DJN
A
They are two people who appear together in the gospels. It would be reckless on our part to attempt to separate them. Although there would be plenty of reasons to do so. Respect for the biblical text obliges us to present them together. It is easy that the reconstruction of the family tree discovered their fraternity. Not so much that, from him, we are forced to extend his brotherhood to Lazarus (Jn 11,1; 12,1). We will try to discover in them their significant characteristics. They are the ones that offer them to us as important, representative, challenging, evangelical… We will limit ourselves to the three moments that we consider fundamental.
1°) Encounter with Jesus in Samaria (Lk 10,38-42). Faced with Marta’s complaint because her sister has left her room with all the service, Jesus condemns her feverish activity and, in it, Jewish activism, which proclaimed as essential works, works, works, works… to “force” God to reward them… In front of him stands out the attitude of Mary who, sitting at the feet of the Master, listened to the word of God. And, faced with her recrimination for her “passivity”, the Master comes out in her defense affirming that, among the few things necessary, which are reduced to one: the word of God, Mary’s option is the best. It is about highlighting as absolutely necessary believing hearing of the word of God. In the scene neither Marta means the active life nor María symbolizes the contemplative life. That would come later.
2nd) Also before the resurrection of Lazarus (Jn 11) Marta is a representative figure of Jewish thought that affirmed that the resurrection of the dead would take place at the end of time. Jesus disagrees with this conviction of the Jewish theologians. And he manifests it with the famous phrase: I am the resurrection and the life. Which means that the union with Jesus, with the life that God manifests and gives in him to believers, despite the necessary trance of death, is not interrupted. What Jesus promises is much more than Martha expects. For the believer, death has been relativized. God, who is life, cannot abandon his own at the supreme moment of death: he will make them participate in his life; he will introduce you to his Kingdom, which is the opposite of crying, pain and death. This is the reason why the first meeting of Jesus is with Martha. Beyond Jewish thought, Jesus thus exposes his radical newness in front of him.
Marta, in addition to her physical personality, has another representative one. The same Maria. She is more important than Marta. When Jesus is going to carry out an action whose purpose is to demonstrate the “glory” of the Father and the Son, Mary must be present, because she has perfectly tuned in with the waves emitted by the Father through the Son. Mary symbolizes believers who have discovered what is essential to her faith. This is probably what the phrase refers to: Master is here and you. The rest, the works, will come as a result and demand of it.
3rd) The two sisters are also present for the anointing in Bethany (Jn 12,1-8). Marta “serves” -she is the strong point of the works- and Mary “anoints” the Master’s feet. Mary’s action is interpreted, by Jesus himself, as an anticipatory action of her burial (Jn 12,7). Is it excessively sophisticated to think that Mary had such a profound purpose before her? We believe so. Her action is prompted by a reaction of respect, gratitude and love. In the background, and in the light of Easter, the gesture was interpreted as an anticipation of the glory of Christ (Jn 12:28). Maria’s gesture, objectively considered, has a meaning that goes far beyond her personal intention. She unconsciously and involuntarily announced the death-glorification of Jesus.
These two admirable people are only known by Luke -who places them in “a” village in Samaria, without mentioning Lazarus at all-, and by John, who presents them living in Bethany and who has twinned the three people for whom Jesus felt a special affection.
and Ramos.
FERNANDEZ RAMOS, Felipe (Dir.), Dictionary of Jesus of Nazareth, Editorial Monte Carmelo, Burbos, 2001
Source: Dictionary of Jesus of Nazareth
(Lk 10,38-42). This passage has traditionally been understood as the basis for the superiority of the contemplative life (Mary) over the active life (Marta), in the Hellenistic or Christian sense. “While they were on their way, Jesus entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha received him. And she had a sister named Mary, who sat at the feet of the Lord listening to her word. Marta, on the other hand, was busy (distracted) with a lot of service; and she approaching she said: Lord, don’t you mind that my sister leaves me alone in the service? So tell her to help me. The Lord answering, she said to him: Marta, Marta, you worry and are disturbed by many things; one thing is necessary; indeed, Mary has chosen the good part of her, which she will not take away from her” (Lk 10,38-42). The traditional interpretation has been placed in line with an archetypal vision already proposed by some devout Jews (such as Philo* in his Contemplative Life) and by many ancient Greek thinkers, as well as by some “virtuous” Eastern religionists (Hindu, Buddhist , Taoists…), who distinguished two types of life: an active one (which would be typical of Marta) and another contemplative (which would be typical of María). All of them gave priority to the contemplative life, linked to inner leisure and the cultivation of spiritual values, separated from material work and external occupations. This passage would therefore repeat a dualistic scheme of life, identifying contemplation with listening to the word of the Lord. From that perspective, dozens of generations of Christian monks and contemplatives have identified with Mary, leaving Martha’s concerns to the less perfect members of the Church. But that venerable interpretation runs into some difficulties, as we will indicate.
