Again, as I am home recuperating from surgery, I thought that I would add to our reflections on some of the heroes in the Bible.  Last week I wrote about St. Mary Magdalene, whose feast would would have celebrated if it did not occur on a Sunday. Likewise, this week we are celebrating the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, but if it was not a Sunday we would be celebrating the feast of St. Martha.

Last week I mentioned how St. Gregory the Great, and some others, linked St. Mary Magdalene with the unnamed woman who washed Jesus’ feet in the home of Simon the Pharisee and with St. Mary, the sister of St. Martha.  I discussed how that might not be true, but we definitely know that Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were siblings and that they lived in the village of Bethany, which was about 2 miles from Jerusalem. St. John tells us in his Gospel, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5).

One time when Jesus visited the family, they threw a party for Jesus and His disciples.  We are told that Martha was the “hostess with the most,” and kept very busy with all the tasks of hospitality.  For anyone who has hosted a big party, you know that it can be a lot of work, and so we probably can empathize with Martha becoming frustrated with her sister, Mary, for not helping.  While thanking her for her hospitality, which He knows is important, Jesus reminds her that some things are even more important -- like listening to the Word of God, and developing a close relationship with Him (see Luke 10:38-42 for the Gospel account).  

Jesus certainly was not saying that housework is not important (so kids, be sure to clean your rooms and do your chores!), but He knows that there can be a little bit of Martha in all of us.  We can keep so busy with “life” that we neglect what we need for eternal life. That is why it is so important to keep Holy the Lord’s Day. We need to make time with Christ a priority in our busy lives, and not just “fit Him in” when we have time.

Of course, there is an even more important interaction between St. Martha and our Lord.  Her brother, Lazarus, had died and Jesus and His disciples had come to pay their respects.  When she heard that Jesus was coming, Martha went out to meet Him. She tells Jesus that she knows that if He had been there, her brother would not have died.  She was not complaining that Jesus wasn’t there, rather she was expressing her faith in Jesus’ love for her brother, Mary and her, and in Jesus’ power. Jesus assures her that Lazarus will rise again, and Martha gather her the good “catechism” answer that she probably learned as a girl at the local synagogue, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24).  Jesus takes the opportunity to make her -- and all of us -- an incredible promise. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). As the Word-Made-Flesh, Jesus has given the doctrine that Martha learned as a child flesh, He as made it personal and relational.  

Then Jesus asked her probably the most important question anyone had ever asked her, “Do you believe this?”  Sometime in each of our lives, Jesus is going to basically ask us the same question -- do we believe in Him and have faith in His promises?  Often it will be at a time of trial, struggle and grief, like it was for St. Martha -- remember she was mourning the death of her beloved brother, Lazarus.  It will be the moment of truth; have we just been paying lip-service to Jesus, just mindlessly going along with what we have been taught about Him and His Church, or will we make our belief in Him real and personal?

St. Martha passed the test.  When asked by Jesus, “Do you believe this?” she made one of the great professions of faith in the Gospels; “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (John 11:27).  How similar to St. Peter’s confession of faith when Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Recall St. Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

I pray that each of us will give such a profession of faith, from the heart, when Our Lord asks.