At the Lord’s Feet and in the Service of Others: The Grace of Being Both Mary and Martha

“Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”
— Luke 10:42

Dear Sisters and Brothers, 

Today is a special day of the General Chapter – the feast of the Dominican family! We are at the table of the Word of God and the Eucharist together: sisters and brothers. And it would probably be hard to find a better Gospel passage “for today” than the story of Jesus’ visit to Bethany (Luke 10:38-42).

In this small village, whose name translates as “house of the poor,” lived the friends of Jesus: two sisters – Mary and Martha – and their brother Lazarus. During journeys to Jerusalem, it was in their house that Jesus stayed.

It’s a Gospel about friendship and closeness, about contemplation and action – in other words, about what is so important for Dominican life and what makes up our everyday life. A Gospel about what we all “breathe,” whether we lead a contemplative life, like the nuns – who live a few hundred meters away in the Dominican monastery “Na Gródku” – or like many of you, sisters and brothers, belonging to lay fraternities, living the Dominican spirit in the world, in your families.

“Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak”

I like the imagination of Blessed Humbert of Romans. He wrote in his “Treatise on Preaching and Listening to the Word of God” (De eruditione praedicatorum, 29) that “man’s ears are not directed toward the ground like those of cattle, but upward. Which means that nature itself has placed them in such a way that they are ready to listen to words coming from above.”

Indeed, we get lost when we don’t listen to the Word of the Lord! I live and minister in Ukraine, where a full-scale war has been going on for the past 3.5 years – not only are soldiers fighting on the front line being killed, but Russian rockets and drones are regularly falling on our towns and villages. This was the case, for example, 10 days ago, when an apartment building next to our Kyiv priory burned before our eyes at night. The experience of the war teaches me again and again that, wishing to be a disciple of Christ and a preacher of the Gospel, I must hold very tightly to His Word. For God’s Word is always true – it is the Truth. We can be sure that by abiding by it like a lamp that shines in a dark place (cf. 2 Peter 1:19), we will never lose our way.

Note, that we have all received only one Gospel. There are no different Gospels for the different, changing circumstances of our lives. There is no Gospel for times of joy and sorrow, war and peace, health and sickness – there is one Gospel for all. We have all received the same Word of God, which, like Mary, successive generations of sisters and brothers of the Order of Preachers, successive general chapters, listen to.

“Martha, burdened with much serving”

Brother Krzysztof Popławski, with his usual sense of humor, wrote in a column: “Although I like Maria’s attitude, I would marry Martha.” I think many of us would agree with Krzysztof! We admire Maria, but on a daily basis we prefer Martha. When managing a province or a priory, we value brothers and sisters like Martha – those who can be entrusted with important duties and tasks, knowing that they will do them well. We know how difficult it is to find a suitable brother who would be a good bursar in a priory, take care of repairs, or take on the role of provincial bursar. A good brother, taking care of guests coming to the priory, is a real treasure.

“Lord, tell her [my sister] to help me”

According to Master Eckhart, we should see in these words of Martha an expression of her tender love for her sister Mary, and not a manifestation of some resentment or jealousy (cf. Sermon 86).

In Dominican communities it is like in families. There are times when we hold grudges and grievances against each other. Sometimes the brothers are very much like Martha and, like her, complain to their superiors: “Tell him to finally help me.”

St. Catherine of Siena once wrote: “Love is like a maid who washes the dirty dishes in the kitchen.” I don’t know about you, but I like washing dishes. Maybe it’s because the result of the work is quickly visible – unlike the efforts put into study or spiritual life.

“You are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing”

Who among us wouldn’t want to hear these words from the Lord Jesus! Especially when things are difficult, when we are tired and fed up with everything.

I admit that I listen with great admiration to the stories of parents who, between their professional work and solving family problems, caring for children and household matters, still find time and strength for personal prayer, daily Mass, the rosary or adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I have heard of Dominican sisters who get up at dawn – and sometimes even before dawn – to spend time with the Lord Jesus in prayer, because then they have to go to school or take care of the needy. For Brother Misha, director of St. Martin’s House in Fastiv, Ukraine, early morning, when the phone isn’t ringing and no one is coming with errands – is usually the only time during the day when he can be with the Lord Jesus in silence, alone.

A Master of the Order, Brother Vincent de Couesnongle OP, wrote in a letter: “When they hear us speak in a church, a Bible study, a charismatic prayer meeting, in the university chair, rare are the hearers who are fooled. They quickly distinguish the preacher who speaks of the Friend with whom he constantly lives, from the preacher who speaks of him as of a stranger and tries to pass him off as a companion with whom he is on familiar terms. The first knows how to speak about God because he is in the habit of speaking to God.”

Let me conclude with one more testimony of the lives of Jesus’ friends, people who listen to the Word of God, like Mary, and serve their neighbors, like Martha.

Driving from Ukraine to Krakow on Thursday with brothers Thomas and Christopher, we stopped in the village of Markowa in southern Poland, not far from Rzeszow. This is an important place on the spiritual map of our country. It was here, in 1942, that Jozef and Wiktoria Ulm opened the doors of their home and took in eight Jews persecuted by the German Nazi regime. They were Saul Goldman with his sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim and Moses, and Gołda Grünfeld and Lea Didner with their little daughter Reszla. For their gesture of hospitality and mercy, flowing from their sincere faith, the Ulms paid the ultimate price of martyrdom. At the hands of the criminals on March 24, 1944, they were killed along with their children: eight-year-old Stanislaw, seven-year-old Barbara, six-year-old Władysław, four-year-old Franciszek, three-year-old Antoni and two-year-old Maria – and even the youngest child, who was born at the time of her mother’s martyrdom.

The Ulms listened to the Word of God at Sunday liturgy and then continued meditating at home, as can be seen in their read and underlined Bible. When we look at this tattered copy of Scripture, it is very moving to see the word “YES” handwritten next to the parable of the merciful Samaritan, as well as the underlining of the sentence in which Jesus calls us to love even our own enemies (cf. Matthew 5:44).

Brothers and Sisters, our Order needs both Mary and Martha – listening and serving – to follow Jesus and do His will. Amen.