Groundhog Day Again (again)

 This post first appeared on September 21, 2020, but I couldn’t resist reprinting it today. The message applies as much now as then.

“In the Lord’s eyes, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as a day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

COVID-19 has created a hardscrabble daily life for almost all of us.  And for many those days have begun to blend together in a kind of monopoly of monotony.   Some have said it’s like having the same day over and over again, as in the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray.  In that story, the main character finds himself in a kind of time warp where he wakes up every morning on February 2 and has to live that day again and again until he gets it right.  In the process, he is changed from an egotistical self-serving boor to a kind and compassionate town hero. That’s not a bad analogy for living the Christian life. Each day is a chance to be transformed to more fully reflect the person of Christ.

Didn’t Jesus teach the crowds on the hillsides of Judea: “Enough then of worrying about tomorrow.  Let tomorrow take care of itself.  Today has troubles enough of its own.” (Mt. 6:34)?  And isn’t that the focus for men and women in recovery from various sorts of addictions: “living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time.” (from the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr).  Or another adage that urges us to see each day as a gift – “that’s why we call it the present.”

One Day at a Time, One Moment at a Time

How does one live one day at a time?  Consider the encounter between Jesus and two sisters who were his friends.  It is recounted in Luke 10: 38-42.  We are told that “Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him to her home.”  Perhaps she was the older of the two women since it says “she had a sister named Mary”, and is indicated as the homeowner who would naturally be “busy with all the details of hospitality.”  Can’t you also picture an older sister complaining against a younger one who isn’t pitching in to help: “Lord, aren’t you concerned that my sister has left me to do the household tasks all alone?  Tell her to help me.”

When He repeats her name in response, “Martha, Martha”, one can almost hear a tone that says, “Calm down.”  And then, “you are anxious and upset about many things.”  Couldn’t this describe daily life for many of us?  But then the gentle rebuke: “one thing only is required.  Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it.”  Ouch.

Now why would Luke think it important to include this story in his Gospel?  And poor Martha’s chastening recorded for all time.  Could it be a key to living one day at a time?

Only One Goal

In a sermon on this Gospel passage, St. Augustine says this: “Our Lord’s words teach us that though we labor among the many distractions of this world, we should have but one goal.” Addressing Martha in the first person, he asks what she will find “when you come to the heavenly homeland.”  “What you will find there is what Mary chose.  There we shall not feed others, we ourselves shall be fed.  Thus what Mary chose in this life will be realized there in all its fullness; she was gathering fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God.”

Mary “seated herself at the Lord’s feet and listened to his words (v. 39).”  We learn in the Gospel of John, written much later than the Lucan version, that this Mary had been at the feet of Jesus before.  She “was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and dried his feet with her hair (Jn. 11: 2).”  She was, then, a known sinner, who was forgiven much, and thus loved much.

This is an encouragement to those of us who feel that spending time at the feet of Jesus is for holy people.  No.  Sitting at the feet of Jesus each day in prayer and meditating on Scripture needs to be the top priority on the To Do Lists of all of us sinners. 

Martha represents the work we do on earth, but comes to an end at death.  Mary represents the “work” of intimate union with God that begins now and continues for all eternity. 

Living one day at a time is about entering into another dimension – that of timelessness, where God dwells. The moment each day when time stands still.