Saint Martha; Mary & Lazarus

July 29, Thursday

SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

To serve without being asked, to be ready for others. To be given little publicity but to work backstage. Not to ask for honours and pass on the shoulder but to do one’s work quietly. This is how she followed the Lord. And her faith was deep and strong in Christ as the Son of God who could raise the dead back to life.

 

First Reading: 1 John 4:7-16

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.

My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

 

Gospel: John 11:19-27

Many of the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary, sympathizing with them over their brother. Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him. Mary remained in the house.

Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”

Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.”

Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”

“You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

 

Prayer

We honor today Saint Martha
as a woman of faith
and an unobtrusive servant of people
Give us her faith in Christ
as the Lord of life
and the first fruits of the resurrection.
Make us willing servants of one another
who attend to others in their need.
We ask your this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Life without End

Today, is the first time the Church celebrates the memoria of the siblings Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Recognizing their welcome of and witness to Christ, Pope Francis has approved changing the liturgical feast of St. Martha on July 29 to include her sister and brother, Mary and Lazarus, on the church’s universal calendar of feast days.
The Gospel brings us the account of Jesus reaching out to the family of Martha and Mary who have just lost their brother.

How often have we come across people losing faith because of the death of someone in the family? Death leads us to doubt God’s presence. If God exists, why is there death?

Martha believed in the resurrection of the dead. She is convinced that, at the end of the world, her brother Lazarus will return to life together with all the righteous and will take part in the Kingdom of God.

This is her way of understanding the resurrection – perhaps similar to that of many us – Christians today. That resurrection is too far away and does not make any sense. Why would God let one die only to bring him back to life again? Why make one wait that long?

This is the biggest lesson, the Lord wants to give us today. Our faith does not ask us believe in a death and a resurrection that will take place at the end of the world. We are called to believe that the person redeemed by Christ does not die.

What does this mean? To explain this there is a need to resort to comparisons.

Let us suppose that in the womb of a mother there are twins. They can see, understand, and speak to each other during the nine months of gestation. They only know their own little world and cannot imagine what life is like outside. They do not know that people marry, work, and travel. They have no idea that there are animals, plants, flowers, beaches. The only thing they know is the kind of life they have inside the womb.

After nine months, the twins are born by turn. And the one who was born a few seconds later and remained, even for a short time, in the womb of the mother, would certainly think: “My brother is dead. He’s not here anymore. He disappeared and left me …” and he cries. But the brother is not dead. He only left a restricted, short, limited life and went into another form of life.

The disciple—Jesus says to Martha—does not experience death at all but is born to a new form of life. He enters the world of God, takes part in a life that is no longer subject to limits and death. It is a life without end.

Video available on Youtube: Life without End