Saturday, July 29, 2017
17th Week in
Ordinary Time
St. Martha
1st Reading: Ex 24:3-8
Gospel: Jn 11:19-27
Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to offer consolation at their brother’s death.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained sitting in the house. And she said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that what ever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.” But Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection; whoever believes in me, though he die, shall live. Whoever is alive by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Martha then answered, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Today’s Gospel gives us another clue to the contrast between Mary and Martha’s personalities. In John 19:20-21 we read: “When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained sitting in the house.” In these verses we learn that Martha was the workaholic type while Mary enjoyed being with people.
Martha was not only a person of action but must have been a person of authority in the family because it was she who welcomed Jesus into their home (Luke 10:38). This was also shown in her concern for the members of the family as when she told Jesus when her brother Lazarus died: “If you were here our brother would never have died”.
Martha was also a strong believer of Jesus. In today’s Gospel she said to him, “Yes Lord”, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world”. It was not a perfect faith, however, because it suffered some degrees of farsightedness. She believed that Jesus could raise Lazarus back to life but some time later in the distant future. She said, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection, at the last day.” At this point Jesus had the chance to affirm his identity as the resurrection and the life, implying that his presence was already the realization of the things hoped for in faith.
Martha was already a person of action. It was just a matter of deepening her faith to make her perfect in the eyes of the Lord. From Martha’s life we learn that greatness in the eyes of the Lord consists in striking a balance between faith and action. Little faith with too much action confines us to the ‘kitchen’ of worldly concerns and takes us away from the feet of Jesus where disciples like Martha’s sister Mary are nourished with the wisdom of God’s Word. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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