16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

A lawyer's wife arranged a dinner for three to celebrate her mother-in-law's birthday at her favorite restaurant. However, her husband told her that he was busy with his works and he had no time to party. So the wife told him that she would still go out to dine with her mother-in-law  during the latter's birthday so as not to spoil the day. Before the evening arrived, the wife called up and informed her husband that she was not feeling well. The husband advised her to cancel the dinner with his mother. But the wife persuaded him to meet his mother instead of canceling the arranged dinner. She said his mother was already there at her favorite restaurant alone. So the husband was forced to dine with his mother. While dinning, he began to notice how aging affected his mother. She spoke softly, moved slowly and ate a little. They did not talk together that much because after they finished eating, the lawyer was in a hurry to go back to his office. But before they parted ways, the mother whispered to him how happy she was to see him on her birthday. She asked him to visit her whenever he would be available. The lawyer just nodded to her. After a month, the lawyer was informed his mother died.  My dear friends, there are many reasons to be busy nowadays. The cost of living is too high that we need to work double the time. We work hard for our family. We work hard to build our home. For us in the ministry, we work hard to build the church. We even bring our work to bed. We have been busy for so many years believing we do the right thing. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this. But in today's Gospel, we are being reminded that there is something better than this. In Luke 10:38-42, Jesus said to the busy woman, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her." There is nothing wrong with what Martha was doing. But she could do something better than what she was doing i.e., to stop for a moment to give time for their guest -Jesus. She could have listened to his story. On our part, we have been busy that we have not stopped to listen to each other's story. We work for our family, we work for our church, but we miss the opportunity to establish an intimate and meaningful relationship with one another because all we think of is work and never have time to enter into a dialogue. In the parish, we think of the ministry but we forget to listen to our ministers. We push our catechists to educate children but we do not have the time to listen to their problems. We think of our parish programs and projects, but we forget to listen to the stories of our parish workers, carpenters, etc. We send solicitation letters to our rich parishioners, yet we never know their spiritual needs. We think we already give everything, but in reality we never give ourselves. It is only when we stop for a while and try to give time for one another to share each other's story that we really give ourselves. This is the better part. Anyway, when we die, no matter how many projects we have materialized, it is still the people who have shared their stories with us will be the ones to pray before our graves. Amen.