Presider: Fr. Michael Wolfe Parish: St. John Paul II
Choir: Our Lady of Lourdes
The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you o Lord
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
The reading that we have for this Sunday's gospel comes right after we had last week, that is the parable of the good Samaritan. And if you remember, that's in the context of a lawyer asking Jesus, testing Jesus as to what he needs to do for everlasting life. That sets us the backdrop for this story that we know well, too, of Martha and Mary. Now, if we're in a situation in life where we're not really able to "do" as much as we'd like to, we might start to feel a little disconnected from this story. But the problem that we have is not that one of the sisters is doing too much outer activity. Rather, its outer activity that's not rooted. It's overcome with worry and anxiety without having any grounded sense of self. And that of course is an important part of our spiritual tradition and many other spiritual directions as well and yet that tells us then that its central to what it is, to who we are, as those made in the image and likeness of God and our relationship with him. It's not a matter of not doing things it's not even a matter of not worrying. We have plenty of it! But it's making sure that we do so, well rooted in Christ. You can think of even those weird things that are outside of a lot of the car parking lots or rather the sales lots with the wind that they start doing this in the wind! If you notice I get a little annoyed because they're going like this and yet they always have a smile on their face and they never fly off. Because we're rooted. That might seem like a silly example but ultimately that's what we're called to live out, my brothers and sisters. To make sure that through the sacraments and through our prayers, we stay rooted. And that way, even as the winds and storms of this life may come we're able to face them with a smile on our face. Not a superficial smile ignoring the difficulties, but knowing that we are strong. Because we are in Christ as we hear in the second reading today. We're not called, my brothers and sisters, to not care. Of course not! We're not called to not be active. Rather I'd say that the Christian faith is an active one. We're not called to shut off, either, from the difficulties and realities of this life. But we're called to find peace and strength being rooted in the good thing that is God and is love and his promises for us.
Entrance: All are Welcome/All Belong
Text and music © 2016 Jesse Manibusan and Jennah Manibusan
Published by Spirit & Song, a division of OCP. All rights reserved
Mass Setting: Mass of Renewal
Text: © 2010 ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Music: Mass of Renewal; Curtis Stephan, b. 1973; choral arr. by Curtis Stephan and Rick Modlin, b. 1966, © 2009 Curtis Stephan. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.
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