Mary savors the name of God, which is edifying but still languishing in inexistence, while Martha responds, which actualizes God's birth and the soul's rebirth, which are one and the same. In Martha, God happens with all the robustness of mundane existence. She knows that if Jesus is coming there is food to prepare, a house to be cleaned, because Jesus is a not a heavenman but a man of flesh and blood with human needs. There is a realism and materialism in Martha that is missing from Mary's beautiful immaterialism that is never made real, and Jesus secretly prefers her materialism. Martha's
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