Augustine, ‘a confusing crowd of phantasms’. Her body is tense. Her nerves are raw. Her teeth are set on edge. She is, in the words of one contemporary author, trying to make ‘a millimetre of progress in a thousand different directions’.Is this not a portrait of our modern state? Encouraged by our technology to redirect our focus every two seconds, moving from email to email, from social media post to social media post, from channel to channel, desperately seeking interest, enjoyment, validation?Christ tells Martha that she is “anxious” and “troubled”. This word for “anxious”, merimnao, is used elsewhere in the Gospel sin Matthew when Christ gives the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you: do not be anxious about your life”. Whatever else Christ wants for Martha, and therefore for us, he does not want us to be anxious, full of care and worry for the things of this world.Although it is certainly true that Martha is doing a good thing – even a very great thing – by welcoming Christ into her home and serving him, she has nevertheless allowed herself to be overcome by anxiety through activity and she has missed the one thing that is necessary.She therefore serves as a warning, a question and a calling to us. In the midst even of our good intentions, how can we find another way?The Good PortionIn contrast to her anxious service, Christ tells Martha only one thing is necessary and that, in sitting at his feet and attending to his teaching, Mary has chosen the better part or the good portion and that it will not be taken away from her. Let’s consider these words.Firstly, only one thing is necessary. In other words, what is truly necessarily is not a multiplicity of things. Nor is a particularly complicated concept to grasp. What is necessary i