Eckhart paradoxically privileges Martha over Mary on the grounds that Martha has a double gift. Martha is busy about the many works, the many material things—meals, clean linens, a swept house—that are needed to welcome Jesus and make him comfortable (vita activa). Her attention to these duties is not a distraction, Eckhart says, but a gift she enjoys beyond Mary who has only one gift, who knows only how to languish at the master's feet (vita contemplativa). Mary only understands God as peace and the promise, but she does not come to grips with unrest and threat.
