May the Lord kindly bless you with good health and happiness in the Holy Spirit.
It is 29th July 2022. We celebrate the memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Close friends of Jesus.
We reflect on Jeremiah 26:1-9 and John 11:19-27.
The anonymous saying goes this way, “One who ceases to be better, ceases to be good.”
We have so much to emulate from the saintly life of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. The confession of faith in Jesus, untiringly hospitable nature, willingness to sit at the foot of the Lord and listen and friendship with Jesus.
Grief blindfolds everything including love, hope and relationships. It is during a painful loss of a significant person in life, we tend to become angrier and feel isolated from God. You all know about the five stages of grief proposed by Elizabeth Kubler Ross as Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance. This is a normal reaction to grief and loss.
When we have faith, we move forward against all tides and waves of grief and loss. For the one who believes, that no loss lasts forever. Faith in Jesus allows Martha to Rise above the clouds of grief and loss and proclaim boldly, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (Jn.11:27). She believed in the resurrection of the dead and confessed it. The prayerful pleading of Martha brought her brother’s life back by Jesus.
Prophet Jeremiah reminds us that unless we leave our sinful inclinations and place our trust in the Lord, we may have to face the inevitable anyway.
To believe is to have the courage to face the Lord and sit like Mary, the sister of Martha and listen. To be near the Lord is the best portion every one of us needs to aspire and ascend to. St. Augustine beautiful puts it across, “But you, Martha, are blessed for your good service, and for your labours, you seek the reward of peace. there will be none of these tasks there. What you will find there is what Mary chose. There we shall not feed others, but we ourselves shall be fed. So, what Mary chose in this life will be realized there in all its fullness; she was gathering fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God.”
We all have something to learn from these saints. May we be able to emulate something in our life. God bless you.