Every person lives simultaneously in two worlds: an inner and an outer world. The inner world is the world in which we are alone with ourselves and with God, where we pray, rejoice in the sky and the sun, where we...
Every person lives simultaneously in two worlds: an inner and an outer world. The inner world is the world in which we are alone with ourselves and with God, where we pray, rejoice in the sky and the sun, grieve and weep over our own sins and those of others, seek paths, shape ourselves, make decisions, and are exactly what we truly are. There is also the outer world, where a small part of what exists in the inner world is realised, made actual, clothed in matter, and serves as a real connection with people and the world. If we are to pray for the ordering of these two worlds, then we should ask Mary for the inner world and Martha for the outer.
It is impossible to say which world is more important, just as it is impossible to compare two living people whom Jesus loved, Martha and Mary. We cannot assign them grades and say that this one behaved correctly and the other incorrectly, as one so often hears when people say that we should imitate Mary and not Martha. It is better to imitate no one, but to listen to the spiritual call with which the Lord addresses you and to consider creatively how you can respond to it.
If we return to the interpretation of this parable, largely shaped by R. Guardini's work “The Lord,” as a parable about a person's inner and outer worlds, then perhaps the most important thing we see is the love between Mary, Martha, and Jesus. Someone may object: but Martha grumbles at Mary and even complains about her to Jesus. Yet we should not judge superficially here. It is better to try to live through this situation and hear the intonations of its participants. One has the impression that without a special love and closeness between them, such a dialogue simply could not have taken place; it could happen only between people who were truly close to one another.
And this, it seems, is the main thing: the harmony of our thoughts (Mary) and actions (Martha) in God. Harmony despite outward contradictions; let them remain, while harmony exists somewhere at a very deep, personal level.
31 An exhortation to Lemuel, Pro 31:1-9.
A description of good wife, Pro 31:10-31.
31:10 A virtuous woman - Here he lays down several qualifications of an excellent wife, which are delivered in alphabetical order, each verse beginning with a several letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
31:11 No need - He shall have no need to use indirect courses to get wealth.
31:13 Flax - That she may find employment for her servants.Worketh - She encourages them to work by her example; which was a common practice among princesses in those first ages. Not that it is the duty of kings and queens to use manual operations, but it is the duty of all persons, the greatest not excepted, to improve all their talents, and particularly their time, which is one of the noblest of them, to the service of that God to whom they must give an account, and to the good of that community to which they are related.