Choices in life can be challenging. Sometimes being bound by tradition and custom prevents us from recognizing the greater Truths and then incorporating that Truth into our lives. Today’s Lukan Gospel shows two sisters, Martha and Mary, caught in that dilemma.

This weekend’s and last weekend’s gospels don’t seem to have a great deal in common at first blush. Last week we heard about the Good Samaritan and the mercy he bestowed on a stranger. Today we hear about serving a meal and preparing for guests or participate in conversation and a dispute erupts between sisters. Yet in both gospel accounts Christ’s message centers on the priorities of God.

Luke’s Gospel has Martha scurrying about preparing food and offering welcome to her guests while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to the Word of God. Martha is upset and asks Jesus to scold Mary and to bring her back to her “appropriate” duties (in the ancient world a woman would never sit with unknown male guests). Jesus replies with understanding and with His message of the importance for all—male or female, rich or poor—to know and understand God’s Word—and then bringing that saving knowledge into our daily activities of life. As a Christian disciple we must understand and participate in those things that God designs as priorities for life—knowing God and living Godly—as faith-filled people. The underlying message is that when we have been given the gift of faith, God expects and demands one thing of His disciples:Believe it. Live it. Share it!

In reality, today’s Gospel reiterates and reinforces last weekend’s question: are we members of the Church or are we disciples of the Church (Christ)? As Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and takes in His Father’s Word and comes to understand the meaning of salvation’s message, Mary will be able to live and breathe the faith—to become the eyes, the ears, the heart and hands of Christ in her world. If we are to be like Mary, we too need to know what God offers to us, with all of its obligations and responsibilities, to Believe it, to Live it, and to Share it. We have been blessed to have been given faith, and to be nourished with the Sacramental Life of the Church Christ created; and now to celebrate our faith in the midst of the Church which Christ has filled with His Holy Spirit to guide us to the fullness of Truth and to know All Truth. This week’s gospel offers us one more question to consider withfull hearts and minds: will we open the gift—and will we unwrap it? If we are to say “Yes!” then we are called to wear that gift by way of living and breathing both the Corporal and the Spiritual Works of Mercy. It is never too late to begin, remember the workers in the vineyard…remember that we are in the midst of the Jubilee Year of Mercy