The saint is he whose life is about one thing. One thing. Not many things. Not in the sense that he has tunnel vision. Not in the sense that he does nothing else. But in the sense that he has very clear the need to order everything in his life according to the highest value. You are worried about many things. One thing is necessary. (cf. Lk 10,41-42)

Problem not so much the service. But the distraction. Martha. Martha! (as if trying to grab her attention…slow down. Stop! Listen!): you are worried and concerned about many things. Many things are grabbing for your attention!

Distracted with what? Thomas Aquninas speaks about the big four: Money, power, pleasure, status. Money: my identity in what I have instead of who I am. Things. as if those things would make my character, would make me of a greater value. Power. The wish to control. The wish to fulfill expectations I have placed upon myself. 4 Billion. That sum varies according to which study you read. But that is amount of Euros the German economy loses each year because of burn out. My identity is what I do. What I accomplish. I feel good because I have accomplished much. I am my performance. Perhaps there was some of that in Martha. She saw herself as value when she worked, when she did things. Pleasure. The danger as the deeper things of life like love are on another level and often involve sacrifice. There is the compounded danger of reducing others to objects of value. They are valuable insofar they are a source of pleasure. Status. Perhaps there was some of that in Martha as well. This façade that we build around ourselves, this false identity that I try to project toward the outside: look at me! This is me, the masks and the armor around the heart to hide from the true self. “You have lifted me out from behind my back, because it is there that I hidden so as not to see myself as I truly am.” (Augustine)

Cant you also be about “one thing” in evil? I don’t think you can. The formula that CS Lewis describes in his “Screwtape Letters” for tempting people is: “An ever smaller pleasure for an ever greater price.” You can become your bottle. Or your search for status. Or the power games in your relationship… but if you think about, all these things alienate you from yourself, your greater calling, they leave you scattered in a thousand small and petty interests (interesting, that in the bible the devil is at times referred to as the one who scatters), they make you lose your true identity, your calling to greatness, a play thing to conflicting interests, a weather cock blowing wherever expectations of others or your passions take you. Nothing against passion. “More lost is the person who has lost his passion than the person lost in his passion.” (Augustine) It’s not about quelling our deepest longings. It’s not about looking for nothing, but about a passionate search for that which really matters.

The only way your life is truly about one thing is when it is aiming upward, not downward.

Another perspective. That of freedom. I can only give myself to someone when I have full possession of myself, or to the degree in which I have myself in my own hands and give myself a determination toward a goal. That involves freedom from pressure from outside forces. It also involves a depth of self-possession. Very many decisions we make do not come from the depths of our own interiority. I am driven by expectations, the big four mentioned earlier. Many things. Freedom presupposes that I am not driven by these things. In a marriage what conquers my heart is the fact that you had options, you didn’t have to choose me. But you wanted to. What does my yes mean if I can’t say no. (C. West)

But freedom also means something else. It means decision. But decision that comes from self-possession, that capacity to dispose of my whole self, my intellect, my emotions, my dreams, my hopes and direct them toward something. Yes, if I have finally decided to study chemistry I feel a sense of freedom. But precisely by limiting this freedom. I am not a slave of indecision. When I marry I say no to very many other possibilities. But it is a freeing decision. Because freedom is for decision. Not for keeping all my options open. “Man searches more for love than for freedom. Freedom is the means. Love is the goal.” (JP2) But not all decisions liberate. Think about the bottle earlier. Addictions start with bad decisions. And that means: Freedom has to do with truth and goodness. The greater the objective good, the greater the freedom. That, which is truly good for me. And it should become clear that the greatest good is God himself. That is why the decision for God and the decision to order everything else according to God is the greatest freedom. This is the paradox of human freedom. And its greatness.

“The one thing” for the Christian is ultimately Christ himself. It is to seek a personal relationship with him. Not just being his waiter, but seeking him. He is the highest value. He is the only thing that can ultimately quench the deepest longings of the human heart. That decision to make him the Center of our lives and the criteria through which every decision is made is that, which lifts up man to the heights of his calling, shows him his true identity.

This is why Mary in last Sunday’s gospel is so telling. Sitting at the feet of the master. We need these times of silence. These times of reflection. I think of myself. I love podcasts and listening to books and forming myself. But at some point, I made the decision to not listen to a podcast when eating breakfast alone. Nothing against formation and audio books and podcasts. Noise, even good noise, can keep us from reflecting on deeper things. I love my time of meditation in the morning and adoration during the day. Once a week and a bit longer once a month I try to spend a longer time in prayer and reflection. I don’t know what your rhythms look like or could look like. But it does us a lot of good to think about our aim. Are we aiming up or aiming down. Which direction am I running. What is my one thing.

God bless,
Fr. George