(1) Jesus and the two sisters. Jesus appears as a guest, received in a house. The evangelical tradition (cf. Mk 6,6-13 par), reworked by Lk (9,1-6; 10,1-11), knows that the Christian mission is linked to the homes of those who welcome Jesus or the messengers from him. The two sisters would represent two ways of welcoming Jesus and his followers, although one (Mary, the listener) would be superior to the other (Marta, the service). In their very confrontation, these two sisters would express the two main attitudes of humanity: active and contemplative life, servile and liberal work… Jesus, inner Master, Messiah of the Word, would be in line with a mystical Judaism, which has highlighted the need to listen and fulfill the Law (here expressed in the word of Jesus). These elements can be found in the background of the text, but they do not exhaust its Jewish or Christian content. For authentic Jews, the law has not been the object of mystical contemplation, but of active observance. Neither was Jesus a Master of a spiritual doctrine, but rather a prophet of a gratifying justice, which is expressed in love for the poor. In addition, at the bottom of the text there is another very significant fact: Martha and Mary are not two women in the abstract, but two people who represent the tasks of the Church.
(2) Two sisters, senators of the Church. In a normal way, we tend to think that Marta performs tasks of a lower domestic type (cleaning the guest room, preparing food, serving the table), while Maria would be freed for the interior leisure of prayer. Marta would be a servant, Maria a lady. Well, once we get here, we discover that this interpretation does not work: neither Martha does only maid work, nor does Mary listen only to Jesus to be an idle lady. Both are sisters, leaders of a church, that is, of a domestic community that welcomes Jesus by welcoming Christians and those in need. In the New Testament, and Luke knows this in a special way, the word to serve (diakonein), which is applied to Martha, also means, and above all, to carry out a ministerial task in the name and on behalf of the community, as shown in the text of the dispute about the greatness within the Church (Lk 22,24-30). The disciples want to be greater by ruling over others; against that, Jesus makes himself the minor, the servant of all, authentic Marta (if that name is valid). From this base, any division between female servants and female (or male) hierarchs, between female workers and contemplative females, is contrary to the Gospel. Along the same lines as our passage is the text about the Hellenistic “deacons”, who appear as servers at the table (in the line of Martha), coming to present themselves, at the same time, and precisely because of their service, as ministers of the Gospel: they spread the message of Jesus to the Gentiles (Acts 6,1-7). Paradoxically, the initiators of the universal Christian mission have been these seven servants (who are more like Martha), not the Twelve apostle-preachers of Jerusalem (who are more like Mary). That means that the figures of the two sisters have crossed. On the other hand, Mary may be a blood sister of Martha, but she is more likely a believing sister (cf. Mk 3,31-35), sitting at the feet of the Lord (Lk 10,39), listening to her word . She does not study the Law, like the aspiring Jewish rabbinate, but she listens to the Word, so that she can present herself as a wise teacher within the Church. The Judaism of that time did not allow women to officially study the Law; the later Church will say that they keep silent in the community (cf. 1 Tim 2,11-12 and gloss of 1 Cor 14,34-35). Well, unlike Martha, who is a sign of ministerial service, Mary appears here as a person who listens and who, therefore, can proclaim the Word. Marta has received Jesus (in the village and/or her house), acting as “president” of the community, but Mary, her sister, is the one who best attends to him and understands, listening to her words. Marta, worried about her great service, complains before the Lord, accusing her sister, because she has left her alone. It is evident that in a sense she is right, because Mary leaves the service (of the house-church), to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him. But in another deeper sense Mary is right, who listens to Jesus as a woman (as a person), but not to remain in pure spiritualist contemplation, but to carry out the tasks of the Church in a deeper way.
(3) Martha’s diakonia or service. Without ceasing to be a domestic job (the church is home!), Marta’s diakonia is above all an ecclesial ministry, since the true authority of the Church is mutual service, as the entire New Testament knows (cf. Mc 10.45; Mt 20.25; 23.11). From there, based on the activity of the women referred to in Lk 8,1-3 and Mk 15,40-41, we must remember that Jesus was accompanied by women-servants. For this reason, the many diakonia that distracts Marta…