7/29/2014 – St Martha – John 11:19-27

      Today, we celebrate the memorial of St Martha.  We hear about Martha, her sister Mary, and her brother Lazarus, but if you think about it, of these three siblings, only Martha is a saint celebrated in our Church’s liturgical year.  What is interesting is that Martha announces as she meets Jesus: Lord, if you had been her, my brother would not have died.  This statement is later repeated by Mary later in the chapter when she meets Jesus.  Perhaps Mary is repeating a statement that her sister said.  What is most remarkable about Martha in today’s Gospel is her profession of faith: I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world. We heard in yesterday Gospel from Matthew about a small mustard seed that can grow into a big, beautiful bush.  Martha ‘s faith probably started with that small kernel of faith, and her profession in the Gospel is the fruit of that faith that grew in her. It is interesting how often Jesus requires a statement of faith before working a miracle in someone’s life.  Perhaps it is Martha’s profession of faith that propels Jesus to enact one of his most profound miracle’s in the Gospel of John – the raising of Martha’s sister, Lazarus.  This miracle that he performs is a proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ, of his identity as the Son of God. After he states that he is the resurrection and the life he asks Martha: Do you believe this?  John shows us in his Gospel that everything is centered around faith: faith in Jesus – father in his Word.  Martha is an example for all us.  She is most particularly an example of faith for those of us in the modern world who face so many obstacles in living out our faith.  St Martha – help us to have the faith to believe.