July 20th, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
In our first reading from Genesis, Abraham sees three men near the terebinth of Mamre. The first thing I had to do is look up what terebinth of Mamre is; come to find out it’s a large tree located in a town a bit southwest of the city of Hebron. It’s also been called the oak of Mamre. This tree would have been home to a nice spot that would have kept Abraham’s tent cool in its shade.
Here we see Abraham, who runs to greet these three men, pays his respects first and then waits on them, bringing them water to wash their feet, having them rest in the shade while his wife Sarah makes them rolls, a servant slaughters and prepares a steer, gets some curds and milk and sets it all out for them to eat, all the time “hastening” to get this all done for them.
At first, Abraham had no idea that he was about to wait on two angels and the Lord. We know that it was two angels with the Lord because later in Genesis 19 when they are talking with Lot and are identified as angels. This is also probably the story St. Paul referenced in his letter to the Hebrews when he stated:
Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
Abraham and Sarah are rewarded for their hospitality with the prophecy when one of the three men says: “I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.” He is referring to their son Isaac who they conceive, even in their old age. Christian tradition believes that the Lord and two angels in this story as an image of the Trinity.
Now we move into the Gospel and hear about Martha and Mary. Mary sits at the Lord's feet and listens to him while Martha, burdened with much serving is told to relax a bit, that Mary has chosen the better part by just listening to Jesus.
So these readings, at least to me when I prayed about them, conflicted in my head. Sarah and Abraham are rewarded for their hurried preparation for their guests while Martha is told to relax, leave Mary alone and just enjoy the moment when Jesus comes to visit.
Then, while praying about these readings in Adoration, this popped into my head - a Busch beer commercial. Seriously! Let me explain. There is a commercial where two men dressed in camouflage are sitting in the reeds near a pond with a dog, duck hunting. A man named John is on his cellphone, perhaps talking to a credit card company’s voice system saying “main menu”, and when the automated reply comes back saying “I’m sorry I didn’t get that” John frustratedly repeats “main menu” or “representative” over and over. Finally, the camera pans to John’s hunting buddy who says “Just give me the phone” and we segue back to the Busch beer guy standing in a cool stream who states the tagline: “Time and a place”.
That’s when the Holy Spirit gave me today’s theme - time and a place. The Holy Spirit works in very strange ways indeed.
Now imagine if the person sitting next to you in church last weekend got a phone call and started to talk to the person on the other end? I’ve actually seen it happen in a crowded church during mass. That’s somebody who doesn’t fully understand what’s going on at Mass. We need to be there not just in body but in mind and spirit as well, we are all here to participate, even if you are not on the altar, you still have a job at Mass. Fr. Dwight Longenecker has a great article on how we should all participate at Mass. First, we must realize that the Mass is an offering and everyone here in Church is currently making this offering. We are supposed to offer our life, our soul, our joys and sorrows here at Mass. We should also offer our attention. Fr. Dwight further states:
“This is not passive. As Sacrosanctum Concilium says, it is ‘full and active’ This is what worship is.”.
We accomplish this, not on our own but through the power of the Holy Spirit. Next time when you arrive in your seat at Church, or even right now, beg the Holy Spirit to help you focus on the Mass, all of it, even the boring homily! Put the phone and the bulletin down. “Time and a place”.
I’m often reminded of this in Adoration. I try to do a few hours a week and sometimes it’s hard to focus on the fact that I am basking in the presence of Jesus Christ’s true divinity in the Eucharist, right there, right in front of me. There have been times, I must confess that I have been more worried about work, or family obligations or even my phone vibrating to tell me somebody liked my post. There are even times where I bowed my head to focus my prayer - and woken up 15 minutes later. I’m reminded of Jesus talking to Peter
“When Jesus returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?”“Time and a place”.
Those examples and others are when we should be Mary and not Martha. We should be listening to Jesus with Him as our only focus as Mary did when he came to their house. St. Gregory the Great paraphrased this well when he said:
The merits of the active life are great, but of the contemplative, far better.
Of course, the converse also exists where we need to be like Martha as well. For example, if we are having a party at our house and we have guests arriving that day it wouldn’t be prudent to sit on the back deck with a glass of lemonade reading scripture while the sink is full of dishes, the house is a mess and the food for the party is still at Stop and Shop. In those moments we need to be Martha, working to prepare for the soon to arrive guests. “Time and a place”.
How about if we are at work and we are spending hours reading scripture or praying and not actually doing our job? Then we are leaning towards stealing time and pay from our company when instead we should be working, this becomes a moment of sin in this case. “Time and a place”.
At confession one time, I told the priest that I wasn’t being attentive enough to prayer and reading scripture. He knew I had children and also knew I was very involved with them teaching religious ed, coaching baseball and soccer and being a scout leader. He told me THAT is one of my prayers! As a father, if I were to be unattentive to my family that would be a sin as well. He quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing”. That is how you do it, you make the mundane tasks at work or that long and boring homework assignment an offering to God. We should also make the joyous times with family an offering to God. When we can realize this attitude, balance scripture, prayer, work and family with the help of the Holy Spirit, then we can find that it won’t matter where we are or what we are doing but by making God present in all of our moments both great and small we will indeed understand correctly - “Time and a place”.
If we do this we will fall in line with what St. Augustine meant when he said:
“It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.”
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