Martha and Mary

This, then, should be our main effort, and this steadfast purpose of heart we should constantly reach for: that the soul may always cling to God and to heavenly things. Whatever is foreign to this, however great it may be, should be given second place, or even treated as of no account, or perhaps as harmful. [a]

We have an excellent illustration of this frame of mind and condition in the gospel, in the case of Martha and Mary. Martha was doing a service that was certainly a sacred one, since she was waiting on the Lord and his disciples. Mary, intent only on spiritual teaching, was clinging close to the feet of Jesus, which she kissed and anointed with the ointment of a good confession. And it is Mary whom the Lord shows to have chosen the better part, one that will not be taken from her. For Martha was toiling with devout care and was weighed down with her serving, and seeing that she could not manage such a service by herself alone, she asks the Lord for her sister’s help, saying: “Do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her, then, to help me.” It was certainly to no unworthy work, but to a praiseworthy service, that she summoned her. And yet what does she hear from the Lord? “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; but few things are needed, or only one. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

You see, then, that the Lord makes the chief good consist in meditation, that is, in divine contemplation. From this we see that all the other virtues should be put in second place, even though we grant that they are necessary and useful and excellent, because they are all performed for the sake of this one thing. For when the Lord says, “You are worried and troubled about many things, but few things are needed, or only one,” he places the chief good not in practical work, however praiseworthy and rich in fruit it may be, but in the contemplation of himself, which indeed is simple and “but one.” He declares that “few things” are needed for perfect blessedness, meaning that contemplation which is first gained by reflecting on a few saints. From the contemplation of them, the one who has made some progress rises, with God’s help, to what is called “one thing,” that is, the beholding of God alone, so as to go beyond those deeds and services of the saints, and feed on the beauty and knowledge of God alone.

“Mary,” therefore, “chose the good part, which will not be taken away from her.” And this must be considered more carefully. When he says that Mary chose the good part, though he says nothing of Martha and certainly does not appear to blame her, yet in praising the one he implies that the other is lower. Again, when he says, “which will not be taken away from her,” he shows that the other’s portion can be taken from her, for a bodily service cannot last forever with a man; but he teaches that this one’s desire can never come to an end.