9 October 2018
Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
The work of our hands is a blessing from God. Each day of our lives, we are given the opportunity to positively impact the world and those around us at home, work, and school through our labors. But if we lack love, then our hands help no one. Our work is as good as nothing. Martha, the anxious and overburdened sister in today’s gospel may have been lacking in love when she comes to Jesus asking him to tell her sister, Mary to help her. Instead of helping, Mary had chosen to sit at the feet of Love incarnate and take in his love and his word. This, Jesus says, is “the better part.”
Is this to say that we need not work or help those who are anxious and burdened? No. Before we work, however, it’s essential that we fill ourselves with God’s love by listening to his word and contemplating it in our hearts. This is a daily practice. When we do so, we’ll find that it is that same love which motivates and informs our work and dispositions. Our anxieties, our worries, our stress will minimize, and we’ll see the world more and more with the eyes of love.