16th sunday-c

16th Sunday in C 

Last week I visited a wonderful woman whose husband passed away recently and said, “I took all the changes, coins he left in the basement to the bank and it came around 1,900 dollars”. Then, I got excited and came home and counted all the change that I had and then called her and said, “Do you want to know how much change I had? There were three dollars and 35 cents”. Then I texted her saying, “That also included my Canadian tire money”. 

Dear friends in Christ Jesus, 

Our Lord Jesus Christ the giver of life, wants us to live our life with happiness and joy. And that’s why, He healed so many people and multiplied bread and fish and fed thousands and thousands of people and is performing millions and millions of miracles today. Great things happen in the name of Christ and those who put their trust in Him will not go astray but have life that will never end. 

In today’s gospel, we see how our Lord Jesus Christ along with His disciples, goes to place to place to preach the kingdom of God. The mission of Christ is bringing the Good News of Salvation to all namely divine unconditional love and forgiveness. We see how Christ our Lord built a deeper connection with every living being. And that is why we say that Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. 

As He came to Bethany, He was welcomed by Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus whom Christ called out from the tomb saying, “Lazarus, come out and he did come out to life” Christ our Lord is still calling us to come out to life and thus to experience divine love and forgiveness. 

Then we see how Martha was so excited and wanted to prepare a special meal for the Lord and His disciples and thus she became so anxious and distracted and worried. Christ the compassionate one feels the feeling of others.  

So, He looks at Martha and says, “Martha...Martha, you are worried and are distracted”.  Christ in a gentle way points out her anxiety saying, “she has to focus on one thing and get rid of her self-accumulated distractions and anxiousness”.  He asks her to turn herself inwardly and see what is necessary for her to make things right. 

There is a beautiful story about a man riding an elephant through a village. While passing by, the elephant would poke his trunk into everything and cause so much damage. Then one day, what he did was, he gave a stick to the elephant to hold in his trunk. Thus, he was able to ride through the village.  

Sometimes, we are all like Martha or like the elephant, so distracted with so many things. But the most important thing is knowing ourselves in the presence of God and thus to relax and enjoy more of life. 

Jesus says, “Martha...Martha, you are worried and distracted with so many things. You need of only one thing. Mary has chosen a better part and that will not be taken away from her”. 

Yes, by saying, Christ invites Martha to focus on one thing and by saying that Mary has chosen the better part, Christ our Lord indicates that Mary is focusing on one thing only. 

Sometimes it is easy to think that Mary is better than Martha. It is not all about who is better than who. It’s all about how we dedicate and focus on what we are doing. 

We all have two types or kinds of personalities in us. We become anxious and worried about so many things like Martha or sometimes we are well focused and calm at the feet of Christ like Mary. But as we grow and mature, we have to become like Mary and experience more of life, happiness and joy and yes, we have to choose to be better. Amen.