Martha's anxiety

I spent the night helping out at a fundraising dinner for my children's school. It was a delightful evening with everyone pitching in and cheerfully working even though it was very warm and we were in a small space for the amount of traffic that was going through. The generous people who open their home to this fundraiser every year work so hard to make it a beautiful event so that attendance will be high from year to year. The volunteers who organize it are so dedicated to Christ and the mission of the school that their anxiety about the event is transformed into eager helpfulness. I couldn't help feeling thankful to be in the midst of such joy-filled company.

On the way home, as I was relating this experience to my husband, he reminded me that it was the feast of St. Martha. I laughed. I've always loved Martha because of her encounter with Christ in scripture. "Martha, you are anxious about many things," Christ said to her. She was doing all of the work and concerned herself with what her sister was, or, in her mind, was NOT doing. This gives me great hope, because although we get to experience service in the Christ-centered way as it should be, like the event this evening, so many times we look over at what other people are doing and concern ourselves with their business. This is what causes the anxiety that Martha had. I love to see instances in which saints demonstrate the human failures that all of us have and yet are able to overcome them in their dedication to opening themselves to the perfecting counsel of Christ. St. Martha, pray for us to be transformed by Christ's loving wisdom!