July 29, 2005
Care
I’ve a friend who runs a shuttle service for folk who can’t manage for themselves. It’s called “Mary & Martha.”
We keep liturgical track of those biblically famous sisters on every 29th of July. Martha is the symbol of the active life, Mary, the symbol of the contemplative, the one it’s fairly obvious that Jesus prefers, but surely doesn’t limit himself to. Neither does my friend, if the name of his service is any indicator. I don’t recall it happening all that often their being so closely associated in the same endeavor as all this suggests, but it’s quite appropriate in this instance that they are.
When it comes to loving your neighbor like the M&M transporters seem to do, both styles — care taking and caregiving — remind us of our fuller life and vocation. Indeed, when the sisters’ brother Lazarus died, their union in grief, their devotion and friendship, exemplifies fidelity and service. The gospels make no bones about the fact that the company of the both of them — and my friend’s, I suspect, as well — is the kind Jesus rather enjoys keeping.