Welcome to the July Saint of the Month! July 29 is the feast of Saint Martha.
Nearly everyone knows who Saint Martha is. She is most well-known as the sister of Mary, as the sister who was caught up in serving while Mary sat at the Feet of Jesus, and who became frustrated with Mary and rebuked her, telling Jesus to make her help with the serving.
We all know Jesus’ gentle and loving reply to Martha. The takeaway from this scene could simply be that the contemplative life is superior to the domestic life, but I think it’s more nuanced than that. I think perhaps it wasn’t so much that Martha was doing the wrong thing, but that she didn’t have the proper focus on what she was doing.
In Jesus’ rebuke, He says that Martha is “anxious and worried about many things.” I think this is a sign that Martha was more focused on the task itself than focused on Jesus, and was more focused on trying to do everything perfectly than focused on feeling pleasure at doing a service for Him.
It is so, so easy to enter this mindset. It’s so easy to get caught up in what we’re doing that we forget why we’re doing it. Why was Martha cumbered with serving? Because she wanted to show Jesus hospitality. That is a good thing, in and of itself. Such service can itself be offered as a prayer. Saint Benedict of Nursia says, “He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.”
Now, although this is the most well-known scene we see Martha in, when we see her again it’s clear that she is a true and faithful follower of Christ, despite her need for correction sometimes. When Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, Martha not only says beforehand that she believes Jesus has the power to heal – or raise – Lazarus, but she states openly (and before others) that she believes Jesus is the Son of God. She is a beautiful witness, and obviously took Jesus’ words to heart and did not let herself be distracted from her faith.
Saint Martha, please help us to let our work lead us closer to Christ, not distract us from following Him.
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