You are the Resurrection and the Life

Welcome to my blog and peace e with you.

Today in the Catholic Church we remember St. Martha. She welcomed Christ Jesus into her house and she and her sister Mary and brother Lazarus became his friends. Bethany is only two kilometres from Jerusalem and Jesus would often go to their house. When Lazarus died, Martha made the profound act of faith in Jesus that we read into today’s Gospel: you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Wednesday 29 July 2020

You are the Resurrection and the Life

Cf. Lk 10: 38

Jesus entered a village,

where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

 

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Collect

Almighty ever-living God,

whose Son was pleased to be welcomed

in Saint Martha’s house as a guest,

grant, we pray,

that through her intercession,

serving Christ faithfully in our brothers and sisters,

we may merit to be received by you

in the halls of heaven.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

 

First reading

Jeremiah 15:10,16-21 ·

They will not overcome you, because I am with you

‘Woe is me, my mother, for you have borne me

to be a man of strife and of dissension for all the land.

I neither lend nor borrow,

yet all of them curse me.

‘When your words came, I devoured them:

your word was my delight

and the joy of my heart;

for I was called by your name,

the Lord, God of Hosts.

I never took pleasure in sitting in scoffers’ company;

with your hand on me I held myself aloof,

since you had filled me with indignation.

Why is my suffering continual,

my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?

Do you mean to be for me a deceptive stream

with inconstant waters?’

To which the Lord replied,

‘If you come back,

I will take you back into my service;

and if you utter noble, not despicable, thoughts,

you shall be as my own mouth.

They will come back to you,

but you must not go back to them.

I will make you

a bronze wall fortified against this people.

They will fight against you

but they will not overcome you,

because I am with you

to save you and to deliver you

– it is the Lord who speaks.

I mean to deliver you from the hands of the wicked

and redeem you from the clutches of the violent.’

THE WORD OF THE LORD.

 

Prayerful reflection.

Here is Jeremiah preaching to prosperous Jerusalem that if they do not have true devotion, loyalty and obedience to God, then great disaster will come on the city and on them. At first they mock and say he is a fool. But he continues. These are God’s orders to him. The people turn hostile and persecute him and even attempt to kill him. All he wants is to live a quiet and peaceful life, praying and being a Jew faithful to the Covenant of Yahweh God. Yet God has chosen him to be a warning to the people. It is a thankless task and  brings only hardship and suffering.  

In his suffering Jeremiah complains to God as we hear today. Let us not think that Jeremiah hears the voice of God as we hear some one speak to us. Everything takes place in the depths of his heart. God speaks through his conscience. God speaks to us all through our conscience. Jeremiah listens.

He even accuses God of playing false. When I first heard the call, it was so pleasant. I also never veered from your path and committed sin. But now it has all changed. This vocation of mine is all suffering and pain. ‘The wound is incurable’. How many of us at times have prayed like that!

Speaking in his conscience, God tells him to stop complaining and come ack to him, to surrender in prayer to him. Then, God will not take away his suffering and the difficulty of fulfilling his vocation, but give him strength. ‘ I will make you a bronze fortified wall’. ‘I will deliver you.’ This is always God’s answer to those who wish to give up. It was the answer he gave to his own Son in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed like Jeremiah: Father, all things are possible to you. Take away this chalice from before me’. He did not, but gave him strength and made him a bronze fortified wall to undergo the worst of suffering and so fulfil his vocation of saving the world.

In time of crisis, do you come back to the Lord or go away? What does God say to you in your heart?

 

Psalm

Psalm 59:2-5,10-11,17-18

O God, you have been a refuge in the day of my distress.

Rescue me, God, from my foes;

protect me from those who attack me.

O rescue me from those who do evil

and save me from blood-thirsty men.

O God, you have been a refuge in the day of my distress.

See, they lie in wait for my life;

powerful men band together against me.

For no offence, no sin of mine, Lord,

for no guilt of mine they rush to take their stand.

O God, you have been a refuge in the day of my distress.

O my Strength, it is you to whom I turn,

for you, O God, are my stronghold,

the God who shows me love.

O God, you have been a refuge in the day of my distress.

As for me, I will sing of your strength

and each morning acclaim your love

for you have been my stronghold,

a refuge in the day of my distress.

O God, you have been a refuge in the day of my distress.

O my Strength, it is you to whom I turn,

for you, O God, are my stronghold,

the God who shows me love.

O God, you have been a refuge in the day of my distress.

 

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Jn8:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;

anyone who follows me will have the light of life.

Alleluia!

 

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Gospel

John 11:19-27

I am the resurrection and the life

Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life.

If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’ THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

 

Prayerful reflection

This meeting is not just a casual meeting. So many met Jesus like that every day. Marth has a true encounter with Jesus. She meets Jesus at the level of who he is. Jesus has proclaimed that he alone in this world is the resurrection and the life. There is no death for those who believe in him. Though they may leave their bodies in physical death, he gives them power to live on in a new and everlasting life.  Do you believe Jesus asks her that I give a new and eternal life to those who die with faith? Do you believe, therefore, that I am God come into this world? Martha makes her profound act of faith in Jesus: “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God”.

Has your faith transformed your life?

Jn 11: 27

Martha said to Jesus:

You are the Christ, the Son of God,

who is coming into this world.

 

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Prayer

Father in heaven, through your grace Martha recognized

that Jesus was truly your Son come into the world to give eternal life.

May we too believe as she did and so come to your everlasting abode.

We make our prayer through your Son,

Christ Jesus our Lord.