NOTES for Luk 10:38-42
Martha’s irritation is understandable. It often happens that one person has to work long and hard while, in our view, another does nothing. Then we begin to grumble and even demand that the other person do at least a little work as well.
The Lord answers this indignation with unexpected severity, as though devaluing our earthly cares, saying, “You are anxious about many things, but only one thing is needed.” This sounds like a call to abandon everyday affairs, although one can also see another meaning here. Might Jesus be reproaching Martha because, having her own path and carrying her own cross, she begins to interfere in the life of her sister, who has chosen another calling? In reflecting on this it is fitting to recall the words from the final chapter of the Gospel of John, where Christ says to Peter, who is preoccupied with the question of the martyrdom of Jesus’ beloved disciple: “What is that to you? You follow Me.”