“Mom, why do I have to do the chores when my friends get to go outside and play?” This was not an uncommon question I asked of my parents on a Saturday morning when the prospects of playing tag, basketball, and soccer with my friends seemed more important than my list of chores for the morning. I thought that it was so unfair for me to be stuck inside working while my friends or brother or sister were able to go outside. The response that I usually received from my parents to my question was similar to that of Jesus’ response to Martha in today’s gospel. He essentially tells her that she should be concerned with one thing at a time and to not worry about what others are doing. Jesus just says this in passing, but it establishes a very challenging way to live – free from thinking about what others are doing and to just be concerned about myself.

While my parents’ response of “don’t compare yourself to others” is an appropriate justification of an unequal chore lists, it has become a challenge to me to not contrast my successes or my failures to others’ accomplishments. It is hard not to inquire what a classmate got on a test in order to see “how well I did”. A classmate’s test grade has no impact on mine – how well I do on a test in a class, or playing a game of soccer should determine my success. This is tough because it requires me to establish goals, strive to achieve them, and then reflect on how well I did in achieving them. This is a difficult process. It is much easier to look at someone else as a measure of my abilities and capabilities rather than to introspectively decipher my own success. Martha may be frustrated that Mary is not helping with the serving of the food; but as Jesus tells her, she should be concerned with her own actions and not consider her situation relative to another.