But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10: 40-42

We just missed our bus. The next one could come in few minutes or half hour. We were the perfect target for a random conversation. An older man approached us and blurted a completely unrelated comment. It seemed like the conversation had started its course in his head before he brought us into it. He told us that he counted the number of homeless adults yesterday and there were at least 320 in one particular neighborhood. Then, he made a dramatic pause waiting for our reaction. He was a little disappointed when there was none. We live in the center of the city. The homeless are part and parcel of our geography. We have also noticed the increase of the homeless population in the past few months. The old man decided to proceed nevertheless. Thankfully, he was succinct. He wanted to share his diagnosis of the situation. “Life is too easy and comfortable for the homeless here. Too many people feed them and give them clothes and blankets. They don’t feel the need to work and be motivated to leave the street.” Basically, according to this man, these people suffer cold, rejection and humiliation on a daily basis because they are lazy.

Unfortunately, it is not based on his observation but he is merely repeating a popular opinion. I even heard preachers say these almost identical words. Our conversation did not progress much after this statement. It is hard to advance a reasonable dialogue with anyone who thinks that living and sleeping in the streets easy and comfortable. It is obvious that this man came to his conclusion based on his life experiences. He worked and maintained his family. He was not from the poor class although he might consider himself poor. The definition of poor, according to many, is not being rich. By default, most of us are poor. However, most of the homeless do not come from the same background as many of us. Besides there is no simplistic theory to explain their presence in the streets. Each person has their story and being homeless is never their first choice. It is the bottom of the pit.

I did not add anything to the conversation. The man mistook my silence as agreement. However, I did not feel compelled to justify myself. It wasn’t necessary. I was hoping for the bus to come soon. It did and we were able to excuse ourselves politely. I was ready to forget the whole incident but here I am writing about it. It is because of Martha and Mary. These two women kept this encounter alive in my thoughts.

The whole week I was mulling over this gospel passage. I was trying to listen to God’s voice. There was total silence. I was looking for something special, a conversation or event. Something that would spark some deep insight into the characters of Martha and Mary. It turned out to be a normal and uneventful week. At least, I thought it was uninteresting. I was beginning to get frustrated. I realized that I was being a Martha. She was trying to make Jesus’ visit special. She was trying to create an ideal environment for His time with them. She did not realize that she was missing the whole point. Too busy trying to make His visit memorable, she forgot the most memorable event is the presence of Jesus Himself.

I decided that I was going to adopt Mary’s approach. I am talking about Martha’s Mary here. I decided not to look for anything special or spectacular to write about. I was just going to see if I could see Jesus clearly like Mary did when she sat at His feet. I was gently reminded of the encounter with the old man. Jesus was present there. However, He was ignored. The man saw the homeless but he did not see Jesus. He was also present in our conversation with him but I was not able to see Him. I was too busy hoping for the bus to come so that I could be freed from the conversation. No doubt I considered myself to be better than this man. In reality, we are the same. We reacted to the situations presented before us in the same way. Both of us had attitudes of self-righteousness. We acted just like anyone else in the world. Jesus was present there but He was allocated to the role of a spectator. Even though the homeless are His children, we never considered what He thought about them. Jesus was present in Martha’s household and He was a mere guest, albeit a very highly honored one. Jesus did not alter Martha’s behavior or outlook but Mary listened to Jesus. She knew that it was more important to listen to this man than try to impress Him with all kinds of hospitality. We forget sometimes, listening to our guest is usually the best form of hospitality. Mary was truly the most hospital person in the Martha’s household.

Early in the week, we had another brief encounter with a young man. This time it was in the streets with the children and teens. His name is Willian. He is not exactly a homeless youth. We have known him since his late teens. Now he is in early twenties. Unfortunately, he had just spent his early part of his adult years in prison. He used to play games with me and liked talking with us. He is a highly intelligent man with a great sense of humor. We knew that he was involved in criminal activities but we never pried. It was not our business. Willian came up to us to greet us. He told us that he just got our prison a few days ago. I asked him if he planned to stay out of prison. He sighed and said no. He looked a little resigned. He told us that he is part of the “movement” and there was no way out. He thinks that his life is going to be spent in and out of prison. The “movement” is the street name for gangs in Brazil. In São Paulo, there is only one street gang. Consequently, there are no gang wars and it has reduced the number of gang related homicides and violence. They are solely into drug trafficking. It was the first time a gang member openly admitted to us that he was part of the “movement”. Mary tried to tell him that change is always an option. He wasn’t convinced. I said that maybe he was lacking the one thing that he needs to inspire to drop everything and change the course of his life. He nodded his head. He hasn’t found it yet. There was nothing to say. I told him that when he finds this one thing, we will be here ready to help him. He shook our hands and went to “work”.

We both felt that in our interaction with Willian, it was easier to listen to Jesus’ voice. We did not offer a ready made solution to him. We did not feel the need to lecture him. We knew that he was struggling to do what is right. We wanted to convey this to him. This is how we knew that we were listening to the Spirit. Jesus confronts real life with all its complexities. He does not offer pat answers to difficult situation. Willian chose this life because he thought that this was the best option available to him. Going in and out of prison for the rest of your life is not something anyone would choose as their first choice. We don’t know much about Willian but we know that Life wasn’t fair to him. Now, he feels like he is stuck, at the same time, we believe that he wants to hear that there is still hope. Perhaps, this is why God has placed him in our lives. Our interactions with him might be minimum but if we listen to Jesus, we might be able to transmit to him something that might have eternal effects. This is all we can do, transmit what we receive from Jesus.

It is peculiar that the two encounters we had this week, I was both a Martha and a Mary. In the streets, I find it easy to be a Mary. Maybe because the situation in itself is so overwhelming that it is easier to admit that we need to listen Jesus for wisdom. There is not much use trying to run around doing things that amount to nothing. Although, it hasn’t stopped the “Marthas of this world.” We have seen them come and go. They feel like they need to do something positive and they do tons of good but eventually they get frustrated. We can get frustrated too. This is why we need to listen to the One who is able fill our hearts with love and compassion. The question is not necessarily how to be a Mary. I think that all of us have a place where we find it easy to be like Mary. I find it easy to listen to Jesus among the homeless but not with people who pontificate how to solve the problems of the world. This is why we are still here. Being among the homeless brings us closer to Jesus. There are different places for different people. The challenge is for us to discover the best place that helps us see Jesus clearly. When I was serving as a parish priest, I was trying to be a Martha most of the time. However, to be fair, there were many moments where I learned to be a Mary. The truth is that we vacillate between Mary and Martha in our lives. We can’t be one nor the other all the time. We just have to find the perfect place where we can sense God’s peace to just sit and listen to Jesus and then share His love to those around us.