From today’s gospel: “Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.’ The Lord said to her in reply, ‘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.'"

From John Martens, “One Necessary Thing", America magazine, July 4-11, 2016: “With Jesus we are not judged by how much we can accomplish, but we are accepted for who we are. Jesus asks us to spend time with him. Our worth is not dependent upon what we can do but upon who we are: beloved friends of Jesus, who calls us to be with him and love him."

Teachers, who spend a fair amount of time planning lessons and grading their outcomes, and students, who want to do well, especially on assessments and assignments, may well find this gospel passage challenging. We have all heard the cries; perhaps we have made them ourselves: “Who will help me with this Spanish translation? Who will help me so that I can grade all these essays? Who knows how to do this Boyle’s Law problem?" But there it is: “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

Professor Martens makes it a little clearer: “Jesus asks us to spend time with him." It is clear that De La Salle wanted his teachers to live this as well. He wrote in the Rule of 1718 that in living the essential spirit of faith, the New Testament should be carried and read daily: spending time with God in the Word. In the Rule of 1708, he refers to interior prayer as the “first and principal of their [Brother teachers’] daily exercises": spending time with God in prayer. How else could De La Salle instruct the teachers to “recognize Jesus beneath the poor rags of the children you have to instruct; adore him in them" (Med. 96.3) if they did not spend time with Christ, so as to know him when they saw him?

The San Miguel student handbook has said, for as long as I can remember, that students are expected to do two to three hours of home study each night (p. 13 of 2016-2017 handbook). This is important, and we must encourage it. But as our incoming freshmen report tomorrow, perhaps we should consider how we encourage our students, especially by our example, to spend time with Jesus – “the better part" who accepts us “for who we are."