“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax”……”I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Luke about two sisters, Martha and Mary….Jesus enters their home and Martha is busy doing all the things one would do to be a good host…Mary on the other hand simply sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to him gazing at his presence…At the sight of this Martha gets mad at her sister…..”“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me”…..Jesus responds to Martha with a surprising statement…”“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her”…To our goal orientated American mind we would think Mary is a “slacker” and that Martha is the one who Jesus would be the most pleased with…However, that was not the case…Doing good works as Martha was doing is wonderful but if we do not stop and pray and build our interior life first, like Mary was doing…The good works will cease and not have a lasting impact…..What can we learn from this story?….Everything we do as Catholics comes from our interior life, which is built up by prayer, fasting and Sacramental grace….If we do not prioritize this activities, we will not bear lasting fruit for the Kingdom of God…..Some may read this and disagree…But Jesus addresses that disagreement with these words…..”Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing”…Mary in our story understood that…And Martha did not…How about you?

“O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar”

Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax”……If we want God to do great things through us, we must empty our self of our very self and then the Lord can fill us with his Holy Spirit…How do we empty our self?…By embracing sacrificial love, which is lived out daily through our individual vocation…As a married man, I give of my self fully to my wife and children…I share my wealth with the poor…..I share my time to serve my neighbor…That is how I empty myself…How do I fill my self with the Holy Spirit?…..I read the Bible every morning……I go to daily Mass most days of the work week…I pray the Rosary with my wife and children each night…I pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet when I walk to the my office for the people of New York City….I go to a Sacramental Confession two times a month…I go to Eucharistic Adoration for one hour each week…I go to Sunday Mass with my family…I fast every Wednesday for the Church and Friday for the World…In doing those things, trusting in God who does EVERYTHING through me because without God’s grace I CAN DO NOTHING!!!!!….Only then can I be properly used as “an instrument” and "bear fruit for the Kingdom of God"….."Because without me you can do nothing”......Most people try it the “Martha way” as we saw in our story today…Martha did not put her emphasis on her interior life and thought she could “do the work of God” relying on herself (A very American way to look at things)…Mary did the opposite of that…And Jesus tells us who took the better of the two approaches…..”Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

“My soul also you knew full well; nor was my frame unknown to you. When I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.”

Getting back to our gospel story today…Jesus was not knocking Martha, he was trying to instruct her…Martha meant well..She was a “doer” and that is great…However, even the most gifted among us must remember that without “being connected to the vine” we can do nothing that is lasting for the Kingdom of God…We must rely on the grace of God for EVERYTHING, and we must empty ourself through acts of sacrificial love in accordance with our vocation in life so God can then fill us with his grace…This is the “winning formula”…This is the “blue print” of the saints…And the saints model for us a path to Christ…..Mary figured that out and frankly so did the great Abraham Lincoln…..Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax”……”I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit”