Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. This feast day honors three siblings from Bethany, who were close friends of Jesus and prominent figures in the New Testament. Their lives provide profound examples of faith, service, and discipleship.
What do we know about Saint Martha? Martha is mentioned in the Gospels of Luke and John. She lived in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem, with her siblings Lazarus and Mary. Bethnay is about two miles, located on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives). Martha welcomed Jesus and the disciples into their home, and was a witness to the raising of her brother, Lazarus (John 11: 1-44).
Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus were close friends of Jesus, who often visited their home and went there just a few days before the Passion.
Martha is depicted as a woman in the kitchen who know exactly what is going on in the rest of her house (Luke 10: 38-42). Have you ever felt like Martha?
Today we celebrate Martha’s deep personal faith in Jesus. It is she who believed in “resurrection from the dead” for those who die in faith.
What do we know about Mary? Mary is known as the contemplative disciple. In the gospel of Luke 10:38-42, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, absorbing His teachings. This act of sitting and listening represents the contemplative aspect of the Christian life, focusing on prayer, reflection, and the word of God.
In the gospel of John 12:1-8, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with costly perfume and wipes them with her hair. Jesus commends her action, saying, her action prefigured His burial. “Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume……”Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.”
What do know of Lazarus? He is known for being raised from the dead by Jesus, after four days. This miracle (John 11) is a powerful testament to Jesus’ authority over life and death and foreshadows His own resurrection. After his resurrection, Lazarus becomes a living testimony to Jesus’ miraculous power (John 12:9-11).
In the first reading, Jeremiah, 13:1-11, the rotten loincloth became a symbol of the filth and sinfulness of Judah. Referring to the rotten loincloth the Lord says: “So I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem.
This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them,
shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.”
The two greatest sins are the sin of Pride and the sin of idol worship. These the people of Judah have committed against the good Lord.
Unlike in the first reading where the people of Judah committed sins of pride and idol worship, Martha and her sister Mary professed their faith in Jesus in the face of the death of the brother Lazarus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
Saint Augustine in a sermon featured in today’s Liturgy of the Hours says: Our Lord’s words teach us that though we labor among the many distractions of this world, we should have but one goal. For we are but travelers on a journey without as yet a fixed abode; we are on our way, not yet in our native land; we are in a state of longing, not yet of enjoyment. But let us continue on our way, and continue without sloth or respite, so that we may ultimately arrive at our destination.”
Have a wonderful week!
