Posted by Octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary/Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: but one thing is necessary, Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Gospel for the Assumption
Today we celebrate the Octave of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as commemorating the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Last week we considered the place of Mary in the history of our salvation, as the theotokos, the mother of the Word made flesh. Today we will consider the Gospel for this feast from St. Luke about the contrasting behaviour of Mary and Martha. It tells of how Jesus was received by Martha into her house. She also had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet, hearing his word. Martha was preoccupied with much serving, and asked Jesus to allow Mary to help her. But Jesus responded that Martha was troubled about many things, but it was Mary, who sat at his feet and heard his word, who had chosen the better part. We learn from St. John’s Gospel that Mary and Martha lived at Bethany and had a brother named Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. In that narrative, Martha is again the more seemingly active and assertive than her sister Mary. In other words, the characterisation of the two sisters is strikingly similar in both St. Luke and St. John.
The contrasting personalities of Martha and Mary have been interpreted throughout the history of the Church as representatives of the active and the contemplative life. The conclusion that has been drawn is that the life of contemplation (represented by Mary) is a higher calling than the life of action (represented by Mary). In more recent times this teaching has often been reversed and more emphasis has been placed by contemporary Western Christianity on the life of action rather than contemplation. We are inclined to agree with the protest of Martha and to see the life of contemplation as a distraction from active service in the world. The Church is seen more as a provider of a social service to the needs of the world, than as a repository of prayer and contemplation. We find it hard to understand why earlier generations placed so much emphasis on the life of prayer and contemplation and find it easier to identify with Martha than with Mary.
Why did earlier generations place so much more emphasis than we do on the life of prayer and contemplation? In one sense, this emphasis goes back to the earliest ages of the Church. Since the Church was operating in a hostile pagan environment the basic Christian message in the age of the martyrs was world renouncing, rather than world affirming. For a pagan Roman to become a Christian meant isolation from the rest of society. In the age of the martyrs, they were trained more for Christian dying than for Christian living. In one sense, this focus changed when the Empire adopted Christianity and the old pagan order was gradually Christianised. But there were always those who felt a higher calling to renounce the world in accordance with the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. They went into the desert in Egypt and in Syria to pursue a life of prayer and contemplation. Initially, those who sought this life did so on an individual basis as hermits, but others sought to pursue the life of prayer and contemplation in the context of a community, most notably John Cassian in the West and St. Basil in the East. However, it was above all the rule of St. Benedict that set down the pattern for Western monasticism. In an age in which civilised society had collapsed and the Roman empire in the West had been overwhelmed by barbarian tribes St. Benedict set down a rule of life of prayer and study. He certainly saw the life of contemplation as a higher calling than the life of action. And yet, though this was far from the primary purpose of the monks, it was they, more than anyone else who preserved civilisation in an age when it had collapsed. The rulers of the tribes who replaced the collapsed empire in the West saw that the monks represented a higher civilisation than their own. They were literate. They kept accounts and planned ahead. The rulers of these tribes sought to adopt their faith. Under the influence of the monks histories were written. In our own country it was the Venerable Bede who first wrote the history of the English people. As G. K. Chesterton put it, it is not that the Church will take us back to the so called Dark Ages. The Church is the only thing that got us out of them.
The paradox of the situation is that the life of prayer and contemplation pursued by the monks did not divert the Church from performing an important social service. In fact, it was the monks themselves who performed the most important social service of all in preserving civilisation and learning in an age of social collapse. This continued in the Middle Ages with the age of the friars who sought to minister in the new towns of medieval Europe. In one sense, the friars were less focused on contemplation and more on action than the monks, but it was above all the life of prayer that sustained them. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of monasticism in the so called ages of Faith.
Since the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century there has been a tendency to repudiate monasticism as perpetuating a double standard for the Christian life. It has been said that the most important task for Christians is service in the world. Unfortunately, this has tended to lower the standard of the Christian life and reduce Christian morality to respectability rather than the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. Subsequently, the Enlightenment secularised European society, not only Protestant countries, but Catholic ones as well. The loss of emphasis on prayer and contemplation has seriously affected Catholic Christianity itself. Probably, the root cause of the desire to suppress the traditional Roman rite has been the allegation that it is too focused on prayer and contemplation and does not sufficiently emphasise social service. But, as we have been examining, it was when the Church prayed and lived by the traditional liturgy that it actually made a bigger contribution in terms of social service than it does now.
Now that our society seems to be entering into a new dark age it may be that the most important role for the Church today is to return to a focus on prayer and contemplation. We can then appropriate in our own time and place Jesus’ words to Mary that in listening to his word at his feet, she has chosen the better part which shall not be taken away from her.