What does it mean to live from the center? Luciano Audisio invites us, in the light of the Gospel of Martha and Mary, to rediscover the value of listening, communion and silence in the face of the agitated activism that so often fragments us.
The road as a spiritual symbol
This Sunday’s Gospel invites us to pause and reflect on something fundamental: the way in which we welcome the Lord into our lives. Through the well-known episode of Martha and Mary, St. Luke offers us an apparently domestic scene, simple, but charged with spiritual depth.
Jesus is on the way. And Luke, with that expression so much his own-“while they were on their way”(ἐν τῷ πορεύεσθαι)-reminds us that his entire narrative is structured as a journey toward Jerusalem, symbol of the consummation of his mission and, also, of the spiritual journey of each one of us.
Martha and Mary: two ways of welcoming
On that road, Jesus enters a village, which we can well interpret as the symbolic space of the human heart. There he is received by two women: Martha and Mary.
These two figures do not represent an opposition between “doing everything” or “doing nothing”. Nor is it simply an opposition between the active life and the contemplative life. Rather, the Gospel invites us to ask ourselves how we live what we do, what our interior attitude is, and above all, if in the midst of our tasks we know how to listen to the Lord.
Marta: activism fatigue
Martha made a generous choice: she received Jesus into her home, into her life. And yet, the text gives us a glimpse of a restlessness that inhabits her: “Martha was busy with many tasks”.
The Greek term περισπάω(perispáō) means “to be dragged,” “distracted,” “pulled” in various directions. Marta spins without a center, exhausted in an activism that empties her. Her problem is not the work itself, but doing it from disconnection and loneliness.
Her complaint is telling: “Don’t you care that my sister has left me alone?”. That inner loneliness pushes her to do more, believing that doing will fill her emptiness. But the more she does, the lonelier she feels.
Jesus: a call to interiority
Jesus, with tenderness, does not despise her effort, but shows her the way: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and agitated about many things, but only one thing is necessary”.
That one thing is to be with Him. To listen to Him. To return to the center.
Mary: fruitful listening
Mary understood: “sitting at Jesus’ feet, she listened to his word”. Jesus affirms that she has chosen “the better part”. But this does not mean passivity. Mary is not a symbol of inactivity, but of a life centered on relationship, on listening, on interiority. Only from there, our actions cease to be agitated and become fruitful.
Marta asks for help: desire for communion
Martha’s plea is also touching: “Tell him, then, to help me”. The Greek verb συναντιλάβηται(synantilábētai) expresses more than practical help: she wants collaboration, communion, bonding. It does not seek only support; it wishes to share the burden.
Here is the heart of the Gospel: Jesus does not want only our tasks. He wants to give us his presence. He longs for our actions to spring from our relationship with him.
Listening and action: keys to spiritual life
When our works are born of this communion, we cease to be slaves of urgencies and we recover our inner unity. This text also has liturgical resonance: listening and service correspond to the Liturgy of the Word and the breaking of the Bread. Only those who truly listen can break the Bread with meaning.
A faith from the heart, not from haste
Martha and Mary teach us that it is not enough to do a lot: it is necessary to do it with meaning. Jesus does not ask for productivity, but presence. He does not want us to serve him from afar, but to welcome him from near.
It is time to ask ourselves:
From where do we do what we do?
Do we listen to the Lord in our daily rhythm?
Or do we live in a hectic way, without time or interiority?
A final sentence
Let us ask for the grace to unite listening and action in our lives. Like Mary and Martha. But always from a heart centered on Jesus. May He be our center, our “only necessary thing”.