Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Martha, St. Mary and St. Lazarus, the friends of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who were also counter among His close disciples and followers. St. Martha and St. Mary were known in how they hosted the Lord in their house during one of His visits and how they mourned for their brother, St. Lazarus, who was very sick in one occasion and then passed away before the Lord arrived to where they were living near Jerusalem. It was then that the Lord showed His power and resurrected Lazarus from the dead, and the three of them likely continued to be part of the Lord’s disciples and were actively involved in the early Church.

In our first reading today, we heard from the first Epistle of St. John the Apostle in which the Apostle spoke about God’s love and how this great and most wonderful love has been manifested and shown to us all in the most tangible and real way through His Son, Our Lord and Saviour Himself, Jesus Christ. This echoes what St. John himself also recorded in his Gospel, in the encounter between the Lord and Nicodemus the faithful Pharisee, with Jesus saying to the latter that ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave us all His only Begotten Son, so that through Him all may have hope and assurance of eternal life, and that everyone will not perish, but all those who trust in Him will have eternal life through Him.’

And it is by this perfect manifestation of God’s love in the flesh that we are shown by Christ Himself and everything that He had done for us of the perfect love of God and that indeed, the nature of God is Love. We must also understand that in the past, during the time of the Old Testament, God was often seen as a distant and mighty figure Who only showed Himself to a select few like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Elijah among some others. He was also often depicted as a God that punished the wicked and those who have disobeyed Him, and through the Law and commandments which He had given His people, He was seen as a God Who rewarded the faithful and the just, and Who despised the wicked and those who did not belong among those whom He had chosen.

But the Lord Jesus showed us the true nature of God, that is Love, and this is Love that is truly boundless and selfless, a most wonderful and gracious Love which God has shown unto us all, as He did not spare even His own Begotten Son to be given to us, and not only that, but this same Son of God was offered to us so that through His own actions, in showing the Love of God to everyone, even to those whom the Jewish people shunned and rejected, to the oppressed and the marginalised, and to the Gentiles or the non-Jewish people, that God’s truly universal and boundless Love is known to us. And by His willing embrace of the Cross, the sufferings and punishments that should have been ours because of our sins, the Lord Jesus, our Saviour showed us all the ultimate manifestation and proof of God’s ever enduring and infinite Love. That is why, truly, God is Love.dus

In our Gospel passage today, we then heard from the Gospel according to St. John the Apostle and Evangelist in which we heard of the account of the resurrection of the dead St. Lazarus when he passed away from the sickness that he suffered from. His sisters, St. Martha and St. Mary were devastated by what happened, but they had faith in the Lord and trusted in Him when He finally came to their place, and the Lord reassured them all that He is the Resurrection, the Master of Life and Death, and hence, by the power of God, Christ resurrected St. Lazarus and used that experience and miracle as yet another proof of what the Lord had planned to do through Him, and revealing further the truth about God and His ever enduring love for all of us, prefiguring the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ Himself, through which God’s Love for us have been made truly evident.

Then, in another alternative Gospel passage for today, we heard as mentioned earlier, the moment when the Lord went to visit the house of St. Martha and St. Mary, and we heard how He was being hosted and welcomed by the two sisters in different ways. St. Martha was very busy preparing the welcome, presumably cooking the meals and the various food to welcome the Lord in the kitchen, doing all the chores and works, while St. Mary stayed by the side of the Lord, listening to Him speaking and teaching to her. Each one of them were welcoming the Lord in their own way, and neither one was wrong, as what St. Martha did was certainly done out of the desire to make the Lord happy and feel welcomed in her house. But the Lord did point out to her when she got agitated at her sister and asked the Lord to tell her to help in her chores, that she should not allow her preoccupations with all those chores and works to distract her from what truly matters, that is the Lord Himself and to spend time with Him.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all then be reminded as always by God’s ever enduring and wonderful love for each and every one of us. Let us all continue to remember all the good things, blessings and wonders which the Lord had done for us, in loving and caring for us so patiently and wonderfully even when we have not reciprocated that love and attention, and when we continue to disobey and disregard Him in our many worldly pursuits and ambitions. Let us all realise that as Christians, our first priority is to serve the Lord and to follow Him and His path at all times, and to glorify Him and His Holy Name through our exemplary actions, words and deeds, through our every interactions with each other and with everyone we encounter daily in life.

May the examples and faith of St. Martha, St. Mary and St. Lazarus, especially in the love and hospitality that St. Martha had shown, in all the efforts she had put into welcoming the Lord, and in the attentiveness and focus which St. Mary had given to the Lord, her time and presence, so that all of us may also do the same in our own respective lives. Many of us have certainly not put the Lord as our true priority in life, remembering Him only when we need Him or when things are convenient for us. Let us all instead strive from now on to commit ourselves more wholeheartedly to the Lord, remembering always the love that He has always had for us, in each and every moment. Let us always be ready to thank Him for everything that He had done for us. St. Martha, St. Mary and St. Lazarus, pray for all of us! Amen.