The Cloud of Unknowing Chapter 21 The True Exposition of the Gospel Word Mary Has Chosen the Best Part What does this mean,
Mary has chosen the best part?
Wherever the best is named,
Two things are first required,
A good and a better,
So that there can be a best which is the third in number.
What then are these three good things of which Mary chose the best?
There are not three kinds of lives,
For the Holy Church takes cognizance of only two,
The active life and the contemplative life.
And these two lives are expressed in a concealed way in the story of this gospel by the two sisters Mary and Martha,
Martha representing the active person and Mary the contemplative one.
Without one of these two lives,
No one may have salvation,
And where there are no more than two,
None may choose the best.
Although there are only two kinds of lives,
Each of these lives is divided into three parts,
Each one of which is better than the other.
These three parts have been described in detail at an earlier point in this book.
As has been said before,
The first part consists in good and honest bodily works of mercy and charity,
And this is the first degree of the active life,
As has been said.
The second part of these two lives consists in good spiritual meditations on a person's lack,
The passion of Christ,
And the joys of heaven.
The first part is good and the second better,
For this is the second degree of the active life and the first of the contemplative life.
In this part,
Contemplative life and active life are coupled together in spiritual kinship and they are made sisters by the example of Mary and Martha.
An active person may rise this high toward contemplation and may come to no higher except on very rare occasions,
And then only by special grace.
A contemplative person may come this low toward the active life and go no lower,
Except very seldom in a situation of great need.
The third part of these two lives is to be found in this dark cloud of unknowing,
With many a secret love pressed to God himself.
The first part is good,
The second part is better,
But the third is best of all.
This is the best part of Mary.
It is therefore clearly to be seen that our Lord did not say that Mary has chosen the best life,
For there are no more lives than two,
And of two none may choose the best.
But of these two lives,
He said,
Mary has chosen the best part,
And that she will never be taken away from her.
The first part and the second part,
Although they are good and holy,
Must necessarily end with this life,
For in the other life there is no need,
As there is now,
To make use of the works of mercy,
Nor to weep for our lack,
Nor for the passion of the Christ.
No one will be able to be hungry,
Nor be thirsty,
Then as they are now.
Nor will they then be able to die of cold,
Or be sick,
Or houseless,
Or in prison,
Nor will they need burial,
For none shall then be able to die.
But the third part that Mary chose,
Let it be chosen by whoever is called through grace to choose it,
Or let me better say,
Whomever is chosen to it by God.
Let him turn to it with all his energies,
For it shall never be taken away.
If it begin here,
It shall last forever.
Therefore let the voice of our Lord call on our active ones,
As though he were speaking now to them for us as he did then for Mary to Martha.
Martha,
Martha,
Active ones,
Active ones,
Make yourselves as busy as you can in the first part and in the second part,
Now in the one and now in the other,
And if you are strongly inclined to feel yourself disposed in both of them physically at once.
But do not interfere with the contemplatives.
You do not know what is troubling them.
Leave them undisturbed in their rest and in their play with the third and best part of Mary.
