The setting of the gospel this Sunday is in Bethany. The house in Bethany, near Jerusalem, was a place Jesus would stop and rest with his disciples. In the city, he was drawn into debates; he found there antagonism and rejection. In Bethany, instead, he felt welcome and found peace.
 
There is much affection in repeating this name: “Martha, Martha”! She was enterprising and active. She showed it later when her brother died and she engaged Jesus in a lengthy conversation, questioning him energetically. She was a strong woman who showed great faith. When “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life…Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe’”  (Jn 11:25-27). She answered without any hesitation.
 
At this point she was extremely busy, organizing a special welcome for the master and his disciples. She was the mistress of the house (as her name suggests: Martha means “mistress”), and so she felt responsible. She was probably preparing the evening meal for her important guest. Her sister Mary had left her all alone to do the work. Contrary to the traditions of the East. Mary did not go to the kitchen but remained with the men to listen to Jesus, sitting at his feet, just like the perfect disciple. This gave rise to the rather resentful comment by Martha:
 
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me” (Lk 10:40), which led to Jesus’s affectionate, yet firm reply: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.”
 
Didn’t he appreciate her concrete and practical way of welcoming him, and wouldn’t he be happy to eat the food that was being prepared? Later in his parables he will praise the administrators, business people and employees who know how to use their talents creatively and do business with their goods. (see Lk 12:22; 19:12-26). He even praises shrewdness (see Lk 16:1-8). He could not but rejoice at seeing a woman so full of initiative and capable of giving a warm and abundant  welcome.
 
What Jesus calls attention to, however, is the state she was in: how bothered and worried she was about her work. She has lost her calm.  It is no longer she who controls her work, but her work that takes control and tyrannizes her. She is no longer free; she has become a slave to what she does. We too can be drawn and distracted by the internet, by messaging, by useless posts. Even when we have serious   commitments to occupy us, they can make us forget to be  attentive to  others, to listen to people right next to us. Above all, we can lose sight of why and who we are working for. Our work and other concerns become ends in themselves.
 
The way for us of welcoming the Lord, of making him feel at home, is to welcome what he says. This is what Mary did: forgetting everything else, she put herself at his feet and did not miss a single word. Doing this we will be guided not by our desire to be noticed or to have the first place, but only by pleasing him, by being at the service of his kingdom of which we are reminded each time we pray the “Our Father”.   (Cited in Living City)