Celebrating Martha, Mary and Lazarus- the friends of Jesus!

 On the 29th of July, as Church we celebrate the liturgical feastday of St. Martha, St. Mary and St. Lazarus, the friends of Jesus- a relatively new celebration gifted to the Church in 2021. It amplifies the original feastday of St. Martha, which interestingly was a celebration marked in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches, and commemorated by the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Communion on this day.

Personally, I always feel that Martha gets a bit of a raw deal, something like St. Thomas. She is remembered for fussing about and being anxious and yet we forget that hers was a great acclamation of faith “I believe that you are the Lord, the one who is to come”. This is quite similar to St. Thomas who is renowned for his disbelief and wanting to touch the wounds of Christ before He would believe. Yet from him we have one of the most poignant prayers, “My Lord and my God”.

As we reflect upon the Bethany scene of Mary and Martha, with Martha being somewhat admonished for fretting and worrying, Jesus says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part.” There is the risk to look at Mary and Martha and see which one we are! We can be like Martha, making sure everyone has what they need, trying to anticipate what is happening next to make sure everything is ready. Martha was the micro-manager per excellence! For years, I was convinced I was more of a ‘Martha’. However, after a decent number of years in religious life, I have come to understand that, even in a somewhat contemplative order, I have to be both ‘Mary’ and ‘Martha’. The two women had complementary personalities and the Lord does not undermine this fact in the Gospel. However, these women are not supposed to be a quasi-Enneagram test or a Myer-Briggs or some other personality test. It is not a case of The Martha Syndrome and The Mary Solution. Both attitudes of these women are required with omitting the other.

But if we are called to imitate both women, why did Jesus call Martha to change what she was doing? What Martha was doing wasn't 'bad' in itself. She was running about trying to figure out how everybody is going to get fed and coordinating the logistics of cooking for all the people. Anyone who comes from a big family or lives in a large religious community can appreciate this! Can this be a case where Martha is so busy serving Jesus that she is not paying attention to Jesus? Her attention has been distracted off the one thing that is most important. Could we become so busy serving God that we are distracted and we just don't listen to Him? However Jesus was not a stranger to Martha and He wanted her in his presence. She was a gift to Him, not just for what she did but for who she was. Yes, the food was important for Jesus but He wanted her to be with Him with her presence. Jesus wants us present to Him, completely focused in the moment—no mobile phone, no TV, no Internet, no distractions. And He wants us to be present in this way to those around us. Try it, you will see it makes marked difference in the lives of the people around you.

Martha appears ‘worried’ as Jesus notes. This word, worried, is the Greek verb merimnao, often alternatively translated as “to be anxious.” Jesus used the same word later in Luke when he told his disciples: “Do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. . . . For all these thing the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.” Yet as we look at our lives in this current climate of living through post-COVID 19, the ongoing threat of war in Europe, are we anxious, are we worried? About our future? Our family? Our health? In whose hands do we place our lives?

The feastday of the friends of Jesus calls us to look at hospitality. The English dictionary defines hospitality as "the friendly treatment of guests or strangers; an act or show of welcome." That's not too far from how the New Testament Greek word (philo-xenia) breaks it down, that is, 'love of strangers'. How do we entertain and welcome people into our lives and our homes, our places of work and prayer? How do we welcome the stranger? The migrant, the refugee, to this land? Hospitality was regarded by most nations of the ancient world as one of the chief virtues. The real practice of hospitality makes people feel they belong. It makes people feel special, important, and and warmly welcomed into your life - not just your home! It is receiving strangers like they are family, and communicating through your words and actions that they are well worth your time and effort. When I lived in Canada, I had some beautiful opportunities to experience the hospitality of friends and their families who opened up their homes to myself and other friends. When you are living in a place which is not your own convent or family home, it is nice to be a guest in a place where it feels like family and get to know the people better. This is what Jesus wanted to experience with Martha and to let her rest in the company of her Friend and her Lord. Loss of focus can be cured by refocusing on Jesus! Unless we focus on Jesus we will focus on something else.

There are many Martha’s in the world! I recall seeing a book before entitled ‘Having a Mary heart in a Martha world’. In our own Congregation, we are called to be contemplative in action and active in contemplation, called to be Mary and Martha in today’s world. Our Founder Blessed James Alberione gave us a prayer called the 'Bethany Prayer", part of which reads: 

" In the joy of welcoming you, we pray that you may grant to us in our contemplative life that intimacy which Mary enjoyed, and the acceptance of our active life in the spirit of the faithful and hard-working Martha. "

Many of our houses around the world which offer hospitality are named ‘Bethany’. But what does it mean to offer hospitality? Again our Congregational Rule of Life reminds us: “We offer the treasure of our femininity in response to him who has first loved us, we freely make a public vow of chastity to God by which we embrace celibacy for the Kingdom of God for our entire life. We therefore renounce matrimony and the constitution of our own family in order to serve the Church with an undivided heart and present her sense of hospitality, celebration and adoration.”

Yes, this calls for the stillness of Mary, “we appreciate silence as a precious gift which prepares the way for an authentic relationship with God and among ourselves. In listening we offer hospitality to the Lord and to our neighbour and learn the art of true communication.”(Rule of Life 60). This space is a sacred space for the self and we come to appreciate its great value. 

Once more, we are not being asked to play off one against the other, moreso to look at the virtues which both women held within and which marked their discipleship. So as we continue to honour St. Martha, St. Mary and St. Lazarus, we give thanks for their hospitality and generous service and may we in our daily lives, even in simple and little ways, imitate them.