Lk 10:38-42 The Superman SyndromeJesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?”
I know I am a Martha and I know a lot of people who are like Martha! We want to do it all and then we complain that we don’t get any help. We don’t like to delegate things around the house or at work because we don’t want to look weak; we also don’t want it done poorly!
But then, like always, we get overwhelmed, lash out and fall apart.
When we read this Gospel passage we wish we could be in the Lord's presence, like Martha and Mary. We wish we could have this direct line of communication, like Martha and Mary. I am here to say that this can happen today! We can do exactly the same thing that Martha did: she dropped what she was doing and approached the Lord. This feeling of being overwhelmed (or out of control) is a defense mechanism – an internal alarm - that goes off as a physical and spiritual reminder that it is time to approach the Lord.
But guess what? This is not our problem! Most of us do this pretty well. When we lash out or feel left out; when we lose our sense of direction or purpose in life most of us go straight to the Lord. We know what to do…We will earnestly begin to pray! We will begin a new cycle of daily rosaries and adoration, weekday Masses, and frequent confessions, etc. But then, little by little, as soon as we are feeling well again, we will fall back to our old way of doing things; neglecting the very tools that helped us on our journey back to normalcy.
What the Lord tells us today, as he did yesterday and the day before, is that Mary has chosen the better part. And the better part is to go full throttle after you have prayed! First pray and then work. First know why you are doing what you are doing. First know who you are before you go and try to invent yourself! First seek and then you shall find. First knock and then the door shall be opened. First ask and then you shall receive. Otherwise, we will find what we least wanted; we will open the door we never ever wanted to enter; and we will receive what we never asked for!
Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it!
Yes, blessed are they who are confident in God! Blessed are they who know they are not God! The only superheroes, superstars, supermen and women are those who are meek and humble of heart. We have a tendency, a very natural tendency, to take credit for what we don’t deserve. We take credit for our Universe, our planet, our life, our work and our decisions. We think we know it all and we know nothing when it comes to life. We are still trying to figure out how to raise children for God sakes!
Let us ask the Lord to remove this ailment from our lives. Let us ask the Lord to take a moment out of our busy schedule to sit, kneel and prostrate ourselves before the Lord who is King of the Universe, King of the World and King of my life!
The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to those who are searching for his love. (Lam 3:25)
