A Recipe For Joy

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

This famous story of Mary and Martha suggest that a life of prayerful contemplation is better than a life of service. This has resulted in a divide between “secular work” and “sacred work”, with the latter generally considered superior, usually by those engaged in it, but this is simply not true. The point of this story of Mary and Martha, and what Jesus says to Martha, is that service follows relationship. And when it does, not only does it become meaningful, it also becomes less worrisome.

When Martha complains to Jesus, he says to her: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” Listen to what Jesus is actually saying here. “You’re worried about so many things, Martha. Why do you worry so much when I am around? I understand you feel the need to serve me. After all, I am a guest in your house. But the serving has to be joyful, otherwise what’s the point?” Service has to be joyful, otherwise why serve?

Now contrast Martha with a guy named Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence was a monk who lived in the 17th century. He was part of a community known as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites. His primary job was working in the kitchen. Cooking is fun when you do it as a hobby, but can be very tedious otherwise. Especially when you’re cooking for a hundred people, like Lawrence was. However, unlike Martha who bickered and grumbled and complained, Lawrence was always joyful. Do you know why? Because he lived perpetually in the presence of Jesus! In everything he thought, in everything he said, in everything he did, he had Jesus right by his side.

Now, the ironical thing is that Martha had Jesus by her side — literally. He was physically in her house! So what was she doing wrong? You wanna know? She left him in the other room. Consider this. If Martha had stopped her cooking for a moment, gone out and told Jesus to come and be with her in the kitchen, not only would she have enjoyed the pleasure of his company, her sister would have pitched in to help as well, and she would have been happy. Common sense, right? Yet, like they say, there is nothing common about common sense. 

We are guilty of making the same mistake. We all have to work for a living. It would be so nice not to, but if want to put bread on the table, we have to. For most of us it is drudgery as we do things we don’t really enjoy doing. But we can find so much joy in our work if we keep Jesus with us at ALL times. A few years ago I conducted an online retreat based on the life of Brother Lawrence (see https://youtu.be/K_AvdAAKwNI ). Over 15,000 people did the retreat. I suggest you do it too, if you haven’t already. You can do it at your own pace and it will teach you how to keep Jesus with you at all times. 

And that, brothers and sisters, is a recipe for permanent joy!

Watch a video of this reflection by Aneel Aranha here: https://youtu.be/gR0ubWMgMkk