Saint Martha
Weekday liturgy (Year 1) — Red
1st Reading
Jeremiah 13:1-11
Lectio (Reading)
The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth;
wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.
A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:
Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing,
and go now to the Parath;
there hide it in a cleft of the rock.
Obedient to the LORD’s command, I went to the Parath
and buried the loincloth.
After a long interval, the LORD said to me:
Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth
which I told you to hide there.
Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth
from the place where I had hid it.
But it was rotted, good for nothing!
Then the message came to me from the LORD:
Thus says the LORD:
So also 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.
For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins,
so had I made the whole house of Israel
and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD;
to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty.
But they did not listen.
Responsorial Psalm
Deuteronomy 32:18-19, 20, 21
Lectio (Reading)
R. (see 18a) You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you.
You forgot the God who gave you birth.
When the LORD saw this, he was filled with loathing
and anger toward his sons and daughters.
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said,
“and see what will then become of them.
What a fickle race they are,
sons with no loyalty in them!”
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
“Since they have provoked me with their ‘no-god’
and angered me with their vain idols,
I will provoke them with a ‘no-people’;
with a foolish nation I will anger them.”
R. You have forgotten God who gave you birth.
2nd Reading
Gospel Reading
John 11:19-27
Lectio (Reading)
Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died].
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“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.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
Meditatio (Reflecting)
I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Oratio (Responding)
Jesus tells us He is the resurrection. It is clear as a christian, that we believe that He was indeed resurrected on Easter Sunday, but what does it mean to “Be” the resurrection? For this we need to remember God’s promise that we too will be ressurection at the end of time. Those that love god will be given glorified bodies before we are taken into heaven. We will not spend eternity like the angels in heaven, as spirits with no body. God made us as Body and soul composites, that is our nature, and that is how we will live for eternity, with a mind, a free will and a physical body.
The same goes for those that are headed to hell. They too will be given a new body at the end of time, but this body will only bring them suffering and pain at the hands of the evil one. This is the consequence of choosing themselves and hell over an eternity with God. But in either place, heaven or hell, we will spend our eternity as a body and a soul forever.
The perfection of aligning our will with gods will is the ultimate goal of heaven, and our glorified bodies, perfect in every way, are the reward for that choice. But before that time comes, we are tasked with the test of using our minds, to assert our will over our bodies, to the end that we live in the way in which God made us. The mastery of the mind over the body, is what makes us unique in God’s kingdom, and it is why we are so special to Him. And as such it is why we will not be deprived of that body after we die.
So Jesus is telling us today that He is the resurrection, and so that means that He is the gateway to this perfection and to the mastery of our mind and body. We must believe Him, so that we can find that glorious eternal life. This is why we were made, this is the task of our lives, And this is what we must never desist from working at it everyday. If we are successful, then we will hear Him say on that last day, “well done, my good and faithful servant, come and enter into my glory.” Oh, that I long to hear those words, and to revel in the glory of God forever.
Contemplatio (Contemplating)
Take time to simply remain in the presence of God.
Resolutio (Resolving)
Please lord help me today to find a way to perfect a small part of my life, and have the courage and strength to pursue it with zeal and joy.