In Chapter 17 Anonymous announces that he will tell us "How true contemplatives forget the active life, ignoring negative things done to or spoken about them and making no attempt to justify themselves to their critics" (46-47).
As he did in Chapter 16, Anonymous introduces us to a story about
people who knew and loved Jesus. This time Anonymous asks us to remember
what happened when Mary and Martha entertained Jesus and his collection of
friends as their house guests. Here’s the story as Luke tells it in
Chapter 10 of his Good News:
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
From Anonymous’ point
of view, the story tells us that there are two ways of doing things, two ways
of living, two ways of setting priorities. Quite plainly there is the
“active” way of spending one’s days. Anonymous does not disparage this
way of being a Christian. There is nothing wrong about being active, full
of energy, busy, and concerned about others. A life involved in
engagements, appointed tasks, family responsibilities, political
involvements, and business concerns pleases God. Such a life is all good
and fine. But, says Anonymous, it’s best to see “helpful, holy service
[as] the first stage of the active life. After all, as Anonymous pointed
out in Chapter 8, the contemplative life cannot exist without the active
life. The active life is a platform, a good flooring, a solid base for
contemplative living. As he has already emphasized, the higher
stage of the active life is also in fact the lower stage of the contemplative
life. That “lower stage of the contemplative life” is the active
life. So we only make a distinction between the two kinds of living; we
do not separate them. When Martha is in the kitchen baking bread,
roasting a leg of lamb, cutting up figs and grapes, opening up an amphora of
wine, and setting out the tableware, she’s doing just fine. She’s a busy
woman!
A problem arises, however, when that’s basically all she
does. Living exclusively an “active” life, she has an understandable
tendency to look askance as what her sister Mary is doing. When
Martha sticks her head out of the kitchen, she sees Mary, as Anonymous tells
us, at the feet of Jesus, “[paying] no attention to the beauty of the Lord’s
sacred body or his pleasing human voice and conversation. Instead, she focuses
herself on “the highest wisdom of his divinity concealed in the enigmatic
teaching of his humanity.” Mary
is “[paying] complete attention” to Jesus “with every ounce of love in her
heart” (46). “Her delightful, intimate love [is pressing itself] against
that high cloud of unknowing between her and God.” In other words, Mary
isn’t interested in how Jesus looks, the color of his clothing, the cut of his
hair, or the muscles in his arms. She’s interested in the Presence of God
within him. We can perhaps therefore imagine Mary not only listening to
Jesus, but being one with him as he pauses in silence, setting her free of
thoughts. It’s Mary’s heart that is doing the work of contemplation; she
wants the “Who-ness” of who Jesus is.
In summary, there are two ways of living: actively and contemplatively. They are not opposites, nor do they exclude one another. When
lived out well, they complement each other.
In what way(s) does this interpretation of Luke’s story
re-inforce what Anonymous notices in the story of Mary Magdalene anointing Jesus’ feet with oil? What do the two Marys have in common?
Take a look at the end of paragraph two and the whole of paragraph
three. Is there anything you find notable in the way Anonymous draws us
to a conclusion about his observations? If so, what?
No comments:
Post a Comment