Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her. The Church honors today the memory of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Born in New York and raised Episcopalian, she married and became a mother of five children. After her husband’s death, she converted to Catholicism and founded the first American religious society, the Sisters of Charity, a community of teaching sisters which established Catholic schools throughout the United States, especially helping with the education of underprivileged children. Mother Seton laid the foundation of the American parochial school system and was the first native-born American to be canonized.
The Gospel passage chosen for today’s memorial recounts Jesus’ visit of the siblings Martha and Mary. Martha, seemingly the older of the two, busied herself with offering hospitality to Jesus and his entourage. Her sister Mary, meanwhile, took a seat at the feet of Jesus listening to him speak. It was something that did not sit well with Martha, prompting her to seek Jesus’ intervention. However, Jesus appears not to have seen things from Martha’s perspective, and he ended up “commending” Mary for choosing the better part. While it would be presumptuous of us to say that Jesus reprimanded Martha for wanting Mary to help her with the house chores, what we can say with certainty is that Jesus presented Mary’s disposition as that required of a disciple. By keeping at the feet of Jesus, Mary was able to focus all her attention on Jesus even as she took to heart what Jesus was saying. Whereas St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was not at the house of Mary and Martha on the day of Jesus’ visit, she certainly heard Jesus’ message and decided that like Mary, she too was going to take her place at the feet of Jesus in order to listen attentively to him. For it was while at the feet of Jesus that St. Elizabeth heard and heeded the command to go out and love. 
In the First Reading, St. Paul reminds the Corinthian community of the primacy of the virtue of love. Love, he seems to tell them, is the mark of a disciple (If I speak in angelic tongues or have the faith that can move mountains, but have no love, then I am nothing). Moreover, the love which is the mark of a disciple must be active. It is not enough for a disciple to say that he/she has love; he/she must show that he/she has love. When St. Elizabeth left her home and children in order to found a congregation dedicated to educating poor children, she was setting out to go and love. She was setting out to put to practice what she had learnt while at the feet of Jesus. in doing so, St. Elizabeth became a perfect disciple. 
May we who are celebrating the life of a perfect disciple of Jesus be inspired to imitate her virtuous life. May we too, after learning at the feet of Jesus, set out and put to practice what we learnt. Above all, may we, like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, know that without love in action, there is not discipleship.