3. And yet it is not so; but as the Lord spake so it is. It is not as thou understandest; but
it is as thou oughtest to understand it. So mark; “Thou art occupied about many things,
when one thing is needful. Mary hath chosen the better part.” Thou hast not chosen a bad
part; but she a better. And how better? Because thou art “about many things,” she about
“one thing.” One is preferred to many. For one does not come from many, but many from
one.
The things which were made, are many, He who made them is One. The heaven, the
earth, the sea, and all things that in them are, how many are they! Who could enumerate
them? who conceive their vast number? Who made all these? God made them all. Behold,
“they are very good.”3333 Very good are the things He made; how much better is He who
made them! Let us consider then our “occupations about many things.” Much serving is
necessary for the refreshment of our bodies. Wherefore is this? Because we hunger, and
thirst. Mercy is necessary for the miserable. Thou breakest bread to the hungry; because
thou hast found an hungry man; take hunger away; to whom dost thou break bread? Take
houseless wandering3334 away; to whom dost thou show hospitality? Take nakedness away;
to whom dost thou furnish clothes? Let there be no sickness; whom dost thou visit? No
captivity; whom dost thou redeem? No quarrelling; whom dost thou reconcile? No death;
whom dost thou bury? In that world to come, these evils will not be; therefore these services
will not be either. Well then did Martha, as touching the bodily—what shall I call it, want,
or will, of the Lord?—minister to His mortal flesh. But who was He in that mortal flesh? “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God:”3335 see
430
what Mary was listening to! “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us:”3336 see to
whom Martha was ministering! Therefore “hath Mary chosen the better part, which shall
not be taken from her.” For she chose that which shall abide for ever; “it shall not be taken
from her.” She wished to be occupied about “one thing.” She understood already, “But it is
good for me to cleave to the Lord.”3337 She sat at the feet of our Head. The more lowlily she
sat, the more amply did she receive. For the water flows together to the low hollows of the
valley, runs down from the risings of the hill. The Lord then did not blame Martha’s work,
but distinguished between their services. “Thou art occupied about many things; yet one
thing is needful.” Already hath Mary chosen this for herself. The labour of manifoldness
passeth away, and the love of unity abideth. Therefore what she hath chosen, “shall not be
taken from her.” But from thee, that which thou hast chosen (of course this follows, of course
3333 Gen. i. 31.
3334 Peregrinationem.
3335 John i. 1.
3336 John i. 14.
3337 Ps. lxxiii. 28.
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Again, on the words of the Gospel, Luke x. 38, etc., about Martha and M…