Sunday, July 20 2025

16th Sunday of the year – Year C

Homily by Father Rémy Houette

Dear brothers and sisters,

Here we are gathered in this beautiful Basilica of Saint Therese of Lisieux. Therese invites us to listen to Jesus. We have just heard the Gospel of Saint Luke, which tells us about the episode where Jesus is received by Martha and Mary. There is Martha's request, "Tell him to help me," and Jesus' response, refusing to ask Mary to help Martha and, on the contrary, justifying her remaining to listen to him.

Sometimes, in my family for example, and this may be true for you too, I have heard people who were mothers and who had a negative reaction to Jesus' response. They blamed Jesus, finding that Jesus was really exaggerating because he seemed not to give importance to what Martha was doing. In short, they projected themselves onto Martha, as if Jesus really had understood nothing about the work of a mother, having to prepare the meal etc. But to understand the gospel, we must understand Jesus' point of view, and enter into it.

In this Sunday's readings, we have two encounters that we see are quite special, even extraordinary. In the first reading, taken from the Book of Genesis, we have Abraham's encounter with three strangers, but also with the Lord, who appears to him at the oak of Mamre. And during the encounter, the three strangers announce to Abraham that Sarah, who is barren, who has not had children, and who is already advanced in years, will have a child within the year. This is so extraordinary that she herself will find it hard to believe when she hears it through the tent canvas.

What is mysterious is that the text constantly moves from three of Abraham's interlocutors to one, from three men to the Lord, in the singular. It is therefore through these three messengers, the Lord Himself, who addresses Abraham, and who, first of all, is received by Him as a guest.

When we receive someone, it is a tradition to see Christ in the person we receive. For example, this is true in the Rule of Saint Benedict. Here it is indeed God Himself who comes to Abraham to be received by him, to eat with him, and finally to announce to him the good news of the birth of Isaac, the child of the promise. Receiving God in one's home, through his messengers, strangers, guests, poor people, or also priests, or missionaries who come in his name, is also to welcome a blessing from God through these people. It is to open oneself to the fruitfulness that God gives.

To return to the Gospel, to understand Jesus' point of view, we should ask ourselves what Jesus desires by going to Martha and Mary's house to be received there. Martha and Mary appear several times in the Gospels, with their brother Lazarus, and they are said to be "friends of the Lord." It seems that all three are single, because we do not hear about spouses for them. Obviously, Martha is the oldest because she is the one who appears as the mistress of the house. This role of mistress of the house is so present for her that it appears in each of the passages where she is mentioned. So, dare we say it, Martha is certainly a good mistress of the house. She is surely very honored to receive Jesus, whom she already knows is a rabbi, a prophet, and whom she probably already believes is the Messiah, the one sent by God. Martha and her sister Mary and their brother Lazarus have great faith in Jesus. Martha is therefore very honored and wants to do things well.

But now, for Jesus, what is most important in going to Martha and Mary's house? Is it to be fed and received in a dignified and even cared for manner? Or is it not rather to be able to carry out the work of his Father, to invite all men to believe in Him and through Him to know the Father. "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." Finally, did Jesus come to earth to be fed by us? Or rather to feed us? "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever." So, in speaking to the guests, at the forefront of whom is Martha's sister, Mary, Jesus is doing the work of the Father and he invites all those who are there and among them,

Martha, the mistress of the house, to believe in the work of the Father which is accomplished through Him, to open herself to the Kingdom of God which is coming through His coming.

Martha's question might imply that Mary is doing nothing. "Doesn't it bother you that my sister has left me alone to serve? Tell her to help me." But Mary isn't doing nothing; she's listening to Jesus' words. What's the point of inviting Jesus into your home, Martha, if not to listen to his words? Mary understands that it's good for at least one of the two sisters to do nothing but listen to Jesus' words, because that's what's most important. And she tells herself that her sister will adapt, to serve while listening as much as possible to Jesus' words.

This is indeed the meaning of Jesus' response: to give priority to listening to his word. The rest comes afterward. Ultimately, it is probably not necessary, even to honor Jesus, to go to great lengths. What matters above all is to open one's heart and mind to his word and to respond with an adherence of faith. Jesus does not reproach Martha for doing the service. It is good that she does so, but it is even more important to listen to his word. Martha's agitation is the reproach that Jesus makes to Martha. She worries and becomes agitated, and thereby risks missing the only necessary thing: welcoming God when he passes by, when he comes. She does too much and seems like a prisoner of her task... When she could attend to her tasks while listening to the word of Jesus. Mary, for her part, feels that welcoming Jesus means first of all listening to him and allowing herself to be nourished by him.

Let us try to apply this to our lives... We must begin by listening to the Lord in his Word until we receive him in the Eucharist... Listening to the Word of God invites us to receive him even more intimately in Eucharistic communion. So that we can then bring him to others. As Saint Bernard wrote: "we must become a basin before becoming a channel." It would be good for us to live our activities, our daily life as an extension of listening to his Word, having, thanks to it, our hearts turned towards the Lord. It is in this sense that life in the monastery, as in Carmel, is entirely turned towards God, towards listening to his Word, with the offices, the times of prayer, the reading, the work and even, among the Carmelites, the recreations, everything is done to, in a human way, in time, taking into account our rhythms, our needs, listen to God, his Word, listen to the Lord Jesus and live from Him. So, from this listening comes that we can live our activities as a putting into practice of his word. But it is important above all and first of all to listen because it is God who must act in us… and not we who must act for God.

Let us listen to what Thérèse says about it in her third manuscript, which recounts her years at Carmel. It is not Martha's labors that Jesus blames; his divine Mother humbly submitted to these labors all her life, since she had to prepare the meals for the Holy Family. It is only the anxiety of his ardent hostess that he wanted to correct. All the saints understood this, and perhaps especially those who filled the universe with the illumination of evangelical doctrine. Is it not from prayer that Saints Paul, Augustine, John of the Cross, Thomas Aquinas, Francis, Dominic, and so many other illustrious Friends of God drew this Divine science that delights the greatest geniuses? A scholar said: "Give me a lever, a fulcrum, and I will lift the world." What Archimedes could not obtain, because his request was not addressed to God and was made only from a material point of view, the Saints obtained in all its fullness. The Almighty gave them as a point of support: himself and him alone; as a lever: prayer, which sets ablaze with a fire of love, and it is thus that they raised the world; it is thus that the Saints still militant raise it and that, until the end of the world, the Saints to come will also raise it. Ms C36r°

Seeking and finding God in the ordinary things of life will only be possible if I have first let myself be found by Him. If I have let Him come to meet me, if I have exposed myself to Him, in His Word which comes to nourish me for eternal life. "You have the words of eternal life." Thérèse at Carmel lived the offices and her two hours of prayer every day, she also read the Word of God in a meditative way. She had accepted to live prayer in dryness, without feeling anything. She had accepted that, "as usual, Jesus sleeps in his little boat." But then, having listened to the Lord in the silence of her heart, it was he who guided her to live fraternal charity with her sisters, in her various occupations, in all the little things of daily life, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world.

Amen

Father Rémy Houette, Chaplain of the Sanctuary