“They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. ”
via USCCB | NAB – April 18, 2011.
This passage shows us the different strengths of each individual. Martha is the care giver and Mary is the contemplative who is happiest sitting by the feet of Jesus just loving on Him. Ideally we all should have a bit of each one within our own personalities or things can get out of balance. I’ve heard it said that where our greatest gift is, there also lies our greatest temptation. If we are the Martha type then we may get so busy doing that we forget to sometimes just sit and ‘be’ with Jesus. Or if we are like Mary, we may need to be prodded into looking around us a bit and seeing how we can best serve the Jesus in others today.