Good People, serendipitously I offered a short presentation this past Wednesday to the CASC (Charlottesville Area Spiritual Companions) on ways to leverage Meister Eckhart's reading of this story as a tool for reframing the spiritual lives of those caught up in the responsibilities of this world in ways that don't seem to allow for "Mary" contemplative practices - parents of small children, those caring for aging parents, those working multiple jobs, those working multiple jobs and have caregiving responsibilities for younger and/or older family members.
I start by pointing out how readings of the Martha & Mary story all assume an adversarial relationship between the two sisters - Cynthia Bourgeault's. But I find this understanding dualistic and ultimately, unhelpful. At some level, every telling of this story I have ever heard assumes that one sister needs to be more like the other - except one, Meister Eckhart's. Hence the title of my talk, "Martha, Mary, & Meister Eckhart: Moms & Dads as Monks & Mystics."
Depending on which numbering system one follows for his sermons, Meister Eckhart ("from whom God hid nothing") interprets this parable (and I consider it a parable) in sermon 86. Briefly then...and knowing in advance that Meister Eckhart's more poetic and allegorical ways of scriptural reasoning may not tie things up for us as nicely as our modern minds might wish...is his reframing of the interaction between the two sisters.
Martha goes to Jesus out of concern for Mary's spiritual growth, not out of envy or frustration.
Mary is the contemplative, still grasping tightly her contemplative method - silence, stillness, proximity to the perceptible presence of Jesus.
But Martha has left the need for such supports behind and does what love requires in the moment, free from the necessity of special ways or places or times of praying.
Mary clings to her contemplation and at the end of the day her contemplation, her “necessary thing,” is all she has.
Martha rests in God and has that rest no matter where she is or what she is doing - like cooking and caring for a houseful of unexpected guests.
Martha & Mary aren't in different parts of the house, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. Martha & Mary are on the same way, the same path, with the older sister just a little bit further down the road, offering her love, concern, and experience in service to her younger sister.
So, as a spiritual friend and a preacher I try now never to tell folks to "pray more" and "do less." Who am I to make that determination for anyone else? And in the circumstances, that may not be realistic for many people. It might not be possible to do less. And it might not be possible to revisit or change existing priorities. In fact, the key to living a Martha life as envisioned by Meister Eckhart might just lie, not in a new set of priorities, but in leaning more strongly into our existing ones.
In his small book, "Domestic Monastery," Fr. Ron Rolheiser points out that those who get up to the alarm clock's warning to take the 8:15 to the city (now I have the BTO song in my head...) to support a family are responding out of duty and love just like the monks moving from one task to another in response to the monastic bell. Both groups of folks recognize that their time does not belong to them and both answer the call of the bell precisely because their lives and their time don't belong to them. Caregivers and the heavily burdened don't need to take on the artificial constructs created by monastics, constructs designed to get the monastic precisely to the place where child rearing or elder care or financial necessity have led the lay contemplative to inhabit.
As I read Eckhart and Rolheiser, in order to walk down the contemplative road that Martha & Mary both walk together, all we need is to let love rule our day, in every sense of that word.
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading, and I promise not to bloviate like this on a regular basis!
Good People, serendipitously I offered a short presentation this past Wednesday to the CASC (Charlottesville Area Spiritual Companions) on ways to leverage Meister Eckhart's reading of this story as a tool for reframing the spiritual lives of those caught up in the responsibilities of this world in ways that don't seem to allow for "Mary" contemplative practices - parents of small children, those caring for aging parents, those working multiple jobs, those working multiple jobs and have caregiving responsibilities for younger and/or older family members.
I start by pointing out how readings of the Martha & Mary story all assume an adversarial relationship between the two sisters - Cynthia Bourgeault's. But I find this understanding dualistic and ultimately, unhelpful. At some level, every telling of this story I have ever heard assumes that one sister needs to be more like the other - except one, Meister Eckhart's. Hence the title of my talk, "Martha, Mary, & Meister Eckhart: Moms & Dads as Monks & Mystics."
Depending on which numbering system one follows for his sermons, Meister Eckhart ("from whom God hid nothing") interprets this parable (and I consider it a parable) in sermon 86. Briefly then...and knowing in advance that Meister Eckhart's more poetic and allegorical ways of scriptural reasoning may not tie things up for us as nicely as our modern minds might wish...is his reframing of the interaction between the two sisters.
Martha goes to Jesus out of concern for Mary's spiritual growth, not out of envy or frustration.
Mary is the contemplative, still grasping tightly her contemplative method - silence, stillness, proximity to the perceptible presence of Jesus.
But Martha has left the need for such supports behind and does what love requires in the moment, free from the necessity of special ways or places or times of praying.
Mary clings to her contemplation and at the end of the day her contemplation, her “necessary thing,” is all she has.
Martha rests in God and has that rest no matter where she is or what she is doing - like cooking and caring for a houseful of unexpected guests.
Martha & Mary aren't in different parts of the house, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. Martha & Mary are on the same way, the same path, with the older sister just a little bit further down the road, offering her love, concern, and experience in service to her younger sister.
So, as a spiritual friend and a preacher I try now never to tell folks to "pray more" and "do less." Who am I to make that determination for anyone else? And in the circumstances, that may not be realistic for many people. It might not be possible to do less. And it might not be possible to revisit or change existing priorities. In fact, the key to living a Martha life as envisioned by Meister Eckhart might just lie, not in a new set of priorities, but in leaning more strongly into our existing ones.
In his small book, "Domestic Monastery," Fr. Ron Rolheiser points out that those who get up to the alarm clock's warning to take the 8:15 to the city (now I have the BTO song in my head...) to support a family are responding out of duty and love just like the monks moving from one task to another in response to the monastic bell. Both groups of folks recognize that their time does not belong to them and both answer the call of the bell precisely because their lives and their time don't belong to them. Caregivers and the heavily burdened don't need to take on the artificial constructs created by monastics, constructs designed to get the monastic precisely to the place where child rearing or elder care or financial necessity have led the lay contemplative to inhabit.
As I read Eckhart and Rolheiser, in order to walk down the contemplative road that Martha & Mary both walk together, all we need is to let love rule our day, in every sense of that word.
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading, and I promise not to bloviate like this on a regular basis!
Peace,
-Dawg