by CCW | 15 January 2020 18:00
“One thing is needful,” Jesus says to Martha, “and Mary has chosen the better part.” What is that “better part”, “the one thing needful”? Perhaps it is another Mary, the Mary of the Christmas story, who shows us best what is most needed. She is, in the Christian understanding, the Theotokos, the God-bearer, the Mother of God, who embodies the highest dignity and truth of our humanity, “most highly favoured lady” as a carol puts it.
The Christmas story in all of its richness carries over into Epiphany. For Orthodox Christians following the Old Calendar, the Julian calendar, as Stanislav, a student from the Ukraine reminded me the other day, January 7th was Christmas. January 19th will be their Epiphany. The shepherds journey to Bethlehem to “see this thing that has come to pass,” literally, this saying that has happened; in short, “the word made flesh.” The shepherds “make known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child,” awakening wonder in all that heard it. “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” The one thing needful is to ponder the wonder of God.
Sometimes one story throws light upon another. The Christmas scene, quite frankly, is all a confusion of images, a great cluster of things seen and heard. At best we can only dance around it, looking in upon what is there and thinking about its meaning. In the story of Martha and Mary, sisters in Bethany, Jesus is a guest. Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, “listening to his word.” Martha, on the other hand, is “distracted by much serving” and gets annoyed at Mary and complains to Jesus. Jesus’ response is a profound but gentle rebuke and one which speaks to the confusions and the busyness of our world and day. “Martha, Martha; thou art anxious and troubled about a multitude of things; one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen the better part.”
We so easily lose ourselves in our busyness as if being busy was the most important thing, as if we could justify ourselves by busyness alone. The problem is not that there aren’t things that have to be done, mouths to be fed, children and others to be cared for, and so on. No. It is more about our preoccupation with our busyness at the expense of the one thing needful. It is a question about ends and priorities. After all, our busyness can often be a form of sloth. Usually we think of sloth as being lazy but it is also about avoiding doing what is needed to be done, using our busyness as an excuse to avoid papers and assignments, studying and reading, for example. Jesus reminds us that contemplation, a kind of serious and thoughtful attention to what is wanted to be known and learned is the one thing needful. The Martha syndrome checked by the Mary solution.
The Mary of the Christmas story allows herself to be defined by her attention to all that is being said about the infant child Christ. This leads in turn to the other story read in Chapel this week about the boy Jesus being found in the Temple at the age of twelve. He had stayed behind in the Temple at Jerusalem in the company of the doctors of the Law. It is an extraordinary and unique scene and the only story of Christ depicted in the nave of the Chapel. It marks his bar mitzvah, we might say, his transition from boyhood to adulthood, humanly speaking.. It is, more profoundly, an Epiphany of teaching and learning.
He is found in the Temple asking questions and answering them, teaching and learning, we might say. He is both God and man. In response to Mary’s worry, he says challengingly and revealingly, “Did ye not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” or as another way of translating suggests, “in my Father’s house.” This highlights the reality of Christ as divine and as doing the will of his Father. The Mary who has pondered all the things said about the infant Christ now ponders the words of the boy Jesus.
Augustine of Hippo (in North Africa) famously said pondus meum amor meus, “my love is my weight,” the weight of my soul. We are defined in a fundamental way by what we love. Students are truly students if they are defined by the love of learning and attend to what is being taught. That means our thoughtful attention to all that is said about God and to our active engagement with God through question and answer. This is exactly what we see in the Mary of Christmas and Epiphany, Mary the Mother of God. In another saying, sometimes attributed to Augustine, we learn something about the necessary balance and interplay between thinking and doing: “the love of truth seeks a holy quiet; the truth of love accepts a righteous busyness.”
Mary ponders the wonder of God. This is the true antidote to our mindless and empty busyness in the culture of endless distraction. Mary shows us what it truly means to be human. It is to ponder the love of God, learning to love the one thing needful and letting that bring order and purpose to the busyness of our lives.
(Rev’d) David Curry,
Chaplain, English & ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2020/01/15/kes-chapel-reflection-week-of-15-january-2/
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