Are we willing to pay attention?

Homily for July 17, 2016 (16th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Genesis 18:1-10a; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42

When I first began to see the commercials and trucks for the online grocer Peapod over twenty years ago, I have to admit I was skeptical.  “This will never last,” I thought to myself.

Was I wrong!  Nearly 20 million orders later, Peapod continues to grow.  From its humble origins in Evanston, Illinois the company is now the national leader of an online grocery industry that generates over $16 billion a year in sales. Even Wal-Mart is getting in on the business.  This isn’t surprising, since about half of all consumer purchases in the U.S. today are made online.  The reasons most cited are price, selection and especially convenience.

Parents work longer hours than ever and yet many feel economically insecure.  Many teens hyper-load their schedules with the AP classes, extra-curricular activities and community service that they hope will give them an edge in college admissions.  Children are ferried from school to afterschool care or some kind of sports or arts practice and then come home to a quick dinner and homework.  A lot of people, young and old, don’t get enough sleep.

Many retired people find themselves busier today than when they were working full-time.  It’s increasingly common for one priest to serve as Pastor for two, three or four parishes. We are fast becoming a nation of Marthas, flitting and fretting from one thing to another.  Is it any wonder that we often come to church frazzled and distracted and that many Sunday Masses now begin with the instruction, “Please silence or turn off your cell phone?”

Like Martha in our gospel reading, we can become “anxious and worried about many things,” even when they are good things.  Indeed, the Greek word used by Luke to denote Martha’s serving is diakonia, which also means “ministry.”  But if we get so wrapped up in our own agendas, “to do” lists and schedules, we can lose the sense of peace and well-being that comes from knowing that Jesus is present, loving and caring for us and ready to teach and guide us.  We will also bring those same distractions into church and find it hard if not impossible to be the “fully conscious and active” participants in the liturgy called for in Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.

The real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist supports and is supported by our sense of the real presence of the Lord in the rest of our lives.  To cultivate that sensibility, we need to “choose the better part” and regularly spend time with the Lord.

It doesn’t matter where or when.  It can be in the living room after the kids have gone asleep or on the deck in the backyard with a morning cup of coffee.  It can be alone in a silent car during the morning commute or on a crowded subway with a Bible or devotional book.  It can be before the Blessed Sacrament or standing and gazing at the morning sunrise.  We spend time with Jesus not to give him a “to do” list of our own needs and desires but simply to listen and learn.

We also need to be alert and patient.  We never know when or how God will show up.  Abraham was able to minister to God and two angels—the “three men” in our first reading—because he wasn’t working but was instead sitting at the entrance of his tent.  He offered lavish hospitality—the equivalent of 80 lbs. of bread and perhaps 700 lbs. of meat—to what at first seemed to be a group of strangers.  In response, God promised to do the impossible and give him and Sarah a son in their old age.

God can do great things for us, to, if we are willing to pay attention to God’s goodness and love in our midst, especially in God’s Son.  Pray that we be blessed with the mindfulness of Mary even when we feel harried like Martha. +