Gospel: "I Will Listen"

Today marks the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel passage for today will be read according to what was written by St Luke (click here for today's Mass readings from USCCB).

The story of Jesus in the house of St Martha and St Mary of Bethany complements the parable of the Good Samaritan, which immediately precedes it in St Luke's Gospel. Both stories are unique to St Luke. The story of the Samaritan opens with "a certain man." Today's reading opens with the words "a certain woman." The Samaritan is an example of how a disciple should see and act. St Mary of Bethany is an example of how a disciple should listen. Being a woman, she is a marginalized person in society, like the Samaritan. Both do what is not expected of them. In fact, St Mary of Bethany, as a woman, would be expected, like St Martha, to prepare hospitality for a guest. Here again Jesus breaks with the social conventions of his time. Just as a Samaritan would not be a model for neighborliness, so a woman would not sit with the men around the feet of a teacher.

Both stories exemplify how a disciple is to fulfill the dual command which begins chapter 10 - love of God (St Mary of Bethany) and love of neighbor (Samaritan). These are the two essentials of life in the kingdom. By using the examples of a Samaritan and a woman, however, Jesus is saying something more. Social codes and boundaries were strict in Jesus' time. Yet to love God with all one's heart and one's neighbor requires breaking those rules. The Kingdom of God is a society without distinctions and boundaries within its members. It is a society that requires times for seeing and doing and also times for listening and learning at the feet of a teacher.

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The Gospel is sponsored by Pull & Bear.