16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Basilica of the Assumption
July 20, 2025
Come to Me . . .
A few days ago, in the daily Gospel taken from St. Matthew, the Lord said to us: “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Sitting in my chapel and mulling over those words in my heart, I realized that the heaviest burdens in my life are not from the Lord but are self-imposed…for example, an overweening concern for my projects, plans, and problems, especially my obsession to “tidy-up” a ministry that by its very nature is messy. Into that inner turbulence, the Lord spoke: “Come to me. Come into my presence. Let me take from you the yoke you have created for yourself and instead impose on you the yoke of love, the yoke of the Gospel, that ‘yoke which is easy, and that burden which is light.’
Those words of the Lord resonated in my heart as I read yet again today’s Gospel, the story of Martha and Mary. Both were friends of Jesus and both welcomed him into their home. But instead of spending time with her guest, Martha rushed about, preparing the meal & tending to the details of hospitality. Martha was also irked that her sister, Mary, wasn’t helping her. She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him, and drinking in every word. In her pique, Martha asked Jesus to intervene, but Jesus tells Martha that only one thing is necessary and Mary has chosen it: to be with him, to absorb his truth, to be formed in his love.
Active and Contemplative Life
Over time, Martha and Mary were made to stand for two forms of religious life: Martha stood for religious actively engaged in works of charity and education, those who labor into classrooms, hospitals, and among the poor. Whereas Mary stood for those who embrace the contemplative life, for example, cloistered sisters & monks who spend much of their day in prayer, contemplating and adoring the Lord, and singing his praises at regular intervals.
It’s not hard to see why this happened, but it has distorted, not only our understanding of consecrated life, but also our understanding of what it means to be a parish priest, or a bishop, or a married couple, or a single person actively participating in the Church’s life. And here’s why I say that: the hard and fast divide between active & contemplative forms of life undercuts the call to holiness and discipleship that Jesus addresses to all the baptized. Jesus did not say that “the one necessary thing” applied only to Mary; his words were actually addressed to Martha in her busyness. So too, that “one necessary thing” applies to you and me amid our daily faults and failings, amid our problems and our burdens.
The One Necessary Thing
But what is this “one necessary thing” of which Jesus speaks? That one necessary thing is to accept his invitation, “Come to me!” To be with Jesus. To spend time with the Lord. This we do when we pray privately at home or read Scripture in our room, or go to Eucharistic Adoration, or make a retreat or a day of recollection. In all these ways, we lay aside our daily activities to be alone with Christ. Now, when we do this at first, we may not know what to expect. Will we fumble about for something to say? Will we be bored out of our tree? Will we merely gain new information about the faith or insight into ourselves? What does happen in our mind and heart when we dedicate at least some of our time to be alone with Lord?
First, this. The Lord seeks to purify our hearts of sin. To free us of our illusions. To help us let go of self-manufactured dignity. To unlock for his inspection the storehouse of our accomplishments. To allow him to shine his bright light on our daily preoccupations. To clean out the stable where we store grudges, secret thoughts, secret sins. We are not long under the Lord’s gaze before we become deeply dissatisfied with all those things. Oh, we may try for a time to rationalize and excuse such things before him, but soon we find ourselves surrendering them, one by one, to him. This is the heavy yoke the Lord wants to lift from our shoulders.
Once that begins to happen – and for most of us it can be a slow process – we become free enough to receive in some measure what Jesus wants to do for us: to open for us the new world of divine intimacy – to enable us to share in his own eternal intimacy with God the Father. In John’s Gospel, Jesus prays for those who would follow him that they would be one as he is one with the Father (cf. John 17: 23). It is in Jesus that we are united with one another in the Church, and united with his Father in heaven . . . all by the power of the Holy Spirit. As we are opened to this new world of divine intimacy, we more and more become like Christ, ‘Christ in us, the hope for glory!’ We begin to think his thoughts, embrace his plans, seek his glory not our own. We begin to love others as Christ first loved us. In a word, we are re-created by Christ in the power of the Spirit.
What About the Rest of Life?
Does this absolve us from changing diapers, getting supper on the table, meeting the demands of the workplace or graduate school? Does it mean I can stay home and pray instead of visiting parishes, or fostering ministries, or doing administration, or dealing with problems? By no means. The Lord calls us to discipleship and holiness, not irresponsibility. Yet when we come away and spend time with the Lord, when we shed our sins and illusions and experience the depth of his love, then it is that we find ourselves engaging in our daily work and serving others with a renewed heart and mind, with a peace and joy no one can take from us, & often with a newfound creativity coming from One who makes all things new.
Let me conclude with good advice from St. Anselm of Canterbury who wrote: “Come now, insignificant man, fly for a moment from your affairs, escape for a little while from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside now your weighty cares and leave your wearisome toils. Abandon yourself for a little to God and rest a little in him. Enter into the inner chamber of your soul, shut out everything save God … and having locked the door seek him out. Speak now my heart, my whole heart, speak to God: ‘I seek your countenance, O Lord, your countenance I seek.’”