16th Sunday Ordinary

16th Sunday Ordinary
July 18, 2004

"The Lord appeared to Abraham... as he sat at the entrance of his tent... Looking up he saw three men standing nearby" (Genesis 18:1-10)
"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing." (Luke 10:38-42)
• Father Abraham has a vision on a hot day. We can imagine him snoozing in the shade of his tent, the Most High appearing to him in a dream, then waking up to the "reality" of these divine messengers. He and Sarah both were in old age, still hoping for a child, and they are promised that their hopes will be fulfilled.
• I am struck with the coincidence between Abraham's vision of God and the appearance of divine messengers in human form. Dream and awakening seem to be fused together into one reality. Most of us have had similar experiences in which it is at least momentarily difficult to distinguish the two. In fact heaven and earth are much more of a single reality than we sometimes realize. How often, on a daily basis, are we "visited" by someone in our life who comes along just at the right time, a divine presence in human form. I often think of these people in my own life as my angels, bringing me help, reassurance, comforting presence. Periodically, Jane and I throw them a party with free food and drink, something like Abraham preparing a sumptuous meal for his visitors to welcome, acknowledge and thank them. Perhaps the "miracle" of the fulfillment of Abraham and Sarah's hopes is not so miraculous after all if we could see how closely heaven and earth, divine and human, time and eternity are tied together.
• Jesus' encounter with Mary and Martha illustrates something similar. Jesus is approached by Martha who is complaining that she has to do all the work while Mary sits around talking with him. In the Christian theological tradition this has been taken as a teaching about the superiority of the contemplative over the active life of discipleship. As if the two could be separated in reality. I personally wonder how I would survive without the Martha's in my life. Spiritually productive human activity always contains an element of simple awe and wonder in the presence of God. Martha was being corrected at a moment when she was out of touch with this. We might notice that she is not scolded for doing helpful things, but for being anxious and worried. We don't hear what Jesus may have said to Mary about getting up to help out.
• Just as Abraham's experience brings together time and eternity, action and contemplation (he and Sarah did get up to welcome and prepare a meal for the three men), so Martha and Mary together represent life in the presence of God. Everything we do and experience happens in the context of the interplay between earthly and heavenly realities.