7/29/2016 – St Martha – Friday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time – John 11:19-27

      Last Friday, we celebrated the Feast day of St Mary Magdalene, an important disciple and evangelizer from the Early Church.  In fact, the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas called Mary Magdalene “the apostle of the apostles” for the way she announced Christ’s resurrection to the apostles and to the world.  Today we celebrate another woman who was a devout follower of Jesus’ and one of his beloved friends – St Martha.  One may wonder why we have special feasts to celebrate these two women from the Early Church.  Perhaps it shows us the importance that women had in Christ’s original group of disciples.  Perhaps it also draws attention to the important role women have in our modern Church today.  Martha is always mentioned in the Gospels in conjunction with his sister Mary, but Martha gets a feast day all to herself.   There are two options for the Gospel reading for the feast of St Martha.  The first option comes from the Gospel of Luke, with Martha busy preparing a meal for Jesus and trying to show him hospitality, while her sister Mary wants to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his teachings.  The Gospel we hear today is from John’s account of the raising of Martha’s brother Lazarus, in which Martha, in a daring leap of faith, declares her belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the long-awaited one:  “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”  There have been a lot of different interpretations and reflections on the Gospel readings concerning Mary and Martha.  In fact, you already heard a reflection from me a couple of weeks ago when we had the reading from the 10^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel on the 16^th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  What we can say is that Martha has a very practical, lived reality aspect of her faith.  Martha definitely is faith put into action.  When her brother dies, she is able to say that she believes he will rise again because she knows who Jesus really is: the Son of God.  The Church needs both Marys and Marthas.  The Church needs priests of different stripes and colors as well – theologians, canon lawyers, missionaries, theologians, Diocesan priests in the small towns in the Delta, rectors at the cathedrals, intellectual Jesuits, contemplative Benedictines.  The Church always has had people of action and people of prayer, people of the establishment and the prophetic voices of the poor.  As we celebrate Martha today, let us learn from her experiences, and may we look for balance in our lives.