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Course 20 · Lesson 6.1

Mary and Martha: how the church has read the two lives

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 20 outline

Module 1: Spiritual Formation and the Doctrines Behind Prayer

  1. What spiritual formation means in Scripture and tradition
  2. How the Trinity, the Incarnation and grace shape Christian prayer
  3. A map of the prayer traditions: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant
  4. Ways and stages of growth: purgation, illumination and union, and their critics

Module 2: The Desert and Early Monasticism

  1. Anthony, Athanasius and the beginning of the desert movement
  2. The sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers: how to read them
  3. John Cassian and the eight thoughts that trouble the mind
  4. From the hermit to the community: Pachomius, Basil and Benedict

Module 3: Praying with Scripture and with the Church

  1. Lectio divina: its history and the four movements
  2. The Psalms as the prayer of the church
  3. The Divine Office and the Liturgy of the Hours: hours, texts and structure
  4. Using the daily office alone, and the Protestant daily prayer tradition

Module 4: Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer

  1. Stillness and the prayer of the heart in the early Eastern church
  2. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its sources and its history
  3. Gregory Palamas and the fourteenth century controversy over light and energies
  4. Practice and cautions: the role of a guide and the warnings of the tradition

Module 5: Fasting, Discernment and Spiritual Direction

  1. Fasting in Scripture and in the three traditions
  2. Asceticism: its purpose, its dangers and its abuses
  3. The discernment of spirits from Antony and Cassian to Ignatius of Loyola
  4. Spiritual direction: the elder, the confessor, the pastor and the mentor

Module 6: Contemplation and Action

  1. Mary and Martha: how the church has read the two lives
  2. Prayer that issues in service: Benedict, Brother Lawrence and the Reformers on vocation
  3. When practice goes wrong: pride, quietism and spiritual experience without doctrine

Module 7: Building a Rule of Life

  1. What a rule of life is, and what the word rule meant for Benedict
  2. Choosing practices: Scripture, prayer, fasting, rest and service
  3. Dryness, failure and starting again
  4. Reviewing and adjusting a rule over time

All courses

Program / Course 20: Spiritual Theology / Lesson 6.1

What you will learn

  • Read Luke 10:38-42 closely and state what the text itself says and does not say.
  • Describe how Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great and Aquinas used the story to speak of the contemplative and active lives.
  • Explain how Reformation writers read the story in light of vocation and anxiety.
  • Evaluate whether the traditional reading ranks the two lives or joins them.

The big idea

In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus visits the home of two sisters. Martha is busy with serving. Mary sits at his feet and listens. When Martha complains, Jesus says that she is anxious about many things and that Mary has chosen the good part. The church has read this as a picture of two ways of life, the contemplative and the active. Most major teachers did not set one against the other. Augustine said that Martha’s life would pass into Mary’s, Aquinas argued that the contemplative life is greater but that action can be better in some cases, and the Reformers stressed that ordinary work is a calling.

Key terms

Contemplative life
In the tradition, a way of life given chiefly to prayer, study of Scripture and attention to God.
Active life
A way of life given chiefly to works of service and mercy toward others, such as teaching, caring for the sick and hospitality.
Mixed life
A term used by medieval writers for a life that joins contemplation and action, with the overflow of prayer going into service.
Allegory
A way of reading in which people or events in a text stand for something else, such as a way of life.
Hospitality
The welcome of strangers and guests, which Scripture commands (Hebrews 13:2) and which Benedict’s Rule treats as serving Christ.
Anxiety (merimna)
The Greek word used for the care or worry that Jesus names in Martha. It also appears in Matthew 6:25 in the teaching against worry.

Background

The story occurs only in Luke (10:38-42), right after the parable of the Good Samaritan, which stresses active mercy. The reader meets the same sisters in John, where Mary and Martha live in Bethany with their brother Lazarus (John 11 and 12). In John, Martha is the one who confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and Mary is the one who anoints his feet. The two portraits are not identical, and the Gospels treat both sisters with respect.

In Luke, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, which is the posture of a disciple. Paul says he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). For a woman to take the place of a student was unusual in many settings of the time, and many scholars read the story as showing that Jesus welcomes women as learners. Jesus does not say that Martha’s service is wrong. He says that she is worried and troubled about many things, and that one thing is needful. Ancient manuscripts differ on the exact wording at this point, with some reading few things are needful, or one. The meaning is that one thing matters most.

This lesson looks at how Christians have read the story, since the readings reveal how each tradition understood prayer and work. The next lesson looks at how prayer issues in service.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: What the text says

Martha receives Jesus into her house and is distracted with much serving. She asks Jesus to tell her sister to help. Jesus answers: Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her (Luke 10:41-42).

Three things stand out. The rebuke is of Martha’s anxiety and distraction, not of her service. Mary’s choice is called good, and it is not removed. And the text does not state that one is a model for monks and the other for laypeople. That is a reading developed by later teachers.

Step 2: Origen and Augustine

Origen, in the third century, read the story as showing the priority of hearing the word. Cassian carried this reading into the monastic tradition and, in his first Conference, has Abba Moses say that Mary’s part is contemplation of God, which is better than the works of service, though both are good.

Augustine, in a sermon on this text, took a different emphasis. He said that Martha’s work is the work of this life, receiving strangers, feeding the hungry, and that it will end, since in heaven there will be no hunger. Mary’s part is the contemplation that will last. He also said that Martha was not blamed for her good work but for being troubled, and he looked ahead to a time when Martha’s labor would be turned into the rest that Mary already enjoys.

Step 3: Gregory the Great and Aquinas

Gregory the Great, a monk who became pope in 590 and who had to give up quiet for the burden of governing, wrote often of the two lives. He held that the contemplative life is higher, but that a person who has grown through contemplation should go out to serve, as one who has received light gives it to others.

Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, argued in the Summa that the contemplative life is better in itself, because its object, God, is higher. But he held that the active life can be preferable in a particular case when love of neighbor requires it, and he praised teaching and preaching as passing on to others what one has contemplated. His formula is often quoted: to give to others the fruits of contemplation.

Step 4: The Reformers and vocation

The Reformers rejected the ranking of the contemplative life above ordinary work. Luther taught that all honest callings are holy, and that a servant at her work or a father at his can please God as much as a monk at prayer. Calvin, in his commentary on the passage, said that Christ rebuked not Martha’s work but her concern, and that the lesson is that the word should be put first. They kept the story’s point about listening to Christ, while denying that it justified a higher religious class.

Later Protestants have used the story in this spirit: sit at Jesus’ feet first, then serve with a calmer heart.

Step 5: Joining the two

Most of these readings agree on a few points. Both sisters were loved. Listening to Christ comes first. Service is good and necessary. The danger is service driven by anxiety, and a contemplation that ignores the neighbor. In Benedict’s Rule, hospitality treats every guest as Christ (chapter 53), joining Martha’s work to Mary’s attention. In the Catholic calendar, Martha, Mary and Lazarus now share a feast on July 29, a decision made by Pope Francis in 2021.

  1. Which sister do I tend to resemble, and what does the story say to me?
  2. What does it mean that Jesus rebukes anxiety and not service?
  3. How do I decide when to stop working and listen?
  4. Does the traditional ranking of Mary above Martha seem fair to the text?
  5. What would it mean for my service to flow out of listening?
  6. Where does hospitality in my life fit?

Examples

Hospitality as prayer

Benedict tells that guests are to be received as Christ, with the abbot and community washing their feet. The monastery’s kitchen and guest house were part of its prayer. Martha’s task becomes an act of worship when it is done in this way.

The anxious host

A woman preparing a dinner for a church gathering is so absorbed in the meal that she snaps at her family and misses the conversation. A friend tells her that guests would prefer simple food and a welcoming host. She recognizes Martha’s problem as anxiety and not work. (A constructed example.)

Prayer that needs action

A man who has spent his lunch hour in prayer learns that a coworker is in crisis. Aquinas would say that charity may require him to leave the quiet and help, because the fruit of contemplation is love of neighbor. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic tradition, following Gregory and Aquinas, holds that the contemplative life has a certain excellence, and that religious life is a gift, while teaching that all Christians are called to holiness and that action and contemplation are joined. The Church sees the Gospel account as supporting both lives.

Orthodox

Orthodox writers commonly read the two sisters as two aspects of every Christian life, and treat monastic and lay life as complementary. The Fathers emphasize that attention to Christ must accompany all service, and that hospitality is a form of worship.

Protestant

Protestant writers insist that all callings are holy and that the story gives no basis for ranking religious life above ordinary work. They emphasize that listening to the word is the foundation of all service, and that Martha’s fault was worry and not work.

Scholarly view

Biblical scholars read the story in its Lucan context, noting its positive portrait of a woman as disciple and its contrast with the preceding parable on active neighbor-love. They debate the original wording of verse 42 and how far the allegorical reading is justified by the text. Many hold that the tradition’s use of the story is a legitimate development, though not the author’s own aim.

Why it matters

The question of how prayer and work belong together is a daily one for nearly every believer. Seeing how the tradition has read this story gives a student a set of tested answers and warns against both a prayer that ignores people and a service that has no root in listening.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Jesus condemns Martha’s service.

Correction: He addresses her anxiety and distraction, not her service. Hospitality is commanded elsewhere in Scripture, and the Fathers praised Martha.

Misunderstanding: The story ranks monks above lay people.

Correction: Some medieval readings did rank the contemplative life higher, but the Reformers rejected the ranking, and Catholic and Orthodox teaching today holds that all are called to holiness.

Misunderstanding: Mary is passive and Martha active, so Mary does nothing.

Correction: In Luke, Mary is described as a disciple, a role of active learning. In John she anoints Jesus’ feet. The contrast is of priorities.

Misunderstanding: Contemplation is a way to escape from work.

Correction: Gregory, Aquinas and Benedict all taught that contemplation should lead to service. A prayer that avoids the neighbor is not what they describe.

Knowledge check

What does Jesus rebuke in Martha?

He rebukes her being careful and troubled about many things, that is, her anxiety and distraction, not her service. He says one thing is needful and that Mary has chosen the good part. The point is the priority of attention to him, from which service is meant to flow.

How did Augustine read the story?

He said that Martha’s work is the work of this life, serving the needy, which will end, and that Mary’s part, contemplation of God, will remain. He also said Martha was not blamed for good work but for being troubled, and that in the end both sisters would be at rest.

What did Aquinas teach about the two lives?

He taught that the contemplative life is better in itself because its object is God, but that the active life can be preferable when love of neighbor requires it. He praised teaching and preaching as passing on the fruits of contemplation to others.

How did the Reformers differ?

They rejected ranking monastic contemplation above ordinary work and taught that all honest callings are holy. Calvin said Christ rebuked Martha’s concern, not her work, and that the lesson was to put listening to the word first. They kept the story’s priority of hearing Christ.

Think it through

  1. How could you tell whether your busyness comes from love or from anxiety?
  2. What would you lose if the church had only one of the two sisters?
  3. Where does your service need more listening, or your listening more service?

Independent assignment

Two sisters, one week

In your notebook, write 350 to 500 words. Read Luke 10:38-42 and John 11:17-27. Summarize what each sister does and says. Then describe your own typical week in terms of Mary and Martha, noting one place where anxiety drives your work and one place where you could join prayer to service. Do not share this with anyone.

Further study