MARTHA AND MARY
Women also loved Jesus. He who had the
form and flesh of a man, who left His mother and never had a wife, was surrounded
all His life and after His death by the warmth of feminine tenderness. The virtuous
wanderer was loved by women as no man was ever loved, or ever can be loved
again. The pure man, who condemned adultery and fornication, had over women the
inestimable prestige of innocence.
All women, who are not mere females,
kneel before him who does not bow before them. The husband with all his legal
love and authority, the drunken men with all their mistresses, the eloquent
adulterer, the bold ravisher, have not so much power over the spirit of women
as he who loves them without touching them, he who saves them without asking
for even a kiss as reward. Woman, slave of her body, of her weakness, her
desire and of the desire of the male, is drawn to him who frees her, to him who
cures her, to him who loves her and asks no more from her than a cup of water,
a smile, a little silent attention.
Women loved Jesus. They stopped when
they saw Him pass, they followed Him when they saw Him speaking to His friends,
they drew near to the house where He had gone in, they brought their children
to Him, they blessed Him loudly, they touched His garment to be cured of their
ills, they were happy when they could serve Him. All of them might have cried
out to Him, like the woman who raised her voice in the midst of the multitude: "Blessed is the womb that bare ye, and
the breasts which thou hath sucked." (Luke 11:27)
Many followed Him to death. Salome,
mother of the Sons of Thunder; Mary, mother of James the less; Martha and Mary
of Bethany.
They would have liked to be His
sisters, His servants, His slaves; to serve Him, to set bread before Him, to
pour Him wine, to wash His garments, to anoint His tired feet and His flowing
hair. Some of them were fortunate enough to be allowed to follow Him, and knew
the still greater good fortune of helping Him with their money . . . "and the twelve were with him, And
certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary,
called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna, the wife of Chuza,
Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of
their substance." (Luke 8:2-3) Women, in whom piety is a native gift
of the heart before it is acquired through desire for perfection, were, as they
have always been, more generous than men.
When He appears in the house of
Lazarus, two women, the two sisters of the man brought back from death, seem
distracted with joy. Martha rushes towards Him to see what He needs, if He
wishes to wash, if He wishes to eat at once, and, bringing Him into the house,
she leads Him to the couch that He may lie down, puts over Him a blanket lest
He be cold, and runs with a pitcher to get fresh cool water. Then, on her
return, she sets to work to prepare for the pilgrim a fine meal, much more
abundant than the ordinary dinner of the family. With all haste she lights a
great fire, goes to get fresh fish, new-laid eggs, figs and olives; she borrows
from one neighbor a piece of new-killed lamb, from another a costly perfume,
from another richer than she, a flowered dish. She pulls out from the
linen-chest the newest table-cloth, and brings up from the wine-cellar the
oldest wine. And while the wood snaps and sparkles in the fire and the water in
the kettle begins to simmer, poor Martha, bustling, flushed, hurrying, sets the
table, runs between the kneading-trough and the fire, glances at the waiting
Master, at the street to see if her brother is coming home, and at her sister,
who is doing nothing at all.
For when Jesus passed the sill of
their house, Mary fell into a sort of motionless ecstasy from which nothing
could arouse her. She sees only Jesus, hears nothing but Jesus' voice. There is
nothing else in the world for her at that moment. She cannot have enough of
looking at Him, of listening to Him, of feeling Him there, living, close to
her. If He glances at her, she is happy to be looked at; if He does not look at
her, she fixes her eyes on Him; if He speaks, His words drop one by one into
her heart, there to remain to her death; if He is silent, she draws from His
silence a more direct revelation. And she is almost troubled by the bustling
and stepping about of her sister. Why should Martha think that Jesus needs an
elaborate dinner? Mary is seated at His feet and does not move even if Martha
or Lazarus call her. She is at the service of Jesus, but in another way. She
has given Him her soul, only her soul, but such a loving soul! And the work of
her hands would be inappropriate and unnecessary. She is a thoughtful soul, an
adorer. She will take action only to cover the dead body of her God with
perfumes. She would move quickly enough if He should ask of her all her
life-blood. But the rest, all this business of Martha, is only material activity
which is no concern of hers.
Women loved Him and He retaliated this
love with compassion. No woman who turned to Him was sent away unhappy, or sad.
The sorrow of the widow of Nain made Him sorrow, so that He brought to life her
dead son; the prayers of the Canaanite woman, although she was a foreigner to
Him, wrought on Him to cure her daughter; the unknown woman which had a "spirit of infirmity" eighteen
years, and was bowed together and could in no wise lift herself, was cured,
although it was on the Sabbath day and the rulers of the synagogue cried, "Sacrilege!" In the first part
of His wanderings He cured Peter's wife's mother of fever and the Magdalene of
evil spirits. He brought to life the daughter of Jairus, and cured that unknown
woman who had suffered for twelve years from a bloody issue.
The learned men of His time had no esteem for women in
spiritual matters. They tolerated their presence at the sacred festivals, but
they never would have thought of teaching high and secret doctrines to any
woman. "The words of the Law,"
says a rabbinical proverb of that time, "rather
than teach them to a woman, burn them up!" Jesus on the other hand did
not hesitate to speak to them of the highest mysteries. When He went alone to
the well of Sichar, and the Samaritan woman who had had five husbands came
there, He did not hesitate to proclaim His message to her, although she was a
woman and an enemy of His people. "But
the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit:
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John
4:23-24) His Disciples came up, and could not understand what the Master was
doing. "And marveled that he talked
with the woman." (Vs. 27) They did not yet know that the Church of
Christ would make a woman the link between the sons and the Son—the woman who
unites in herself the two supreme possibilities of Woman: the Virgin Mother who
suffered from the night in Bethlehem until the night of Golgotha.
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