HOMILY FOR THE 16TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C. BEING + DOING
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today’s readings present us with a timeless tension, one that resonates deeply in our busy lives: the tension between “doing” and “being.” We see it vividly in the familiar scene of Martha and Mary, but its roots run deeper, touching upon how we truly encounter God and live out our faith.
The Art of Welcoming: More Than Just a Meal
In our first reading from Genesis 18:1-10a we see how Abraham practices a generous act of service by welcoming three strangers into his tent.
- He not only offers water, and shade, but also a lavish meal, going above and beyond.
- He doesn’t just offer bare necessities; he offers his best, serving them himself. Unbeknownst to him, he is entertaining angels, divine messengers.
This act of generous service, of “doing” for others, opens the door to a profound divine encounter and the promise of a son.
Being with the Lord: The Better Part
Martha, in today’s Gospel (Luke 10:38-42), embodies this spirit of service.
- She is busy, preparing, doing her best to welcome Jesus into her home. Her intentions are good, noble even. She wants to make sure everything is perfect for the Lord.
However, Jesus gently corrects Martha.
- Mary, her sister, has chosen a different path: she “sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.”
- Martha, “burdened with much serving,” complains, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.”
- Jesus’ response is tender but firm: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
What is this “better part”? It’s not idleness. It’s the primacy of presence, of listening, of being with the Lord.
- It’s about recognizing that before we can effectively “do” for God, we must first “be” with God.
- Pope Benedict XVI said: “Christ’s words are quite clear: there is no contempt for active life, nor even less for generous hospitality; rather, a distinct reminder of the fact that the only really necessary thing is something else: listening to the word of the Lord; and the Lord is there at that moment, present in the Person of Jesus! All the rest will pass away and will be taken from us but the word of God is eternal and gives meaning to our daily actions (General Audience July 18, 2010).”
Our Lord reminds us that we can and must put Him in all our daily activies. Our communion with God, our being with the Lord should imbue and infuse all our daily activities.
Sanctifying Our “Doing”: Christ in Us and with Us.
Our second reading from Colossians 1:24-28 offers a crucial bridge between “doing” and “being.” Saint Paul speaks of his suffering, “filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, the Church.” He then reveals the great mystery: “Christ IN YOU, the hope for glory.”
- Paul’s intense “doing” – his missionary journeys, his suffering, his activities – is not separate from Christ, but deeply united with Him. It is Christ working in and through him.
- The “better part” of Mary, our union with God, the presence of Christ in our being, is not just for quiet contemplation; it is meant to permeate, animate and sanctify all our “doing.”
Saint Josemaria Escriva was chosen by God to remind us that we are called to seek, find and love God in our ordinary lives, by sanctify our daily activities.
- He wrote, “ you must understand now, more clearly, that God is calling you to serve Him in and from the ordinary, material and secular activities of human life. He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it (Conversations with Monsignor Escrivá, 114 ).”
- What is this “something holy”, this “something divine” if not the presence, the company of the living Christ? For Saint Josemaria, the kitchen, the office, the classroom, the factory, the laboratory– all these places of “doing” can become altars where we can seek, encounter, love, and serve God, provided that our work and actions are done well and done for love of God.
Not for a Million Dollars. Being with God + “Doing“ for God.
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s deepest conviction is the fact that we encounter Jesus first in the Most Blessed Sacrament and second in the poorest of the poor.
- A normal day for the sisters of Missionaries of Charity begins at 4:40am for an hour of community prayer before Holy Mass. After breakfast, they engage with their service for the sick, poor and suffering. Living the Gospel teaching, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40), Mother Teresa sometimes held up the five fingers of one hand to explain this. The whole Gospel, she said, could be counted on five fingers: “You-did-it-to-me!”
- An American journalist who observed Mother Teresa attending to a sick man with foul-smelling ulcers is supposed to have said in disgust that he would never do that for a million dollars. And she replied, “Yes, for a million dollars I wouldn’t do it either.” She did it for Jesus. (Leo Maasburg, Mother Teresa of Calcutta).
Dear brethren in Christ, in a world where relationship with God and work, contemplation and action, spiritual and material are seen as opposing and antagonistic realities, in such a way that it’s “either …or,” Jesus reminds us that it’s more of “…and…”: we can be BE with God and DO our work for Him at the same time, thus, living as “contemplatives in the middle of the world (St. Josemaria).”
- Saint Josemaría spoke from his own experience when he wrote: “my daily occupations […] are no hindrance to me; quite the contrary, they are my path, my reason to love more and more, and to be more and more united to my God” (Friends of God, 306).
- We can BE Martha and Mary at the same time while we carry out our daily responsibilities in the middle of the world, whether at home, at school, in the office, in the fields, at rest…: BEING with God + DOING our activities for God.
- May all that we do–our service, our hospitality, our work, our family life–be done for God and flow from “being” with Christ and be brought back to Christ. As such we are able to sanctify them, sanctify ourselves, and sanctify others, and raise the Lord up there right where He placed us.
Let us end this reflection with the words of Saint Josemaria:
“I often said to the university students and workers who were with me in the thirties that they had to know how to ‘materialise’ their spiritual life. I wanted to keep them from the temptation, so common then and now, of living a kind of double life. On one side, an interior life, a life of relation with God; and on the other, a separate and distinct professional, social and family life, full of small earthly realities.
No! We cannot lead a double life. We cannot be like schizophrenics, if we want to be Christians. There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit. And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God. We discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things.
There is no other way. Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him. That is why I can tell you that our age needs to give back to matter and to the most trivial occurrences and situations their noble and original meaning. It needs to restore them to the service of the Kingdom of God, to spiritualize them, turning them into a means and an occasion for a continuous meeting with Jesus Christ.” (Saint Josemaría Escriva, Conversations, 114).”
Let us then ask Our Lord so that our “doing” be infused by our “being” with God. That we may learn to seek, find, and love God in our ordinary, everyday life and be contemplatives in the middle of the world, being with Him and doing for Him all our daily activities, and converting all the circumstances and events of our life into occasions to love and serve God, His Church, and all souls. Amen.
A Blessed Sunday and week ahead!
Fr. Rolly Arjonillo.
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Thanks and God bless you and your loved ones! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo.
