PRAYER AND WORK MUST GO TOGETHER
Introduction
Paul asserts that he has the right to speak in the name of Christ because Jesus Christ himself has given him the good news to speak it.
A hospitable family or person makes guests feel at home and gives them the best available. But if we are truly hospitable we are also listening to the guest and to receive from him or her perhaps more than we give and in a deeper way. We receive the guest as a person. God presents himself in the Bible as a traveler on a journey. He asks for hospitality as a stranger or a poor person. Christ also says that in the homeless we welcome him. As pray, let us work.
Opening Prayer
Our loving God and Father,
you have invited us to stay with you,
to listen to the message of Jesus your Son
and to accept from him your peace and love.
May we welcome him wholeheartedly
and learn from him to welcome him too
in people who appeal to us
for forgiveness and a bit of warmth,
for patience and hope and joy.
Let them not pass your servants by.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen!
1 Reading: Galatians 1:13-24
Brothers and sisters: You heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions. But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas and remained with him for fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the Apostles, only James the brother of the Lord. (As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only kept hearing that “the one who once was persecuting us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” So they glorified God because of me.
Responsorial Psalm PS 139:1B-3, 13-14AB, 14C-15
R. (24b) Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar. R.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works. R.
My soul also you knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to you
When I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth. R.
Alleluia Luke 11:28
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are those who hear the word of God
and observe it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Luke 10:38-42
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.”
Commentary
In the detailed description of his calling, Paul insists that his is not merely a human vocation. For years he had been an enemy of the church, which he persecuted relentlessly. He was schooled in Judaism much beyond his peers. All of this up until the time when the God who had called from before his birth revealed his Son to Paul and directed him to proclaim him among the Gentiles. Without any human consultation, Paul began his work. Only after three years had passed did he go to Jerusalem to confer with Peter and James. He continued his Gentile mission and was known in Judea only by name as the one who now preaches the faith he tried to destroy.
In the Gospel today we are faced with contemplation (Mary) and action (Martha). The former has greater importance, but both are necessary. Paul is a happy combination of the two. His intense life of prayer linked him with the Lord and the various churches where his evangelizing efforts had been felt. He wanted only to know and experience Christ in the power of the resurrection and to join in Christ’s sufferings. His active life carried him through much of Asia Minor, where he preached and worked for his own livelihood.
In our times, there is far more Martha in our lives than there is Mary.
Paul reminds us that without Christ crucified at the heart of our ministry our life lacks focus. Prayer is important for all of us. We are often reminded that why we daily get engrossed with the work of the Lord, we must never forget the Lord of the work. So it is no matter whether Mary or Martha is correct. Both are. Work without prayer and prayer without good work are equally doomed – either has no place in heaven. Several times, during my travels in public transports, I have been reminded that I have to pray after seeing another passenger with the Rosary beads. Even when you don’t have the beads, do not waste the entire stretch of the journey in emptiness. Count the beads with your fingers. After all, that’s the first and most natural beads the Lord gave us.
Intercessions
– That we may recognize the Lord in the features of a stranger and welcome him as we would welcome the Lord himself, we pray:
– That we may welcome the best our brothers and sisters give us, even before we share the best of ourselves with them, we pray:
– That we may be and remain hospitable people, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Father,
may we welcome Jesus your Son
in these offerings of bread and wine,
Open us to his word and his mentality.
Prepare us to welcome him in people
and to encounter him in their person,
even when he comes at another time
and in another way than we expect him.
Enrich us by giving to, and receiving from, one another
your greatest gift to us,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
you have come among us in your Son
to be our guest.
In our everyday life
may we always be open to anyone in need.
Help us to recognize you and welcome you
in everyone who comes to us.
In every human encounter
offer us your grace and love
through Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives with you and stays with us
now and for ever. Amen!
Blessing
In this Eucharist we have been the Lord’s own guests. He has been very hospitable to us, listening to us and speaking to us his warm words of friendship. He sends us out now to be one another’s guests and hosts. Welcome now the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!