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.
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1:13 I Persecuted the church of God - That is, the believers in Christ.
1:14 Being zealous of the unwritten traditions - Over and above those written in the law.
1:15 But when it pleased God - He ascribes nothing to his own merits, endeavours, or sincerity. Who separated me from my mother's womb - Set me apart for an apostle, as he did Jeremiah for a prophet. Jer 1:5. Such an unconditional predestination as this may consist, both with God's justice and mercy. And called me by his grace - By his free and almighty love, to be both a Christian and an apostle.
1:16 To reveal his Son in me - By the powerful operation of his Spirit, Co2 4:6; as well as to me, by the heavenly vision.That I might preach him to others - Which I should have been ill qualified to do, had I not first known him myself. I did not confer with flesh and blood - Being fully satisfied of the divine will, and determined to obey, I took no counsel with any man, neither with my own reason or inclinations, which might have raised numberless objections.
1:17 Neither did I go up to Jerusalem - The residence of the apostles. But I immediately went again into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus - He presupposes the journey to Damascus, in which he was converted, as being known to them all.
1:18 Then after three years - Wherein I had given full proof of my apostleship. I went to visit Peter - To converse with him.
1:19 But other of the apostles I saw none, save James the brother (that is, the kinsman) of the Lord - Therefore when Barnabas is said to have "brought him into the apostles," Act 9:27, only St. Peter and St James are meant.
1:24 In me - That is, on my account.