A homily for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Last Thursday, we celebrated a memorial. The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne. Compiegne is a cloister in northern France, and during the French Revolution, they were ordered to disband. And they did. They came to Paris, but they formed a community in Paris, and they were found out still living religious life. So they were arrested and ordered executed. And if executions back then were like a big social events where people selling food and jugglers and all sorts of things, people loved executions.
And in come the martyrs. These nuns. And the crowd got silent. What’s going on? Are we executing nuns now? And it’s just was dramatic. They started to sing the song. And as each one was guillotined, there was one less voice until finally the Mother Superior was guillotined and she was killed mid-line. The crowd went home in silence.
And that was the end of the Reign of Terror after the French Revolution. People said, have we come to this? What are we doing? We’re killing nuns now? And they just thought the whole thing out. And I think that’s what we have to do. That’s always the call, is to think our actions out. And is this is really what we want to be doing? To give it deep thought, deep prayer.
In today’s gospel, we have Martha and Mary. Traditionally, they’ve been, seen as Martha is the active one. She’s the one doing ministry. She’s serving Jesus food, and Mary is the contemplative one. She’s sitting at his feet and they’re kind of, Mary is a little upset. And so Jesus says, oh, Mary’s chosen the better part. And oftentimes that’s traditionally said the contemplative life is superior to the active life.
But Teresa of Avila says, no, that actually it’s both. Both have to be operative because we do so much on autopilot or so much without thought. We have to bring our actions into contemplation and contemplation. Then into action. It’s this dynamic going back and forth. And so she looks at this story of Martha, and Mary and says, “To give our Lord perfect hospitality, Martha and Mary must combine.” I think that’s what was happening with that crowd when they said, what are we doing? They thought it out, they prayed it out and they changed. I think that’s the call of today’s gospel. We have to be both contemplative and active. Not one, not the other. Both to give the Lord perfect hospitality, but to give ourselves a good and rich and wonderful life, to give our Lord a perfect hospitality, Martha and Mary must combine.
