“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.” Luke 10:41-42
What does it mean to surrender? If you are anything like me, perhaps you don’t really like this question. The word surrender brings an initial pit of discomfort to my stomach. A series of questions come to mind: What will the Lord ask me to give up? What if I don’t “surrender properly”? What if by surrendering I mess things up? A never-ending sequence of me, I, me, I, me, I.
In the Gospels, we see a similar reaction from Martha, the sister of Lazarus. In Luke 10, Martha says to Our Lord, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?” Where is Martha’s focus? It is not on what the Lord is doing but on what she is doing. With this seemingly self-absorbed focus, Martha goes a step further and directly tells the Lord what to do. In the following verse she states, “Tell her (Mary) to help me.”
When we refuse to surrender, like Martha, we give ourselves authority that does not belong to us. Instead of directing the Lord, Martha might have looked to see what the Lord desired in that moment. Part of me wonders if the Lord was yearning for Martha to put down her work and spend time with Him and Mary. While Martha’s drive for hospitality was certainly a good thing, it went unchecked by the Lord’s will. It is clear that the Lord was pleased with Mary’s response to His visit when He says, “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Luke 10:42
Surrender reminds us that it’s not all about us and what we can do. It’s about what God can do or more importantly, our relationship with Him. There is need of only “one thing” which is our relationship with God.
Surrender encourages us all to abandon our own wills to the one will of God so that we can be in total relationship with Him. The relationship that God is calling each of us to with Him is so total and unified that we share one will with God! How do we cultivate a relationship like this? The answer is surrender! But what does that actually look like in our daily life here on Earth?
Something that has helped me understand this and begin implementing this in my own life is the Surrender Novena, given to us by a friend and contemporary of St. Padre Pio, Servant of God Don Dolindo. Don Dolindo received this Novena from Christ Himself in prayer. On Day 3 of the Novena we are called to reflect on the following words from Christ,
“How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need, turns to me, looks at me and says to me, “You take care of it,” then closes its eyes and rests. In pain you pray for me to act, but that I act in the way you want. You do not turn to me, instead, you want me to adapt to your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to.”
Like Martha, we are all tempted to tell the Divine Physician how to do his job, while many of us would not dream of telling our primary care physicians how to do theirs. Surrender encourages us to live in humility with recognition that the Lord loves us in our littleness.
Through the intercession of Sts. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, may we receive the graces necessary to surrender to the Lord, recognizing His authority over all in union with His unfathomable love for us!
