Tag Archives: martha

Like Brother, Like Sister

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Song of Songs 8:6-7
Luke 10:38-42

St. Scholastica

A little magnet one often sees on a kitchen refrigerator is “Behind every great man is a great woman.”  The humor in this play on words serves to remind all the male residents and visitors of the home that they should not underestimate a woman’s influence for good, as has been done for centuries in the public forum.  This silent daily reminder may help to turn the tide in appreciation of the insight and energy that women bring, and have brought for centuries to every aspect of life, particularly as mothers of the next generation.

Today’s Gospel story of Martha and Mary welcoming Jesus to their home at Bethany might at first seem to reiterate how the Gospels offer few images of women apart from the domestic image of preparing dinner for a guest.  Jesus is concerned about the anxiety with which Martha goes about her work, and invites us to think how all of us might be concentrating too much merely on practical matters of daily life.  Jesus praises Martha’s sister Mary as choosing the “better part,” in other words choosing to be instructed by Jesus “at his feet,” as were the apostles.  This would prepare her to evangelize as they did.  That is certainly far from a traditional domestic model.

The Church has not always appreciated the women behind the men whom the Church has canonized. Today we celebrate the feast of the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Benedictine monasticism. A saint in her own right, Sholastica has inspired women for centuries to embrace the Benedictine heritage of prayer and work in a great variety of ministries rooted in a fervent home life of prayerful community. Her name graces the walls of universities, as well as humble houses of prayer in the simplest of towns.

Like brothers and sisters from time immemorial, Scholastica and Benedict might have had their moments of tension along with joy. But when it came to loving devotion to God, they were joined in commitment.

Paul Zilonka is Director of Formation for the Passionist Community in Chicago, Illinois

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Believe in Change

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Galatians 1:13-24
Luke 10:38-42

Today’s scripture readings have an interesting connection that might not be immediately obvious.

In the first reading, St Paul reminds us of his, “former way of life in Judaism.” He had been a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a group within Judaism that believed that strict adherence to Jewish law sanctified daily life and was the way to salvation.

As the Christian movement grew in the 1st century it came into conflict with the Pharisees because of Christianity’s belief that only faith in Jesus Christ was necessary for salvation. As a Pharisee, Paul rejected and persecuted Christianity as a threat to Mosaic Law and the traditions within which he had been raised.

Paul tell us that his conversion experience, when God revealed his Son to him in the desert, wiped out a life time of conditioning, education, and experience. His encounter with God changed everything. From a Pharisee he became an apostle of a new way of thinking.

In the Gospel we have the famous story of Martha and Mary. As 1st century Jewish women, Martha and Mary would have been trained from early childhood to wait on men. Women never sat with men or ate with them. They served the men first and ate after. In this story Mary meets Jesus and hears him speak. The experience is so compelling that it frees her from a lifetime of conditioning. Unbelievably, instead of waiting on the men, she sits down with them and listens.

These days, for many of us, the idea that a momentary encounter with God can change a person seems hard to believe. We see it in the scriptures, but we question whether it happens to us and to others. Our culture tells us that our childhood experience, our education, life experience is impossible to overcome. If a person has a violent or criminal background we are even more incredulous.

Today’s readings invite us to believe in change for others and ourselves through God’s grace.

Sister Mary Ann Strain, CP lives in Union City, NJ and helps represent the Passionists at the United Nations.

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Martha, Martha

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Click here for today’s Scripture readings.

Jeremiah 18:1-6
Jn 11:19-27 or Lk 10:38-42

We celebrate the feast of Martha today. She was certainly a woman of many gifts. Practical, a woman who got things done? Yes, certainly. She must have been the one who ran the house that Jesus visited often in Bethany. And fed him well.

But she was also a woman of faith. We can see it when her brother Lazarus dies. She is the one who goes out to meet Jesus and strongly professes her belief in his power over life and death. “ I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus says, “Do you believe this?” Her answer is simple: “Yes, Lord, I believe.” She is the voice of faith.

There’s a wonderful humanness in Martha. She scolds her sister for not helping and her Guest not backing her up. She hurries to bring Jesus to the place of tragedy and when he raises her brother from the dead she’s probably the one who arranges a big thanksgiving meal

The Gospel of John has higher purposes in mentioning Bethany, Lazarus, Martha and Mary. They are part of the series of signs that point to the Word made Flesh who brings life to the world. But it’s a real world that the Word entered, a human world, and Martha helps us see it so.

Fr. Victor Hoagland, CP is the Director of Passionist Press and a member of the Passionist Community in Union City, NJ.