Name: Teach Catholic 4 November 2024 by Teach Catholic SA
Duration: 53 min 16 s
Description: An archive of Teach Catholic reflecting on the liturgy for the mass of this coming Sunday with a focus on catechesis here in South Africa

An archive of Teach Catholic reflecting on the liturgy for the mass of this coming Sunday with a focus on catechesis here in South Africa

Teach Catholic 4 November 2024

Today’s Gospel reminds us that there are many ministries in the Church, but what unites them is Christ. This famous scene can be so often parodied – Martha fussing in the kitchen, Mary listening to Jesus – and can be easily misunderstood. It illustrates the tensions that arise when we try to rank ministries: active versus contemplative; pastoral versus intellectual. Jesus does not denigrate Martha’s busyness. The active ministry of service is important. As is the more contemplative dimension, by which I mean both the life of contemplation and study. 

The key word in the passage is ‘chosen’. Mary has chosen to sit at Jesus’ feet. She has found her calling within the universal call to discipleship. To sit at his feet is to learn from him. It suggests development of a deep spiritual life. It can also be read as Mary undergoing a kind of training for an active ministry of proclaiming God’s word. 

It is also significant that the Gospel presents us with two women disciples. Women in this time were profoundly restricted in what they could do – theirs was the domain of the home, any other work was seen as at best unfortunate (like a widow running a business) and at worst scandalous. The idea of itinerant women traveling without spouses evoked in the imagination images of prostitution! That Mary is ready to ‘sit at Jesus feet’ evokes, according to some commentators, images of her readiness to become an active disciple. That Jesus accepts and encourages her discernment might well infer that he accepts the active ministry of women as proclaimers of the Good News. (By the way, note that Monday is the solemnity of St Mary Magdalen, who is called the ‘Apostle to the Apostles’).   

Join Anthony Egan SJ as he reflects on the readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C.

Read the texts in your Bible:
Genesis 18:1-10; Psalm 14; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42

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Painting: 'Christ at the home of Martha and Mary' by Georg Friedrich Stettner (1639)

Teach Catholic 4 November 2024

Teach Catholic SA

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