Why do you feel alone, so alone? Is that just a bit of petty, entirely human jealousy vis-à-vis Mary, your sister, who, she, only “sit down” at the feet of the Lord and who thus benefits , at little cost, of his word, of his presence? This is indeed what you seem to be saying: “my sister let me do the service alone; tell him to help me. »
But your loneliness, Marthe, comes from further away and it is deeper. Elsewhere in the Gospels we learn that your home, Bethany, is open and welcoming to many friends and that you live there not only with your sister Mary, but also with your brother Lazarus. It’s a bit like the house of happiness: everyone likes to come there; you receive us so well! And today, it is Jesus himself who is there, present, in your home, he, the Lord of course, but also the Friend, the greatest Friend.
Yet you feel alone. Basically, it’s not your sister that you blame, it’s Jesus, it’s to him and therefore to God that you cry out your loneliness, your feeling of abandonment: “Lord, this do you nothing? “I worry about you, but you don’t care about me? I don’t matter to you? Maybe I’m nothing to you?
Brothers and sisters, my friends, it is because she dared to interrupt Jesus and utter this cry of distress to him – which is also a cry of love – that Marthe is holy and she is a model for us all. Because all of us are alone, deep inside us, even when we are surrounded by many friends, a warm community of brothers and sisters or a happy family. To escape this deep interior loneliness, we believe, like Marthe, that we must multiply ourselves in various occupations, often very praiseworthy, such as those of service. But the more we multiply the activities, the more we risk in fact of dividing ourselves internally, of dividing ourselves, of letting ourselves be tugged, monopolized, absorbed by external things. And our loneliness then grows still further.
“Marthe, Marthe, you worry and worry about many things. Only one is needed. This response full of tenderness from Jesus to Martha is addressed to us too, it is given to us, in this summer, like a treasure. You who feel alone, do not disperse yourself in the multiple, but seek the Unique, the unique necessary. You who perhaps consider yourself abandoned by God, abandoned by him, seek him again and again, seek him in all your activities, among all your occupations and also when you rest, when you are on vacation. Look at him, listen to his voice, listen to your heart. Then certainly you will find and you will freely choose the part which belongs to you, this good, this best part which the Lord has prepared, reserved for you. Believe me, it won’t be taken from you!