Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 48:10-21
Mass: 1 Jn 4:7-16; Resp Ps 34; or Jer 15:10, 16-21; Resp Ps 59; Jn 11:19-27 or Lk 10:38-42
Let my soul glory in the Lord; the lowly will hear me and be glad.
WHEN MARTHA HEARD THAT JESUS WAS COMING, SHE WENT TO MEET HIM; BUT MARY SAT AT HOME.
(Jn 11:20)
The universal church celebrates Saint Martha today and those of monastic persuasion expand to include Martha, Mary and Lazarus, Hosts of Lord. It seems fitting since those taken to Saint Benedict and the monastic way of life are geared toward hospitality in one form or another. After all, Saint Benedict, in his chapter on the reception of guests, writes: "All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ" (RB 53:1).
One year for my birthday, a friend of happy memory gifted me with 52 postcards, one for every week of the year. Handwritten on each card was a passage from a gem of a book by Adrienne von Speyr, Three Women and the Lord. A random pull from the stack produced Week 10, taken from p. 85 of the book.
Here again there are three aspects to love: the Lord on his journey, Martha's activity, and in the background, shining through her, the tranquil being of Martha's sister. This contemplative "being" on the part of Mary of Bethany will turn out to be the highest response that human love can make to the Lord. But this love would be impossible unless it drew its like from the Lord himself; nor could it issue in any expression without the mediation of Martha's activity, which brought her and the Lord together.
SAINTS MARTHA, MARY AND LAZARUS,
PRAY FOR US.
© Gertrude Feick 2020
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