Martha gets a bad rap. In every scene (both options for today’s Gospel)… she is being corrected by our Lord… and yet, she is a saint.

She is a saint because of her friendship with Christ. She is a saint apparently because of her reception of these corrections. This friendship demanded of her is not only that service which she is known for but a life of prayer, that better part which our Lord encourages in today’s gospel.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072920.cfm