26 — MARTHA AND MARY

Presence of God. — O Lord, may I love you with Mary’s heart and at the same time serve you with Martha’s dedication.

Meditation

1 — Two great attractions dominate the soul that has seriously given itself to God: attraction to solitary and silent prayer in order to plunge into God, to listen to his voice, to penetrate his mysteries and above all to unite itself more intimately to Him; and at the same time attraction to apostolate, to active and generous sacrifice for the salvation of brethren. To recollect itself in God, the soul “would like to flee men and greatly envies those who live and have lived in deserts. At the same time it would like to throw itself into the midst of the world so that even one soul might praise God more” (T.G.M. VI, 6, 3). This is the double movement of charity, which, being love of God and love of neighbor together, impels toward union with God and toward service of neighbor; lacking one of these movements, charity would not be full. Development of interior life implies this twofold attraction, which is sign and means of progress and at the same time torment for the soul that does not yet know how to balance well between the two tendencies. To which of the two shall it give prevalence? To action or to contemplation? In practice the problem must be resolved on the basis of demands of the duties of one’s state, dispositions of obedience, and concrete circumstances permitted by God. Desire for contemplation that distracted or drew the soul away from duty would not be conformed to God’s will, and God has full right to ask renunciation even of this desire in order that we may give ourselves to service of neighbor. To Magdalene, happy at having finally found Him and desiring to remain at his feet, the risen Jesus commanded: “Go to my brethren” (Jn. 20:17), and she, docile, went forth to announce the Resurrection. On the other hand, the reverse is also true: to the Apostles returned from preaching, Jesus said, “Come apart into a desert place” (Mk. 6:31), thus inviting them to suspend apostolic activity in order to refresh their spirit in silence and prayer, alone with Him. The right way, which prevents us from deviating in one direction or the other, is always that of duty, God’s will, interior inspiration checked by one who has authority to direct souls.

2 — To harmonize interiorly attraction to apostolate and attraction to union with God, a deeper solution is required, one that cannot come from outside but only from within, and that consists in greater progress in the ways of the spirit so as to reach a higher degree of love. Love is the one root from which action and contemplation spring; it is the one force that, nourishing both these activities at once, finally succeeds in fusing them in full harmony so that they produce the best fruits. Born from the one stock of a love already advanced, action and contemplation fuse in perfect love.

Perfect charity makes the soul recollected in contemplation at the Lord’s feet extremely active and fruitful for the good of brethren: “A little of this pure love” - the solitary love that flowers in intimate contact with God - “brings greater benefit to the Church than all other works put together... Therefore,” declares St. John of the Cross, “when a soul had a little of this solitary love, great harm would be done to it and to the Church if they wished to occupy it with exterior or active things, however important” (C.C. 29, 2 and 3). In the regions of pure love, that is, of perfect charity, contemplation and apostolate are identified, complete one another, and mutually require one another. Having reached this degree, the contemplative soul is supremely apostolic, and the greatest activity it can carry out for brethren is precisely that of solitary prayer, nourished by love, nourished by sacrifice and immolation. On the other hand, perfect charity also makes the soul engaged in apostolic works, at the same time, more than ever united to God, more than ever contemplative; love has fixed it so strongly in God that even during work its interior gaze is always turned toward Him to nourish itself with his divine presence, to reflect in conduct his infinite perfections, to regulate itself in all things according to expression of his good pleasure. Thus, at the summit of spiritual life, action and contemplation fuse in unity and perfect harmony. “Believe me,” writes St. Teresa of Jesus, “for the Lord to be housed, to be always with us, to be well treated, and fed, it is necessary that Martha and Mary agree... The Lord is fed when one does all possible to win many souls, who, being saved, may praise Him eternally” (M. VII, 4, 12). From this we understand how all great contemplatives were great apostles, and great apostles were great contemplatives.

Colloquy

“O Lord, desire to listen to your divine word, need for silence, is sometimes so strong that I would wish to know nothing else but to remain at your feet, like Magdalene, to penetrate ever more deeply into that mystery of love You came to reveal to us. But You teach me that if the soul never departs from You, it can remain always absorbed in contemplation, even when in appearance it performs Martha’s office. In this way, O Lord, I understand and wish to exercise apostolate: can I radiate You, can I give You to souls, if I do not depart from You, divine source? Help me, sweet Master, to stay very close to You, to enter into communion with your Soul, to make all your affections mine, and then to go as You did to fulfill the Father’s will.

“What power the apostle exercises over souls who never detach from the source of living waters! Grant, O Lord, that I may be one of these. I can let the wave overflow and spread around without danger that my soul be found empty, because it is in continual communication with You, the Infinite.

“My God, deign to invade all powers of my soul; let everything in me be divine and bear your seal, so that I may be in myself another Christ working for your glory.

“O Lord, I want to labor much for your glory! I want to give myself wholly to You, let myself be permeated by your divine sap; be You the life of my life, the soul of my soul, and grant that I always remain vigilant and aware under your divine action” (cf. E.T. Lt.).