Poem of the Day--The Sons of Martha

[beatrice_otter]

One of my classes is Early Church and its Creeds; we spent most of the semester focusing on the first 300-400 years of Christian history and the writings of the great early theologians. Now we're going at speed through the Dark Ages in the west (i.e. the time between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages), because, let's face it, it was the Dark Ages. Nothing much was happening, theologically. As for the 'practical' history, aside from the reign of Charlemagne it was pretty much one d@*^ thing after another.

Anyway, one of the main figures of the end of the Dark Ages was Bernard of Clairvaux, and we have a short section on him in the reading for tomorrow. In it is a quote he said about Mary and Martha. (For those of you who don't know the story, Mary and Martha were the sisters of Lazarus. At one point when Jesus was visiting them, Martha was doing the housework while Mary was listening to Jesus, and Martha asked Jesus to make her sister help. Instead, Jesus rebuked Martha, saying that Mary had chosen the "good part." Bernard said that "Martha's part, if that is our lot, must be borne with patience." Luke 10:38-42)

It reminded me of a poem by Rudyard Kipling, one of my favorite poets. It's a great poem, about the people who get their hands dirty.



The Sons of Martha

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains ``Be ye removèd.'' They say to the lesser floods ``Be dry.''
Under their rods are the rocks reprovèd---they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit---then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.

They finger Death at their gloves' end where they piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,
And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.

To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden---under the earthline their altars are---
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not preach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they damn-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's ways may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat;
Lo, it is black already with the blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessèd---they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessèd, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the feet---they hear the Word---they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and---the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!
--Rudyard Kipling (1907)

Comments

[layec.livejournal.com]

O.o When your professor says damn, you don't need to censor it anymore. ^.^ At least that's what I told myself after I heard my professor swear for the first time.

[redbyrd-sgfic.livejournal.com]

Interesting. If you don't mind my asking, what is it about this poem that makes you like it?

As one of the people who makes things work- and who not incidentally spends a lot of time picking up the pieces left in the wake of the terminally irresponsible- I find myself nodding at bits like the part where you can't depend on God to warn you that things are about to break. (You *can* depend on an effective preventative maintenance program with a modest budget for unforeseeable emergencies!)

OTOH, while not religious myself, I don't subscribe to the idea that faith correlates with lack of practical common sense. I've known plenty of people who were devout and yet not flakes.

[beatrice_otter]

There is a saying, that the Lord helps those who help themselves, i.e. if you're not willing to get up off your butt and do your part, God won't do it for you. He works with and through peopleto accomplish His will; he doesn't just raise a magic wand and go "Shazam!" There are a great many people in the Church who firmly believe that and practice it in their daily lives by tending to their work (whatever it may be) with care and devotion. However, there are a great many others who point to passages such as this one and take it either as an excuse to be lazy or 'proof' that people who concentrate on spiritual/intellectual matters to the expense of all else (usually some form of ivory tower intellectualism, to boot) are better than people who actually work for a living. Which is NOT what the story is about.