27th Tuesday in Ordinary Time
Jonah 3: 1 – 10; Ps 130; Luke 10: 38 – 42
Jonah’s experience of spending 3 nights and days in the belly of a large fish certainly had a lot to do with his yes to God’s insistence – inside the fish, which leaves something to the imagination, he had time to reconsider his plight. So, when given a second chance, he did set out to Nineveh. In His word to Jonah, God is persistent in calling the Ninevites to repentance because He is mercy and desires the salvation of these people, of all people. God’s word is passionate…never less.
The psalmist is moved by God’s word to pray in supplication, seeking pardon and mercy and in the course of that prayer the psalmist speaks to God what has been heard: “…with You is forgiveness, kindness, plenteous redemption.” God’s word is always a word of assurance.
Jesus Himself, the Incarnate Word, a guest in the home of Martha and Mary finds Himself in a bit of tension between the sisters. Martha, anxious, busy, feeling burdened looks to Jesus to reprimand Mary but Jesus turns to Martha with a teaching on the Word.
Jesus could have said to Martha, “What you have prepared is more than enough, come sit with Mary!” But, in reality, His word to her is very radical – forget about the meal – “…only one thing is necessary.” Mary was doing the one thing – being attentive to the Word. We are not told of Martha’s reaction and the passage ends.
But it doesn’t really end. It poses a question. If we were to encounter the Lord in all our busyness, with our anxieties, our self imposed burdens and He said, “you know, there is only one thing necessary – that is, listening and being formed by My Word”– what reaction, response might we find in our hearts?
Comments are closed.