Category Archives: newsletter

Saint Martha, Disciple of the Lord

July 22, 2023newsletternewsletter, st martha3 churches

Saint Martha is commemorated each year on 29 July with her brother and sister, Lazarus and Mary. She was from Bethany, a village a few kilometres east of Jerusalem. Jesus was often a guest in her home, especially during the time of His preaching in Jerusalem. St Luke relates one time when he was visiting his friends in Bethany. “As they continued their journey He entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to Him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.’ The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

On account of her dedication to doing the work necessary to welcome a guest, the Church recognizes Martha as a model of industriousness, but even praiseworthy labour can risk obscuring the interior life. We are reminded how important it is to nourish the spirit, to listen to the Word of God, because it is the Word of God that gives meaning to our daily activities. And so Martha and Mary have been seen as examples of the active and the contemplative life; the life of external activity and the life of prayer. In the life of a Christian, activity and contemplation should be seen as complementary, and not opposed to one another.

But Saint Martha has also left us a strong witness of faith. “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 everyone 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 Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.’” We see here a total belief, a faith that does not hesitate or doubt. Martha has complete confidence in God, even in the face of what seems impossible on a human level: Martha condenses the whole of the faith into a simple confession of belief, a simple answer in which every Christian can recognize the meaning of life.

Today in Bethany (now known as El-Azariyeh, “the place of Lazarus”), you can find the tomb of Lazarus, as well as a church built upon the remains of Byzantine and Crusader structures -themselves constructed on top of a pre-existing structure. This is believed to be the house of Martha. Then tradition tells us that, after the first persecutions of Christians, Martha, with Mary and Lazarus, and some others, left their own land and went to France, arriving in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in the Camargue, Provence, where they brought the Christian faith.

Fr Matthew, based on an article from Vatican News www.vaticannews.va

The Ascension: Behold the man here too

May 13, 2023newsletter3 churches

Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, while a bloodthirsty crowd clamoured for his crucifixion. Pilate simply wanted to release Jesus, but the mob pressure was strong, so he had Jesus flogged as a punishment, hoping that would satisfy the crowd and show that Jesus was helpless. He brought the battered and bloodied Jesus before the mob and said, ‘Behold the man!’

Jesus is the image of God on earth. But he is also the image of man, what humankind is supposed to be. The devil and his powers want to tear down the image of God in man. The evil in the world loves to mock us and say, ‘Look, here is what man is good for. Here is man. Disfigured. Bloodied. His only crown is that of cruel thorns. He is good only for the discard heap.’ How often in our films and stories this is the way humanity is portrayed. We look at image after image of man humiliated. Man in the gutter, searching and groping blindly for meaning, and finding only despair. Man acting like an animal. Man helpless before his lusts. Man violent and destroying. Materialists tell us we are nothing but a speck in an indifferent universe.

This is where the ascension is so important. Jesus is the one man who lived out perfectly the image of God in a human being. The final picture we have of Jesus is not the battered, rejected, disgraced Jesus. It is the triumphant, radiant Jesus ascending into heaven. ‘Behold the man’ must be said not only before the crucifixion. It must be said at the ascension. Look, there is man, man as he was meant to be, going to communion with God. There is man, meant to reign in heaven, restored in glory, the very image of the eternal God. So Pope Benedict taught that to truly understand what people are, you have to look not just where we came from and where we wallow and slop now, you have to consider where we can go in Christ. Our destiny in Jesus is to be in communion, in glory and harmony, in loving dominion over a flourishing earth, restored to a glorious destiny. The ascension is the guarantee, the down payment on all God is going to do to restore his redeemed race. Behold the man! If we are in Christ, we are meant for heaven. We are bound for glory. Our destiny is not the gutter; it is the mansions of the high king where we will live as his sons and daughters.

Based on “Seven Things to Like About the Ascension” by Gerrit Scott Dawson