Sunday Homily, July , 2007, 16th of the Year
Readings: Genesis 18, 1-10; Psalm 15; Colossians 1, 24-28; Luke 10, 38-42
Genesis: the word means "origin," and that is what the book details. Our selection today comes after the creation, Cain & Abel, Noah & the flood, & the tower of Babel. The big three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.
In our reading Abraham is now old, as is Sarah, his wife. They have no son. After their hospitality to two strangers, guess what happens?
Activist or Contemplative?
The years I lived in Tanzania I used to travel constantly giving retreats & seminars. When I finished a stretch, I would return to our little Jesuit house near Kilimanjaro to catch up on perhaps 2 or 3 months of mail, to work up more seminar material, and to relax.
One morning I was working at some task at my desk next to a front window when I saw the car of one of my best friends coming in the gravel drive. He was a French Canadian priest who, when he was not working with me on one of our programs, lived in Dar es Salaam, the capital of the country.
As soon as I saw him I remember feeling uncomfortable. As Rosemary says, I can get anal about projects. I am sure that morning I had my time all mapped out with various projects. My friend’s arrival meant he had driven up from Dar es Salaam and I was going to have to go be hospitable for a while. Maybe he wanted to spend the night. We did not have phone service, so you could not communicate. You just showed up and the African custom was hospitality above all, day or night.
Somehow I must have managed, and I can’t even remember how long he stayed.
All the people in the world are divided into one of two categories: activist or contemplative. Today we call it Type A or Type B. We are born into our group, like being right or left handed. Both groups have their positive characteristics and their negatives.
Type A, for example, is efficient, economic with time, likes to start on time and finish on time. As you know, I am Type A. When I notice we are running over an hour with our Mass, I get antsy. Type A people get energy from projects and love to tackle problems and challenges. The energy enables these people to work long hours, even without breaks. Work schedules are established and followed. When you were in school, did you turn in term papers early or start work the night before they were due? Type A’s turn in early.
The down side is summed up in the slogan, "Projects over People." Whatever I was doing that morning was more important than greeting my good friend. It is hard for me to stop and chat with a neighbor when I am mowing the grass.
The contemplative, on the other hand, is laid back. Projects can be postponed for suitable reasons without stress. Starting & ending on time is easy, no stomach knot if late. A day off can begin without any schedule other than waiting to see. Type B’s can focus on whomever they are with in a very complimentary way. Being over doing.
The weak side of the Type B, of course, is accomplishment. That term paper may not get in on time because it was begun just last night. Meetings can start late and go on without limit.
We have cultures that lean one way or the other. Tanzania was more contemplative. People were patient. Hospitality, a prize.
What about U.S. culture? Obviously Type A. This, of course, makes it more difficult for a contemplative to live happily in the U.S. Want to be a young lawyer, a CPA, go to SMU’s MBA program? Total Type A life style.
So which types do you think Martha & Mary were? And the writer, what type was he? Of course, one type can drive the other type crazy. My sympathy goes out to Martha because I’ve been in her shoes. The writer obviously thinks the contemplative Mary is better. But really? I admire Martha for voicing her complaint, even though she gets shot down.
Actually, self redemption and maturity involves me as a Type A moving more into the contemplative side of the continuum. And vice-versa. The unredeemed Type A turns into a driven obsessive. The unredeemed contemplative spends life doing nothing.
One of the things I have learned to do is take time off during which I do nothing. Funny thing, even during this time, I will find myself setting a goal to read, say, fifty pages of a book today. I have to say to myself, "No, Stack, stop that." I can pull this off in Mexico or Italy or at Clare & Joe’s in Hilton Head.
It would be fun to bring in someday the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator and offer it to the whole community, then explain it for a few Sundays. I taught this in Tanzania. You might find out more about yourself, and see how your type is good, whatever it is, Martha or Mary.
What type do you think you are? How do you know?
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