A healthy concern for the liturgy

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Poor Martha! She’s always compared to Mary who seems to have done nothing to attend to the needs of dinner, and we laud Mary’s choice as though feeding one’s guest while the food was hot were not important. But without people like Martha, what would become of good dinner parties, much less Sunday liturgy? Somebody has to look after the details, after all! Remember, although Mary sat at Jesus’s feet, it was Martha, not Mary, who believed and had faith in Jesus when Lazarus, died.

Martha’s misstep was not her attention to the tasks of dinner but her worry and anxiety. Caring for one’s guest is a good thing, as we see in the first reading. In a similar way, caring for all the details of the liturgy and preparing it well are necessary for the good of the community. That concern is surely a form of holy contemplation. But doing so in a way where one worries and becomes uneasy or begins to complain is not. At that point our attention has moved from Christ to us.

We who care for the liturgical needs of the assembly have a sacred and necessary work. Let us pray that in that work we may be kept free from distress that we may keep our attention always on Christ.