20250729 AN INTEGRATED MINISTRY ORGINATES FROM GOD’S LOVE FOR US
29 July 2025, Tuesday, Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus
First reading | 1 John 4:7-16 |
Let us love one another, since love comes from God
My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,
because God is love.
God’s love for us was revealed
when God sent into the world his only Son
so that we could have life through him;
this is the love I mean:
not our love for God,
but God’s love for us when he sent his Son
to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God;
but as long as we love one another
God will live in us
and his love will be complete in us.
We can know that we are living in him
and he is living in us
because he lets us share his Spirit.
We ourselves saw and we testify
that the Father sent his Son
as saviour of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in him, and he in God.
We ourselves have known and put our faith in
God’s love towards ourselves.
God is love
and anyone who lives in love lives in God,
and God lives in him.
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; 42 one thing is needful.* Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”
AN INTEGRATED MINISTRY ORGINATES FROM GOD’S LOVE FOR US
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [1 JOHN 4:7-16; LK 10:38-42]
What caught my attention were the words of today’s Gospel when the evangelist wrote that Martha “was distracted with all the serving.” We can easily identify with her because we are called to active ministry — whether as volunteers, full-time workers, or simply as lay apostles in the world. Regardless of what we do and where we are, life today is very demanding. We are always on the move, and many demands are made on us – whether in our studies, community and family life, work, pastoral ministry, or personal responsibilities. Very few among the lay faithful can understand why even priests, religious, and seminarians feel stressed in their vocations, when they should be at peace with themselves, composed, and joyful in their ministry.
What is worse is that when we are under stress, we react exactly like Martha, who said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.” Yes, we begin to complain and grumble that we have too much work and too many responsibilities. In our quiet moments, we may even feel resentful that others seem to have easier tasks and fewer demands placed on them. We start to feel angry and jealous when we begin to make comparisons. Instead of being grateful for God’s blessings and gifts — which enable us to serve Him more effectively — we begin to see such blessings as burdens or even curses. We may wish we had fewer resources or gifts, just so we could do less and feel less guilty when we rest. Others seem to be taking holidays all the time, while we are condemned to labour endlessly for those under our care. We become aggrieved with those who do not do their job properly, leaving us to shoulder their responsibilities on top of our own. Hence, it is only natural that we become impatient when more demands are made on us, especially when people come to us for help day in and day out.
When we feel annoyed, irritable and waiting to jump on anyone who bothers us, does it mean that we don’t love Jesus? It may seem that way. St. John’s letter makes it clear that “God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” Yet we must be fair to ourselves. At least on a conscious and intellectual level, we do want to love God and serve our neighbours. We want to be responsible, like Martha. But we are suffering from burnout. We are worn out — not just from a lack of physical or mental rest, but from the absence of spiritual rest in the Lord. We are not imbibing and basking in His love, and so our inner well has run dry.
If only we take time to rest in the Lord as Mary did, by sitting at His feet, we would become more aware of our underlying motives that drive us to serve the People of God and our loved ones. The truth is, we might not always be doing everything for Jesus, but for ourselves. We want to feel good about ourselves — to be needed, loved, appreciated, and noticed. That is why, even in church work and ministry, jealousy, comparison, and envy often arise when others seem to be doing better. We become critical of those who are successful in ministry when we should be happy that they are drawing people to Christ. Why should it matter whether it is I who draws them to Jesus, or someone else? Clearly, when we feel jealous of others in ministry — especially when they are fruitful, recognized, and appreciated — it is because of our own insecurity. We feel sorry for ourselves instead of looking outward and thanking God for the blessings He has bestowed on others who have been instrumental in changing lives and giving hope to many. This was certainly the case with Martha. She, too, sought attention and affirmation from Jesus. Indeed, we must humbly acknowledge that we have mixed or imperfect motives even when serving the Lord and His people.
Like us, she thought that the best way to get Jesus’ recognition was by doing things for Him, rather than simply being with Him. Being with Jesus does not seem very productive to us. This is the first reason — but there is also another: we do not receive attention or commendation when we pray. Some people do not pray because it is not something others can “see”. We are not recognized or praised for the time we spend in prayer. Yet, for some, there is the temptation to seek attention by displaying their piety through outward participation in prayer, sometimes with exaggerated gestures. As the Lord said, “whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.” (Mt 6:5-8)
So, what can we do to strengthen and purify our motives for serving God and doing all things for His greater glory? We can gradually perfect our love for God by recognizing, like Mary did, that God’s love must precede our love for Him. This is what St. John seeks to underscore. He writes, “Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him: this is the love I mean: not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” He reiterates this point when he says, “we ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves.”
Indeed, our vocation and ministry must spring from the fundamental experience of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus — especially through His passion, death and resurrection. So long as we think we are doing something for God or for Jesus, our ego will control our ministry and service. We risk becoming proud and self-righteous, like the scribes and Pharisees. Nay, we must never think that we can do anything for Christ on our own. Rather, our ministry should be a response to the love that we have received from Him. It is because of what the Lord has done for us that we seek to give back — not to repay a debt (which is impossible), but simply out of gratitude. We serve out of thanksgiving, to glorify Him so that others, too, may come to know how good our God is. The love of Jesus for us surpasses anything we could ever return. Hence, no matter what we do, we are but unworthy servants, unable to repay the love with which He has loved us.
Therefore, the question we need to ask ourselves is this: Is my ministry truly a response to the experience of God’s love for me, or is it driven more by a desire for personal fulfilment and the gratification of my ego? Are we serving Him because it gives meaning to our lives, or because we are so moved by His love that we cannot help proclaim how wonderful and great God’s love is in Jesus? If our ministry is a response to God’s love for us, then we will also acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. And because He is God’s Son, we know that everything can only be accomplished with Christ and in Christ. Consequently, our ministry is not dependent on ourselves, but on Christ working in and through us. As St. John writes, “we can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit. We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.”
Secondly, are all my activities simply a way to fill the gaps in an otherwise boring life, or a means to add more laurels for my crown? Or are they truly done out of love for God and our fellowmen? St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor 13:3) If we have done everything for the love of others, we would not experience such deep frustration within ourselves — especially when we do not get the response we hoped for. Instead, we would feel only sympathy for those who are lacklustre in responding to the call to conversion. We would be happy just to do what we can and not to be too overly concerned about what we cannot do. When we love without ambition, we are more relaxed and at peace with whatever the outcome, knowing that it is Christ who makes our work fruitful. We do everything for His glory, not ours. For His greater glory, we would be willing to surrender even our possessions and our own glory.
In the light of all we have said, it is therefore critical that we spend time with Jesus — sitting at the feet of our Master, resting in his overwhelming love, just as Mary did. As Jesus tried to enlighten Martha, saying, “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.” Yes, we must follow the example of St. John Mary Vianney and that of Mother Teresa, both of whom had a profound love for the Eucharist and the Blessed Sacrament — even while living out intensely very active ministries.
We must consciously remind ourselves of the need to preserve the unity of life between prayer and ministry. Being must come before doing. We are called to be configured in Christ first, before we can effectively carry out the work of the Lord. We must fight against this constant temptation to forget the need to strengthen our call to holiness — to have a share of His heart — because we are too eager to be in action all the time. Like Martha, we need to recognize the warning signs that we have lost focus and balance: when we become selfish, irritable, self-centred, and lose our sense of inner peace or worse still, when we begin to experience symptoms of burnout.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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