If Jesus Christ truly is the one Lord of life and history, the one Savior, the one Way, Truth, and Life (which he is), then it is certain that "only one" thing is needed for a fulfilling, meaningful, and fruitful life: to stay as close to him as possible at all times.

Much more important than what we can do for Christ is what we can be for him, and what he can be for us. Martha was doing all kinds of tasks, and that was good. But Mary was listening to him, letting him serve her, being his close, intimate friend, and that was even better, "the better part". Friendship with Christ is the one thing needed.

Therefore, our task here on earth is to make a conscious choice to shape our lives accordingly, to keep Christ first, to live from his love and for his love.

Jesus doesn't congratulate Mary because she won the spiritual lottery or had received a particularly beautiful soul from God. He praises her because she has "chosen the better part." She chooses it. She chooses to submit to the Lord, to let him be for her what he in truth already is for everyone - the one needed thing.

Martha, on the other hand, has a divided heart. She loves Christ, but she still depends on her own strength to earn his love in return. She hasn't learned that what matters is not so much what we can do for Christ as what he has done and wants to do for us.

Jesus kindly teaches her in this encounter that the greatest thing she can do for him, the "one needed thing", is to let him rule completely over her heart, to take her place at his feet and listen to his words.

Supernatural Benefits

Keeping our relationship with God as the first priority enables us to live supernaturally. It gives God room to do things in our lives that, by our natural powers alone, we could never do.

This is the lesson of the Abraham and Sarah from the book of Genesis. Their mysterious visitors, the three angels, were messengers from God. Some biblical scholars even think it was the Holy Trinity himself appearing to Abraham.

In any case, Abraham recognized the extraordinary nature of his visitors, and he adjusted his own plans in order to honor them - just as Mary did in the Gospel passage: she put everything on hold in order to honor Christ. And what is the result?

Sarah becomes pregnant, although she and Abraham are well beyond the age in which they can have children. God works a supernatural wonder in their lives.

Whenever we keep God first, he always works wonders. Every priest who gives his life to serve God is proof of this. He does something supernatural at every Mass and in every confession.

Through his hands, Christ himself becomes present in the Eucharist, and through him Christ himself forgives sins. By choosing "the better part", a man who follows his vocation to the priesthood unleashes God's grace to work through him in miraculous ways.

Every saint is proof of this. Think of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. A little nun from Albania, tending the poor in Calcutta, and on February 3, 1994, she was invited to give the keynote speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, in which she explained the gospel of life to some of the world's most powerful people, many of whom were pro-abortion.

This is the kind of work God can do in us and through us, supernatural work, if we choose "the better part."

The Daily Choice

Every day we are faced with the choice to be more like Martha or more like Mary. This is one of the most amazing things about Christianity. God respects our freedom so much that, in a sense, he leaves our destiny in our own hands.

We can freely choose our priorities in life. We can make our own achievements our highest priority, like Martha, or we can make knowing, loving, and imitating Christ our highest priority. Christ offers the benefits of following him to all people, but he leaves each person supremely free to accept or reject them.

And the offer is not a one-time affair. Martha chose to busy herself with her own plans on this occasion, but you can bet she adjusted her behavior the next time.

Mary chose to listen to the Lord this time, but he wouldn't force her to do so again the next time. Every single time we choose to give Christ and his will priority in our lives, we allow his sanctifying, healing grace to seep deeper into our lives.

Sunday morning, we have chosen to come and listen to the Lord. What will we choose tomorrow morning? Tuesday? Jesus is hoping that we will continue to choose this "better part".

It isn't hard. It's a matter of spending ten minutes with him before getting distracted with the day's activities. It could be ten minutes of reading and reflecting on a passage from the Bible or a paragraph from a book of Christian meditations. It could be praying a decade or two of the Rosary before we turn on the morning news show.

Jesus wants us to choose the better part, to depend more on him than ourselves, so that he can give us his best. Today, let's promise that we will.