Time for Lunch?

So when I travel by plane, there's always two opposing forces going on inside of me. I have a rule that when I go to the airport, I always go in clerics, with my priestly collar on. You know, I want to be visible and available to those I meet in the airport. I mean, one time, I was stopped and asked to hear someone's confession, and so I did right there in the corner of one of the terminals. But then there's this other part of me... That, as soon as I get on the airplane, I just want to put my headphones on and go to sleep. And sometimes, secretly I hope that the person next to me doesn't have a million questions about the Catholic Church...

Hospitality can be so hard at times. But that's what the readings today teach us. That Hospitality is a necessary virtue. And as we saw in the first reading with Abraham, it is one of the most ancient virtues in the Church. Hospitality is an openness to receive the stranger. I would say that most of the problems in our society, in our culture, even in the church, often has some form of lack of hospitality. What hospitality teaches us, is to see each person we meet as made in the image of God, and to receive them as such.

Abraham is waiting for someone to serve, waiting as it says, "while the day was growing hot..." Imagine siting outside in Houston and waiting for any stranger to welcome into your home. That's what Abraham was doing. And the moment when he sees the three men walking by, he runs out and begins to serve them with all that he has. And as it turns out, the three men are angels of the Lord. And Abraham finds himself serving not strangers but the Lord himself.

That's why we hear in the Letter to the Hebrews: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2).

Ever since Abraham entertained the Lord, for the Jews and thus for us, Hospitality has been one of the most fundamental virtues of our faith. 

It is no wonder that, in the Gospel today, Martha is running about trying to prepare things when Jesus decides to pop into her home with all his followers. It was her home, and she was not entertaining just anyone but the Son of God himself! 

I think sometimes Martha gets a bad rap because it's seen as if the work she is sincerely trying to do for God get dismissed. And somehow she's told that she should just sit around and do nothing like Mary was doing. But that's not what Jesus means. 

Actually for true Hospitality, to receive a guest well, we need both Mary and Martha.

So what is Jesus' correction of Martha then?

Jesus says to her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things..." It is not the work that she is doing, nor the activity, but it is her lack of focus that Jesus corrects. It is the fact that Martha is worried about the many, and loses focus of the one main thing: the thing that Mary was so focused on. She is worried about all the things she has to do, that she forgets who she is doing it for.

There's a subtle and important distinction here. The works that we do for God, as good and important as they are... is not God. What we DO for God, should not make us forget who God is for us and who we ARE to God.  Our activity should not get in the way of our relationship. It easy to get all caught up in what we "have to do" that we miss the person we are doing it for.  

I think there is an epidemic in our culture today. There's an epidemic of busyness.

Sometimes I catch myself effected by this epidemic as well. People ask, "How are things Father?" "It's good.... but busy." It's almost like I can't help it. Or it's almost like there's something wrong if I wasn't busy. I mean, wouldn’t it sound weird to us if I responded, “It’s good… but I’m not that busy.” It almost feels like perhaps I’m doing something wrong or I’m just being lazy.

Or one of the things that really bothers me... people often come to me and say, "Father, I know you're really busy.... but can you: (come to this meeting | join us for dinner | hear my confession)." I find myself cringing inside when people begin with that. For me, it's like your children, every time they want or ask for something, "Mom, I know you're really busy but can we talk..." "Dad, I know you're really busy, but can you come to my game?" "Mom, I know you're really busy but can you have lunch with me?" It's as if our busyness and our activity has become the priority, that what we are doing has become more important and our relationships have become secondary.

I think this is Jesus' critique of Martha. Her serving has her anxious about "many" things that she has forgotten the one thing necessary: her relationship with Jesus. 

This is exactly what the devil wants for us. He wants us so busy and full of activity that we forget about our relationship with Jesus and others. The devil wants our attention distracted, he wants our hearts and mind divided. That way we can get so busy with trying to keep up with everything that we forget why we are doing what we are doing. 

In Greek, the word DIABOLOS, means to take apart, to divide, to separate. The enemy, Satan, wants division. Division among one another, division in our hearts. Our busyness, our activity, can make us worried about so many things, that we forget to be in relationship with the people that matter. Relationship with God, and relationship with our loved ones. Our work, the things we need to get done, as good as they are, can distract us from the only thing that really matters, from God... 

Do you know what the number one excuse that people have when I ask them why they don't pray? I don't have time. I'm too busy. I mean, priests can have this problem too! We can be caught up in activity FOR God all day long, that we "don't have time" to spend time in prayer WITH God. 

There's a funny story by CS Lewis in his book the Screwtape Letters. If you've never read the Screwtape Letters, it is a fictional work where Lewis tries to show how temptation works. So it's letters from a senior demon mentoring a novice demon how to tempt people from "the enemy" which for them is God. And so one of the letters, they are trying to tempt a young man in the library who is reading Theology about God and beginning to believe what he reads... and the novice demon is trying to convince the young man that what he's reading isn't true and it's all lies... And so the senior demon advises him that there's a better way... don't try to convince him that it's lies... just tell him, "It's time for lunch!"

Perhaps you had this experience, you're ready to sit down and pray and all of a sudden you realize it's time for breakfast, or perhaps your phone buzzes and you think, “maybe that’s important.” Or “let me see what's the weather today first...” And you never really get back to praying. The enemy loves to distract us from God. He loves to distract us from our relationships.

The challenge today, is to focus back on the one thing necessary. Our relationships. Our relationship with God, our relationship with others. What we have to do, as important as that is, is not as important or necessary as the person right next to us, as the person right in front of us. It is more important to be in relationship with God, to be in relationship with our children that it is to do things for God and for our children. When we forget that, then we begin having problems. Spend time with God today, sit at his feet and listen to him. That is the most important thing you can do this week. Then go out and serve.