OCTOBER 6, 2026 FATHER HENK VAN MEIJEL
Jesus plays a little bit referee between the two sisters. Mary and Martha are archetypes of what our prayer life should be. There is work, we all have to work. If we don’t work you will not eat. It’s as simple as that. We also have to have that time to be quiet, and to pray. And it’s so important to have that time to listen what God is doing.
And even if we go to a monastery, a closed monastery, a prayer of community, they still have to work, and they still have to have an income for their sustenance. But this listening is so important. And sometimes in our life that listening can become more important.
In today’s reading of the letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul is talking about that. He’s there defending himself because there was this dispute about circumcision, that some Jewish people, they said the Gentiles who come to us, who follow Christ, have to be circumcised. And there was no need for that.
Saint Paul, he is explaining. In the letter of Galatians he’s explaining this, but he’s also saying what authority he had. And he clearly explains that this authority comes from God. And we all know the story, how Saint Paul, he was persecuting the Early Christians, and on the road to Damascus Jesus set him straight. He was knocked off his high horse. There never was a horse in scripture, but it’s a good metaphor for his ego.
Saint Paul, who was a Pharisee, who was well educated, and who knew the law word-by-word, but he did not listen. And so his ego carried him through. And going after the Christians who were, in his mind, in the Jewish leadership’s mind, just some people who did not have it right. Until he got it right, and he was set straight.
He went for three years to Arabia. And we would say what the heck was he doing in Arabia? After he was “knocked,” quote, off his horse. And Arabia was a time of transformation. He had to come to grips with his life. He was so educated, he had to listen to what God was doing for him. He had to listen, and giving up his control over his life. And give it to God. And that takes some time.
In my own life too, life came to a head, there were a number or years I had to rediscover myself, who I was in God. Just like Saint Paul, all that was important before became not important at all. And all that matters is God. And this so important for all of us. And it is good to be aware of it. That listening is so important in daily life.
Today, we remember Blessed Marie-Rose Derocher. She died actually at a very early age. At age 38, of a wasting disease. And she was from Quebec, the French part of Canada. She was well-educated by her family, she was the daughter of a very well-to-do farmer. And she, for 10 years, she served her brother who was a priest, and took care of his affairs.
In her own prayer life and observations, she became aware of the need for schooling for children, especially children of lower income families. And as time went on, and different things fell in place, with the assistance of Bishop Bourget and Oblate Fathers, she started with two other sisters just a tiny little school, for children of low-income families. And it really rose out of her listening.
This is the Martha and Mary thing. She had to do the work, just like Martha. Running the school, there’s a lot of work involved. But also as religious, to take her time to listen. Daily listening.
I have to do that. I’m very busy here at Manresa, and other things, but I have to take that time to listen too, to where God is leading me. And that’s a daily thing. And of course, we as Jesuits, we have the Daily Examen.
Usually, my community, they laugh at me. At suppertime, I say, “Gotta go to my cave.” And my cave is my room, so to speak, is my place where I can centre myself, look back over the day, where is God leading me, and also to bring up the struggles, the difficulties, what are in my life. And somehow in that, answers will come, and I will be carried forward. I do not have the answers.
Saint Paul, in his own way, he had to discover that he did not have the answers. But that he has to rely on God, to help God, through him, through his mission. And as we know, Saint Paul was really one of the greatest missionaries in the Early Church. He gave much to the Church, a great body of teaching how to move forward. It’s good stuff to pray with.
Maybe for each one of us, to say, “How am I doing?” “Am I too much of a Martha, or am I too much of a Mary?” There has to be a balance. Amen.
