16th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Year C – July 18, 2010
In 1946 a scientist was testing a new type of vacuum tube called a “magnetron”. While this scientist was working in his lab, he noticed that when he came into contact with the “magnetron”, the candy bar in his pocket began to melt. This messy accident triggered questions in the scientists mind. He decided to perform an experiment on dried corn kernels with “magnetron”. When the corn kernels came into contact with the “magnetron” they began to move and change shape from yellow, dense, stone-like balls to white, fluffy clumps of air. The “magnetron” turned corn to what we know, today, as popped-corn. The “magnetron” was also tested on an egg, cooking it in fraction of the time.[1] From corn, to eggs to whole meals, the cooking industry was forever changed. The “magnetron” cooked food fast and the “age of fast” was born. We know the “magnetron” as the microwave oven. Today the world has come a long way from the first microwave. We have faster food, faster cars, faster communication, faster this and faster that. If 1946 was the “age of fast” then 2010 is the “age of faster”. One example of the “age of faster” is a slogan used by a well-known computer software company, “moving at the speed of thought”[2]. We are movers at the speed of thought. But, we are movers at not just any speed of thought. My world moves at the speed of my thought. Your world moves at the speed of your thought. When our worlds, crash into another’s world moving at different speeds don’t we get anxious, restless and even frustrated? It’s like were driving on I-25 behind someone who is not going the speed limit and we just want to say “Hey! Get moving or get out of the way”. We live in the age of faster
Martha, zipping from table to counter, counter to table, fire pit to counter, counter to fire pit, all the while making preparations for their meal. It seems that the “age of fast” was alive in the 1st century Samaritan village of Martha and Mary. Looking up from her work, Martha sees her sister sitting at the feet of Jesus. Now, at the time, it was not uncommon for women to work very hard serving guests. This was the way of life. Martha was just doing what a good host should do. She was making the preparations for their guest to enjoy a meal. Mary was also being a good host. She was keeping their guest company. So why does Luke use this passage in his Gospel? We see two worlds, both moving at the “speed of thought”, and crashing into one another. Martha’s world of go, go, go, go, and Mary’s world of sit, sit, sit. Don’t seem to fit well together, even though both of them were practicing good hospitality. The problem in this gospel account lays in how Martha reacted to her sister’s way of hosting a guest. Martha, frustrated, asks their guest, Jesus, to tell Mary to help her. Martha is asking Jesus to settle their family dispute and Jesus does not. [3] Instead Jesus shows Martha and Mary that to follow him one must have balance in their life -A balance between work and prayer. Without this balance, Martha’s world of go, go, go is like a hamster running on a hamster wheel—a lot of effort is made, but with no results. Mary’s world of sit, sit, sit, is equally challenging, she sits and listens but if no effort is made to work, it too will produce no results. So Jesus is challenging them both to find that necessary balance between work and prayer.
Today, OUR need for speed has brought us here for mass. We are here in a time where speed is eternal and time is only relative to eternity. Here at mass. At mass, Divine time, God’s time kisses and enters into our earthly time. Here at mass, we are in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Triumphant King. In his presence we are both moving at the speed of thought and we are completely still, in the same moment. By allowing ourselves to completely enter into the time of the mass, the world, moving at the speed of our thought crashes into God; and, God’s time calls us to slow down, rest, and refocus the intentions of our world of go, go, go, go. When we take time to refocus our priorities all we do, all we are, gives glory, honor and praise not to ourselves, but to God.
The “age of faster” is here, we live in it every day: at work, at home, at school, even when we go on vacation. We experience it when we are on the computer, and when we watch television, let’s face it—it’s a part of our lives. But, simply because we live in a fast paced world that does not mean we can’t take time to slow down, rest and refocus. We can rest in the presence of Christ here at mass, yes. But we can also rest in Christ’s presence by making a visit to our Perpetual Adoration Chapel—where he is waiting for us. When we take time to, slow down, rest and refocus the words of Christ ring true in our lives, “You are anxious about many things. There is need of only one thing, and it will not be taken away”. Slow down, rest, and refocus.
3 c.f., Johnson, Luke Timothy, Sacra Pagina: Biblical Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press 1991).