16C Sunday Homily, Luke 10:38-42, July 20, 2025
By: Fr. Vincent
Corbelli, MM
STORY
There was an
elderly man who used his rowboat to ferry people across a small river. The work “work” was written on one of the oars
and “pray” on the other oar. One day a
young man got in the boat and noticed the oars with the two words. He commented to the elderly man that in
today’s world what was important was “work.” “Pray” was not necessary. The elderly man said nothing but used only the
oar marked work to row the boat. The
result was that the small boat only went in a circle making no progress toward
the other shore. The young man learned
that to get to his goal both “work” and “pray” were necessary.
2) GOSPEL, Luke
10:38-42
A. Martha was a
wonderful host seeing to all the needs of her guest, Jesus. She prepared a meal and made Jesus feel right
at home. However, she was upset with her
sister Mary for not helping her in her work.
B. Mary was not
idle. She was listening very attentively
to every word spoken by Jesus. She was
listening to the words of life. Jesus
informed Martha that what Mary was doing was very important, and it should not
be taken from her.
3) APPLICATION TO
LIFE
A. Work is
important
It provides us
with our livelihood. We should do our
work whether in the factory, office, school, or home with care and
responsibility. We should respect our
superiors and co-workers and work in a spirit of cooperation to get the job
done.
B. Pray
We always need
God’s help to get the job done so we must pray. Here are some suggestions on how to pray in
our busy lives:
i) When you awake
pray, “Jesus, please help me and my family during today. “Before going to bed pray, “Thank you Jesus
for helping me and my family too.”
ii) Say one Hail
Mary or Our Father for yourself, one for your family, and one for a sick or
needy person. If time permits, you could
say the rosary, attend Mass or read the bible.
4) CONCLUSION
As two oars were
needed to reach the goal and Jesus appreciated both Martha’s and Mary’s role
when he visited them, so we, too, must remember that to reach our goal of a
happy life and heaven, we must both work and pray.
