20 July 2025-eng -- 16th Sunday ‘C’
Gen 18:1-10; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42
Homily
The first reading of today's Mass gives us a beautiful example of Eastern hospitality. It is a kind of hospitality that we still find in poor countries, but which is becoming rarer in rich countries. When wealth accumulates, the desire to protect it naturally develops, and we become less inclined to share it, except in a selective and easily ostentatious way.
In the Gospel, we never see Jesus organizing large feasts to which he would invite crowds or even just his friends. On the contrary, he appears as the stranger who needs the hospitality of others. Even for the Last Supper, his last meal with his disciples, he is welcomed into the home of a stranger. He is welcomed at the table in their homes by tax collectors. He accepts the invitation of the Pharisees. Wherever he goes, he brings a message, he offers a word.
Jesus particularly loves the hospitality of his dear friends: Martha, Mary and Lazarus. I must confess that I have a great deal of sympathy for Martha, and I think that commentators and preachers of past centuries have not done her justice. It is really too easy—even if it is popular—to see in the Gospel story we have just heard an affirmation of the superiority of one form of Christian life over others.
In reality, it is Martha who is the most striking figure in this Gospel story. Jesus is her guest; she is the one who welcomes him into her home. Mary is there, but she too is Martha's guest. Jesus is no ordinary guest. Even to his dearest friends, he remains a ‘stranger’; but when he comes somewhere, he brings the Word of God to those who receive him, and it is this Word that matters most.
We see this also in the first reading. Abraham's visitors bring him a word; and this word will take flesh in Sarah's womb. Jesus' response to Martha expresses the same reality: it is his word and listening to that word that matter more than anything else. However, the great familiarity with which Martha speaks to Jesus clearly indicates that there was a deep relationship between them that can only exist between two people who listen to each other.
There are various essential elements to the service of hospitality: one must welcome the guests, converse with them, prepare a meal for them and offer them various services. There is no true hospitality without all these elements. It is not enough to sit at someone's feet to listen to him, nor is it enough to serve them a meal. Martha and Mary share all these elements of hospitality. And so, when Jesus says to Martha, who is serving him, that Mary has chosen the good part (tèn agathèn merída), which is too easily translated as ‘the better part’ for unconvincing grammatical reasons, he is not speaking of objective superiority. He is simply saying that Mary has chosen the pleasant part of hospitality, and that this will not be taken away from her. As for Martha, who is doing all the hard work, as Jesus himself will do at the Last Supper, he invites her to do so without worry or nervousness. Everything that both Martha and Mary do constitutes the integral service of hospitality. The two complement each other. Neither is superior to the other.
An additional lesson from this story is that God not only wants to call us to his table, but also wants to be invited to ours. He wants to be our guest, just as Jesus was Martha's guest when she welcomed him into her home. He comes to us in the person of the stranger, the poor, the rejected, the refugees and the homeless. If we listen to his Word, He and His Father will make their home in us.
Armand Veilleux